Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. . a 2 A. g 29.00 25.00 20.00 15.00 source has been going on for decades. The diagram (fig. 1) shows the advance in prices of some of the principal hardwoods during the [Cir. 116] 10 past eight years. It also shows the almost steady level of prices previous to 1898. Considering the impoverished supply and the tremendous demands on the part of all the industries for timber, there is nothing surpris- ing about the increase, which seems not quite to have kept pace with the increasing prices of softwoods. This is rather remarkable in view of the shorter supply, but is probably due to the fact that softwoods, forming the main bulk of the lumber supply, have led in establishing prices. Along with the increase of prices there has been an almost constant, and an entirely necessary, relaxation of the rules by which lumber is graded and sold. The latest and most significant change is that made by the National Hardwood Lumber Association at its meeting in Atlantic City in May, 1907. Heretofore only even lengths, such as 6, 8, and 10 and 12 feet have been upon the market. The changed rules allow even lengths down to 4 feet and 15 per cent of odd lengths above + feet. Smaller standards of thickness are also allowed. Many other equally significant changes are included. It emphasizes the fact that we are down to the rock bottom, and require every sound piece of hardwood lumber that can be put upon the market. . WHAT INDUSTRIES WOULD A HARDWOOD SHORTAGE AFFECT? Several great industries use hardwood timber mainly or almost ex- clusively for their raw material. Notable in this list are hardwood lumber manufacturing, the cooperage, furniture, and vehicle indus- tries, and the industries engaged in the manufacture of musical instru- ments, coffins, and small wooden ware. All of these would suffer greatly and some would fail entirely upon the exhaustion of the hard- wood supply. Other industries, such as the manufacture of agricul- tural implements, freight and passenger cars, boxes and crates, use immense quantities of hardwood. HARDWOOD LUMBER MANUFACTURE. Hardwood lumber manufacture affords an example of the damage already done. It has been shown how hardwood lumber production in Ohio was cut down over one-half between 1899 and 1906. The decrease in products between 1900 and 1905, according to Census re- ports, amounted to $7,212,345, or 57.4 per cent, and the rank of the industry in the State fell from the fourth to the twentieth place. The number of employees fell from 10,689 to 6,442, or 40 per cent. In Indiana during the same period the lumber industry fell from the third to the eighth place; the value of products decreased 27.1 per cent; the number of wage-earners decreased 42.6 per cent, and the wages paid decreased 36.6 per cent. [Cir. 116] 11 Lumber manufacturing is the first among the industries to feel the blight of an exhausted timber supply. When the local supply ceases this industry must stop. Most other industries which use hard- woods can go on, bringing their supplies from a distance. Only with the failure of the entire supply are they seriously damaged. COOPERAGE. In much the same way the cooperage industry must be near the forest. Slack cooperage employs a great number of hardwoods and is distributed through many States. Tight cooperage makes use of the best grades of white oak almost exclusively and centers in Ken- tucky and Tennessee. The pressure of the timber supply is already heavy on this industry. If the oak supply should fail, the tight coop- erage industry will largely cease, and some other container for liquids will have to be found to replace wood. As yet little progress has been made in securing substitutes for the oak cask and barrel. FURNITURE MAKING. The manufacture of furniture probably calls for more hardwood than any other industry, and employs hardwood almost exclusively as raw material. In 1905 there were 2,482 furniture establishments in the United States, with a capital of $153,000,000 and an annual product valued at $170,000,000. In reports made to the Forest Serv- ice 5388 of these establishments reported the annual use of 580 millon feet of lumber. It seems probable that the industry requires upward of 20 per cent of the entire hardwood production. The public is so much accustomed to hardwood furniture that furniture of any other material would not be acceptable. Failure of the hardwood supply would doubtless terminate the furniture industry as it is now car- ried on. