The Westward-Ho of the Lumber,Industry :';:

a By W'{ LL,,1CE- iffu TCH"I N I ON A ssistant District faiitttrl.Ui'ited S tates Farest Seraice

Ever since the Pilgrim Fathers first set foot on the coast of New England, the lumber industry has beer maiching steadily westward. For nearlv three hupdred years- the ax ancl the saw have marked the outposts of our nationhl prosperity. And today the virgin forests of America,'the grandest forests the r,vorld h.as ever known, are rttbking their last stancl, along the shores of the Pacific,'aga.iiinstlthe onslaught of modern civilization.

Our-forefathers literally'irew-ed their way: into'=thdie Urited States, for the first lumbering was aigtig the b.o'rder of the Atlantic, fronr Maine southward to the Virginia Colonies. But in those earlv davs steam ancl electricitv';nd modern appliances *"re trni.nown, a,nd it was nilt untjl'the middle of the last century that the lumber industry gbt un-

As the pine forests oi the more densely-po,pulated Fastern coast regiors began to dwindle, the center of production .moved onward to the hardwood forests of the Appalachians and dhe white pine stands of the Lake States. These in turn ga\re way before the ring of the ax and the swish of the saw, and a new migration began to the vast long-leaf pineries of the South. Now four-fifths of the original Southern pine forests have been depleted, and the tide of the industry has carried the lumbermen to the Inland Empire o{ the Rockies and the rugged mountain chains of the Cascadg, Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges of the Pacific.

With each of these westward "treks," the distarnce between the centers of population and lumber production has steadily increased. At the present time nearly half of all the lumber produqed in this country is consumed in the states north of Tennessee and east of Iowa, while over 50 per cent of our remaining virgin {orests are located in Califonnia, Oregon and Washington. Heretofore the average lumber haul to t'he great centers of population has been from 500 to 1000 miles, but from now on a large amount of the supply u'ill have to be carried from 2000 to 3000 miles to market, either by rail or by sea through the Panama Canal. This means a tremendous increase in transportation costs alone, amounting, in the case of Pacific Coast timber shipped to New York, to something over $20 per thousand feet, as against a cost of from $1 to $3 iin the heydey of plentiful Flastern lumber and cheap water traffic.

To the lumberman figures usually speak louder than words, and especially is this true in setting forth t'he spectacular ,migration of his own industry from East to West. In the Government records of 1850 we find that New York State held first place with $13,126,759 worth of lumber produced, while California ranked twentieth with $959,485 ; Oregon with $1,355,5@ stood in tenth place, and Washington was only an "also-ran." But how markedly different are the figures tor l92ol California (including Nevada) ranks fifth with $60,459,480 worth of lumber produced; Washington first with $190,778,250; Oregon third with $121,07,500, and New York, once the leading State, classed among "others." Figures on board feet production tell a like story; and today the Pacific Coast states furnish ap- proximately one-third of the total lumber cut of the nation. ' Even more significant' is the fact that in the 1920 timber census, with ile single exception of New York, all the states showing an increase in lumber outptit were west of the Great PIains.

Never in thri historv of this countrv have there been such marked clranges in logging cbnditions as i,n the last shift of the lumbering industry from 'the South to the West. In the Soiitherf and Lalie States, with their wide expanses of level or rolling topography; exploitation wast com'parative11' easy.'i3itt'west of the "Big Muddy" an entirely differ' ent charaii?i of couirtry' was encountered, and many rnew problEms of logging and- transportafion' had to be solved. So it is thai even at oieseht there are vast bodies of timber''in these':regio.t. *tii.t are practically inaccessible on account of the rugged mountains'and the heavy expenditures required to exploit them.

The. factor'bf ownership also has a very important bearing on the problem. Seventy-nine per'cent of all the timberland in the United States is privately-ownedj and these holdings contain appioximately 7A per cent of the .entire national supply. IVIost of the lumber that'iras been cut in the E,ast, together with that which is still standing, is privately owned. In the West, however, only 63 per ient of the timber is in the hands of private individuals or companies; the remainder belonging to the federal government, the states or municipalities. Thirty-six per cent'of it is found within the Nalional Forests. - Private holdings are also conce,ntrated to a marked degree.

But with all the great {orest resources of the West that have been thrown open to the markets of the world; with all the up-to-clate methods of centralized management and production, and all the human ingenuity that has been brought to bear on this great industry, the lumber production of the United States has steadily declined. 'The average rate of this reduction in the last thirteen years has been two per cent per year, and this in face of the fact that the population of our country has increased l5 per cent in the last decade. Today there exists an unsatisfied demand for construction never before equaled in any period of our history. The invention of substitutes is peihaps one reason for the decreasing use of wood, but a more important reason is the increasing cost of lumber to the consumer.

By and large, the annu'al consumption of any commodity is a fair'measure of its abundance, and a falling off in its use inclicates arn added economic burden. If a thing is plentiful, generally large numbers of people use it; if it is costly. its use is restricted. In the case of lumber we find that in lX)7 every man, woman and child in the country usecl on an everage 500 board feet of lumber per year. I; 1920 the per capita consumption was 316 feet, a decline of 37 per cent in 13 years. Canada and the United States, because of their vast forest possessions, are the greatest wood users in the world. Then come Sweden, Russia, Germany and France in the order named, the last two se-

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