2 BULLETIN 845, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of the Rocky Mountains was done in the Washington office of the 
Forest Service. 
As in former years, the census was carried on in cooperation with 
the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, which contributed 
financial assistance, and aided, through its affiliated organizations, in 
securing reports from the mills. 
TOTAL LUMBER PRODUCTION. 
The quantity of lumber reported cut in 1918 by 14,753 mills was 
29,362,020,000 board feet. The output of 2,887 mills cutting less 
than 50,000 board feet each is not included in the total cut. An 
additional 2,795 mills were reported idle. The estimated total 
lumber production by 22,546 mills in 1918 was 31,890,494,000 board 
feet. The reported cut shows a decrease of 11.5 per cent from the 
1917 figures; the number of mills reporting, a decrease of 10 per cent; 
and the estimated total production, a decrease of 11 per cent. 
Many of the conditions which were responsible for the slowing up 
of production in 1917 continued for the greater portion of 1918, and 
in some instances were accentuated prior to the signing of the armi- 
stice in November. War demands of both a direct and indirect 
. character resulted in the taking up of the lumber produced from the 
usual avenues of utilization. 
Ever increasing prices for lumber and other building materials, 
railroad freight embargoes, car shortages, high wages, and scarcity 
of labor, curtailed credits, and the discouragement by the Govern- 
ment of all activities other than those aimed to help win the war 
cut down the demand for lumber for the first 10 months of 1918. 
Illustrative of building conditions, statistics for the year show the 
value of construction for which permits were issued in 148 cities of 
the country to have been approximately $415,000,000, a decrease of 
39 per cent from the year before. The decline in 1917 from 1916 
was 29 per cent. Conditions at the mills were of a trying character 
because of the scarcity of skilled labor and the large turnove’ m 
both skilled and unskilled labor, increasing costs along every line, 
and because of the difficulty in making shipments on orders. Ex- 
port trade remained at a low ebb, for not only was foreign business 
light but tonnage available was limited. Many small mills did not 
operate because of unsatisfactory market conditions; 2,795 mills 
reported idle. The number of big mills operating—those cutting 
upward of 5,000,000 feet annually—decreased 5 per cent from the 
year before; the 1,290 mills fallmg into this classification cut 70.68 
per cent of the aggregate output of the country. 
The reported lumber cut, the number of active mills reporting, and 
the estimated annual total cut are given in Table 1 for each year 
since 1899 for which data have been compiled. The statistics for 