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. As in furniture, hardwood is the chief material in the manufacture of musical instruments, especially pianos and organs. Maple, poplar, elm, oak, chestnut, and basswood are most largely used. Foreign woods are used only for veneers, for which purpose large quantities are not required. VEHICLE MANUFACTURE. In 1905 there were in the United. States 5,143 establishments for the manufacture of vehicles, with a capital of $149,000,000 and a yearly product of $155,000,000. No industry stands in a more threat- ened position, so far as supply is concerned, than the manufacture of wagons and carriages. It requires the best hardwoods, and even now these are obtained with extreme difficulty. Hickory and oak are [Cir. 116] 12 used in the largest quantities, and vehicle manufacturers believe that the hickory supply of the country can not last over ten years longer. Attempts to substitute other woods or other materials for hickory in vehicle manufacture have largely failed. The vehicle industry, like the furniture industry, can not exist on its present basis without hard- wood timber. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. Metal has to some extent taken the place of wood in farm imple- ments, but surprisingly large quantities of hardwood are still used. Recent reports from 167 manufacturers show the use of 212,613,000 feet of lumber annually, by far the larger part of which is hardwood. Since in 1905 there were 648 manufacturing establishments in the United States, the quantity used must really be very great. Hard- wood will undoubtedly be used in this industry as long as it is available. CAR BUILDING. Car building has required, and still requires, an enormous amount of hardwood material. Though steel is being employed more largely than in the past in the construction of both freight and passenger cars, the great majority of both classes of cars are still made of wood and the specifications of the railroads indicate that much of the timber used is hardwood. RAILROAD TIES. Hardwoeds have been, and still are, most essential for railroad ties. Half of the hundred million ties used yearly are of hardwood. Hun- dreds of patents exist for ties of other material. None has com- mended itself to railroads as a general substitute for the wooden tie. Very large quantities of hardwood are likewise used for bridges and trestlework. TELEPHONE AND OTHER POLES. The pole lines of the country have also called for a great deal of hardwood timber. Every year the demand is increasing. No other material has proved satisfactory for the support of the network of wires which now binds together every part of the country. HOUSE FINISHING. House finishing, including interior woodwork, doors, window sashes, stair work, and mantels consumes each year a great deal of hardwood. For durability and acceptability hardwood finds here one of its most desirable uses. In well-built houses in many parts of the country hardwood finishing is almost as commonly found as is hardwood furniture. [Cir. 116] 13 WHAT STATES WOULD BE MOST AFFECTED. Below is given a tabular statement showing the rank of the most important States in the leading hardwood industries, as shown by the census reports. The rank is based upon value of products, except in lumber manufacturing, where it is based on quantity of product. TABLE 3.—Rank of most important States in hardwood industries. Industry. Illinois, | Indiana.| Ohio. Tey Michi- | Pennsyl- gan. vyania. Lumber manufacture (census 1900)@ ....).......... lait Qiilers:. sestoteierse As \raos. tom arers lamin onrinili sme yar no 2 Bee a Is eee BN igecontemae 4 1 5) 2 Agricultural implements.............-.. Be ees 6 3 2 STR eeseenc aeeee Carriages and wagons ................... 5 2 1 3 Hl Aeron sat HULMIGUNE ees cae sae oe se ete Sac ee 2 4 5 1 Olea erg sete eT TO MMM eer eraciole cB aioe esjsiainie ole Sule ‘ 1 ARNE ra mage ote | REA S cease Nl 3 2 Musica linstruments:.3-.:5.255..-2--2... Dilia eS eee | Siaie weavers Safe ts Oo eye oll eben area «The census of 1900 is used in order to show the rank of Indiana and Ohio before their timber supply declined. The statement shows how substantially the hardwood indnce center in the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and New York. Of these only Michigan and New York have now any consid- - erable hardwood supply of their own. Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are dependent upon the Lake States, the lower Mississippi Valley States, and the Appalachian States. The main consideration, however, is that if the hardwood timber supply were to be speedily exhausted the great industries which now depend upon it would be severely crippled or ruined. To consider how impertant these are, take, for instance, the State of Lllinois. Though Illinois is not known as an important hardwood State, Table 3 shows it to be second only to New York in hardwood manufactur- ing industries. In these industries Illinois has invested, according to the census of 1905, a capital of $148,115,805—almost one-fifth of the total capital invested in manufacturing. It employs 59,844 wage-earners, and it turned out, in 1905, a product valued at $139,- 970,590, or 12 per cent of the total value of manufactured products. Exhaustion of the hardwood supply assuredly means the loss of these industries to the States in which they are at present located, just as Ohio and Indiana have already lost the main part of their hardwood lumber manufacturing. Such industries can not exist after their supply of raw material is gone. SITUATION CONCERNS ENTIRE COUNTRY. How intensely the whole country