CONIFEROUS SUPPLIES. 131 



into board measure, raises the requirements for that year to little less than 7,500,000,000 feet. 

 This decline does not necessarily indicate any giving out of the supply, but might have been due, 

 and probably was due, to business depression generally and to the competition of other kinds of 

 lumber and shingles. 



The total output of white pine in 1890, before the maximum was reached and when the cut of 

 the Northwest was recorded for lumber and shingles as a little over 9,000,000,000 feet, was placed 

 by the competent agent of the Eleventh Census, in charge of the statistics of lumber manufacture, 

 at 11,300,000,000 feet of white pine and Norway pine, or about 25 per cent as coming from other 

 regions, while hemlock, spruce, and fir were estimated as furnishing 7,900,000,000 feet, so that 

 our requirements of these classes of timber may for ordinary years be placed in round numbers at 

 20,000,000,000 feet. 



In discussing the question of duration of supplies it can, as stated before, be reasonably done 

 only by considering at the same time all supplies of a similar nature — namely, of the white pine, 

 Norway pine, spruce, and hemlock at least — which can be and are used more or less inter- 

 changeably, and will be still more so in the future, to meet our immense requirements for this 

 class of material. That these requirements are not to remain stationary, but have a tendency to 

 increase, may be seen from the development of the wood-pulp industry. 



While in 1881 the daily capacity of wood-pulp mills was less than 750,000 pounds, it had more 

 than doubled in 1887, and then increased steadily, doubling almost every three or four years, as 

 follows: 



Pounds j Pounds 



1887 1,687,900 1892 5,136,300 



1888 2,153,500 j 1893 0,495,400 



1889 3,471,100 1894 7,231,900 



1890 4,012,200 I 1895 9,027,000 



1891 4,497 5 200| 



This last tigure may be conservatively estimated to correspond to an annual consumption of 

 probably 800,000,000 feet, B. M., of material. 



There was imported from 1891 to 1896 wood pulp to the value of $10,337,659, as follows: 



1891 $1,902,689 



1892 1,820,143 



1893 2,908,884 



1894 1,664,547 



1895 984,692 



1896 1,056,704 



Total 10,337,659 



sTPPLIEb. 



While the above figure of 20,000,000,000 feet, B. M., gives a fair idea as to average consump- 

 tion, which may vary perhaps by 10 per cent one way or the other, we are much less certain as to 

 supplies standing. 



For Minnesota the chief fire warden of the State has attempted a canvass, the result of which 

 would indicate nearly 18,000,000,000 feet as standing in the State, including Norway pine, the 

 estimate having been made for 1895. This has been criticised by competent judges as much too 

 high; nevertheless, adding the estimates of all other kinds of coniferous wood, some of which as 

 yet remains unused, it is thought that a statement in round numbers of 20,000,000,000 feet of 

 coniferous wood in Minnesota fit for lumbering, though large, would be reasonably enough near 

 the truth for our purposes in forecasting the probabilities. 



For Wisconsin we have a very close estimate, made by the Division of Forestry in 1897 and 

 fully described in Bulletin No. 16 of that Division. According to this canvass the amount of 

 white pine standing is still 15,000,000,000 feet, B. M., and of all coniferous wood 29,000,000,000 

 feet, while the writer in the Senate document had estimated it at 30,000,000,000 feet. 



For Michigan a canvass from township to township has been made by the commissioner of 

 labor of the State for 1896, which develops an area of 2,250,000 acres in pine and hemlock. 



If the average stand per acre, which the census of 1890 showed as 6,000 feet for white pine, is 

 applied to the whole area, the amount of timber standing would be 15,000,000,000 feet, which, for 



