LUMBER CUT OF UNITED STATES, 1870-1920. 
19 
these nations are in greater actual need for timber than the United 
States. 
It is practically certain that China, with her hundreds of millions, 
will develop industrially. Although for the present she unports from 
America, when ours is gone she will probably requisition great 
quantities of the Siberian timber. 
Add to this the import demands of Japan and England, and the 
lesser requirements of Australia. Nearly 40 per cent of all human 
beings live within 2,500 miles of this timber, and even England, the 
most distant nation of those mentioned, is nearer to it than is Chicago. 
It requires little imagination to see that by the time our needs drive 
/.800.000 
PRODUCTION or LUMBER 1899 TO 1920 -SOFTWOODS 
/S99 
/90S /906 /907 /90a /S09 /S^O /S// /S/J /^/^ /S/S /9/6 /9/7 /9/3 /9/9 /S^O 
Fig. 10.— Of these important softwoods two are rapidly declining and the others show no marked increase. 
With southern pine also decreasing heavy requirements must be made upon Douglas fir and western 
yellow pine. 
US to seek heavy importations, the supplies from that source will be 
largely monopolized by other countries. Even if all the Siberian 
timber were at the undisputed call of the United States, the quantity 
available for annual export would amount to only one-fourth or one- 
fifth of our demand for lumber. It is not to be assumed that even 
our present financial supremacy will enable us to shoulder out of the 
market nations which have that timber near at hand and then 
transport it three or four times as faf to supply our needs. If the 
cost of transportation from the Pacific coast is a serious economic 
burden, what shall be said of transportation from Siberia \ Obvi- 
ously, it would be very unwise to depend upon imports for any great 
part of our future lumber supply. 
