LUMBER PRODUCTION 
Yn 1921 
7 Large mills 
Moo PRODUCED 75 PERCENT 
Medium-size rmi/ls 
PRODUCED |I5 PERCENT 
/40 Sma// mills 
Geb 
Yy 
LZ, 
C22P4 PRODUCED 10 PERCENT 
Yn 1948 
5 Lorge mills 
342 Smoll mills 
ae. 17 PERCENT 
FIGURE 25. 
for lumber of these species through an aggressive 
sales program. 
The changing character of the lumber industry 
has both its good and bad features. Small plants 
have the operational advantage of lower overhead, 
and an industry of small businesses offers wide 
opportunity for individual enterprise. On the other 
hand many of the smallest mills are marginal. 
When markets are good, they run; when markets 
are poor, they shut down. Lacking mechanical 
improvements and a large volume of output, they 
are in a less favorable position to operate with 
Forest Resources of Montana 
maximum efficiency than are the larger mills. Per- 
haps the greatest handicap of smallness is in obtain- 
ing efficient management; it is far easier to find 
management ability for 1 large mill than it is for 
10 small ones. 
In view of the problems which seem to be in 
inverse ratio to mill size, the sixfold increase in 
number of medium-size mills is most encouraging. 
While these mills are small in comparison with the 
mills that dominated the western lumber industry 
in the past, they are not the smallest. Many of 
them are large enough to permit the installation 
of dry kilns, resaws and other mechanical aids. 
Such utilization opportunities make it feasible to 
build this segment of the industry into an efficient, 
stable group of plants. 
Concentration yards, which buy up rough green 
lumber and dry, dress, and market it, are overcom- 
ing some of the disadvantages of small mills. 
Though concentration yards have long been an 
institution in the South, they have only recently 
become important in Montana. 
Lumber Production by Species 
Except for some cottonwood cut by small saw- 
mills in the river bottoms of eastern Montana, 
nearly the entire lumber production of the State 
is from coniferous timber. Three species, ponderosa 
pine, western larch, and Douglas-fir, make up 
nearly 95 percent of the cut. White pine, spruce, 
and lodgepole pine are sawed by numerous sawmills 
in the western part of the State, but the total 
output of these species is relatively small. 
Since 1904, with the exception of 4 years, the 
cut of ponderosa pine has exceeded that of any 
other species. Western larch has generally been 
second and Douglas-fir third. The most significant 
point, however, is that western white and ponderosa 
pine, which together make up 22 percent of the saw- 
timber stand, have in the past half century ac- 
counted for 47 percent of the lumber cut. This 
situation has arisen from differences in market- 
ability of the various species. 
Western white pine lumber has always been of 
sufficient value to pay the high cost of freight to 
midwestern and eastern markets and still leave a 
profit for the producer. Ponderosa pine has ranked 
a little below western white pine in this respect. 
The other timber species, however, lack the special 
29 
