LUMBER CUT OF U^sITED STATES, 1870-1920. 
17 
centers of the country. Not quite 50 per cent of the lumber pro- 
duced in the United vStates is consumed in the vStates north of Ten- 
nessee and east of Iowa. Heretofore the average haul of timber to 
this region has been between 500 and 1,000 miles. Hereafter a large 
amount of the supply will have to be hauled between 2,000 and 3,000 
miles, although a considerable portion of the western timber may 
come by sea through the Panama Canal to the East coast markets. 
In the years when much more timber was accessible to water-borne 
traffic, transportation cost from SI to S3 per thousand feet. In the 
year of this report it costs about S9 per thousand from the South and 
about S20 from the Pacific coast to New York. 
EA^TEFtN HEMLOCK 
(T^UOA CANADENSIS) 
HEMLOCK LUMBER 
CONTRASTED PRODUCTION OF 
EASTERN AND WESTERN SPECIES 
1639 iSiOO I90I I50^ /SCJ I9C4 1905 l^Ce 1307 /90a 1903 l9lO 1311 I9l^ 1913 19/-* 1915 I9l6 1917 1918 1919 I9£0 
Fig. 8. — The curves for hemlock and white pine illustrate the shrinkage of eastern lumbering as compared 
with increases in the West. 
Not a single factor in the new situation tends to reduce the cost of 
lumber. On the contrary, almost all factors tend to increase the 
cost. ^ It is difficult to see, under such circumstances, how any sub- 
stantial reduction of prices may be expected. The additional cost 
of transportation across the continent is as much as our fathers paid 
for first-^ade hardwoods before the Civil War. 
Price is the factor which will determine hereafter whether the 
average American will use less lumber or more. There is plenty of 
timber on the west coast for immediate needs, but if the price is so 
high that the per capita curve continues steeply downward, then the 
long-prophesied shortage is already at the door. 
The long step to the Pacific coast is the final shift in the migration 
of the lumber mdustry, unless Americans should desire to cross the 
tin March, 1922, the steamer rate per thousand from the West coast to New York was approximately 
$18.25. 
5045°-^3— Bull. 1119 2 
