California Lumber Cut For 1929

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The lumber cut for the California-Nevada region f.or L929 was 2,063,511,000 feet, board measure, or an increase of 5.6 per'cent over the 1928 cut, according to a preliminary statement issued by the California Forest Experiment Station, which collects lumber production figures for the Bureau of the Census. The cut from the pine region forests was 1,4&,235,W feet; redwood region 598,159,000 feet; mills cutting foreign and domestic hardwoods 411,000 feet, and small softwood mills 706,000 feet. In addition, there were also reported for the State 54 million lath, and approximately 146 million shingles, besides split products, mine timbers and cordwood valued at $331,000.

'Western yellow pine is the leading timber producing species with a cut of 857,697,0@ feet, or 41.6 per cent of the total. Redwood ranks second with 485,606,000 feet, or 23.5 per cent; sugar pine third with 327,690,0@ feet or 15.9 per cent; followed by Douglas fi,r, 190,7O2,000 feet or 9.3 per cent; white frr, 162,368,000 feet or 7.9 per cent; cedar 37,' 787,nO feet or 1.8 per cent; and 400,000 feet of spruce and 144,W feet of lodgepole pine.

One interesting figure in this report is the cut of 145,000 feet of Bigtree (Sequoia washingtoniana) in the Sierra pine

Cuts So Smooth That Joints Can Be

region, but this is believed to be largely d:ead and down timber.

The increased 1929 lumber production in California occurred entirely in the pine region, the redwood industry having decreased its cut 1.3 per cent. The pine region increase amounted in volume to 7l7l million feet or 8.7 per cent of the total cut,of the region. Such an increase would not be abnormal, foresters state, except for the widespread depression in the lumber industry and the fact that pine operators entered L929 with the announced intention of reducing their cut.

The decrease of 1.3 per cent in the redwood region cut was almost identical with the forecast made by that industry shortly after the close of the 1928 season.

The Census reDort also indicates that increased lumber production in 1929 was general in both the north and south Pacific Coast regions, and the northern Rocky Mountains, as well as the Central and Northeastern States. On the other hand, sharp decreases were recorded in the southern Rocky Mountain region and the Lake States, with smaller decreases throughout the Southern States. The greatest increase in cut took place in the prairie states, from North Dakota to Oklahoma, which are rarely considered as lumber-producing states. These states, however, produce but an insignificant total of the riation'5 lumber cut.