would feel the loss of its hard- wood timber, to an ample supply of which it has long beén accus- tomed, can scarcely be realized. Without hardwood for building purposes, for railroad ties, for the manufacture of furniture, cooper- age, and vehicles, and for the varied other uses to which it is put, we should be in sad straits indeed. A general failure in crops may [Cir. 116] 14 affect industrial conditions for a few years—a failure in the hardwood supply would be a blight upon our industries through more than a generation. The situation in brief is this: We have apparently about a fifteen years’ supply of hardwood lumber now ready to cut. Of the four great hardwood regions, the Ohio Valley States have been almost completely turned into agricultural States, and the Lake States and the Lower Mississippi Valley are rapidly following their example. In the Appalachian Mountains we have extensive hardwood lands which have been culled and greatly damaged by fire. These are prac- tically all in private hands, and while they contain a large amount of inferior young timber, they are receiving little or no protection, and even such young timber as exists is making but shght growth. Even if these cut-over lands be rightly managed they can not greatly increase their yield of merchantable timber inside of from thirty to forty years. The inevitable conclusion is that there are lean years close ahead in the use of hardwood timber. There is sure to be a gap between the supply which exists and the supply which will have to be provided. How large that gap will be depends upon how soon and how effec- tively we begin to make provision for the future supply. The pres- ent indications are that in spite of the best we can do there will be a shortage of hardwoods running through at least fifteen years. How acute that shortage may become and how serious a check it will put upon the industries concerned can not now be foretold. That it will strike at the very foundation of some of the country’s most 1m- portant industries is unquestionable. This much is true beyond doubt, that we are dangerously near a hardwood famine and have made no provision against it. THE SOLUTION. Tf it is true that the hardwood supply is approaching a condition of shortage which would paralyze many of the great industries and gravely affect the entire country, then it is important to seek dili- gently the best means to avert it, or 1f that is not wholly possible, to reduce its injuries to the minimum. The belef is common that the substitution of softwood, metal, and concrete for hardwood will gradually take place as the supply of the latter is reduced. Already the substitution of metal has made much progress. It has replaced hardwood to a considerable extent in the manufacture of implements, furniture, and cars, and even in the interior finish of office buildings and in general construction work. Concrete has also come into wide use in construction. Yet, promi- nent as these materials have become, they seem not to have reduced the demand for hardwood, which, besides being retained for the greater number of its original uses, has also found new ones. There [Cir. 116] ee 15 is not now much tendency for softwoods to replace hardwoods, and there is not likely to be, because they have not the strength or other properties to make them acceptable as substitutes. The replacement of hardwood by other materials is to be welcomed where those mate- rials make for better service and cheaper cost. Where they will not, and experience thus far shows this list to be a large one, the problem of a hardwood shortage must be solved in another way. There seems to be but one practicable solution, and that is to main- tain permanently under a proper system of forestry a sufficient area of hardwood land to produce by growth a large proportion of the hardwood timber which the nation requires. Where is this land to be found? Not in the Ohio Valley, the Lake States, or the Mississippi Valley, for the reasons already given. It is to be found in the Appalachian Mountains. These mountains increased their proportion in the nation’s hardwood output from 42 to 48 per cent during the past seven years. On the principle of using the land for its highest purpose they should further increase their proportion to not less than 75 per cent. Other sections of the country will readily furnish the remaining 25 per cent. APPALACHIANS THE KEY TO THE SITUATION. The mountain ranges from Maine to Alabama should be made to produce the greater part of the hardwood supply, because grow- ing hardwood timber is their most profitable use. There is, in fact, no other use to which the surface of these mountains can per- manently be put. That they can not be successfully farmed has been proved in thousands of cases. For the most part they can not even be permanently grazed. It is in the production of timber that they excel. They bear the greatest variety of species and the best remaining hardweod growth anywhere to be found. Freed from their enemies—fire and unwise cutting—their forests readily reproduce the best kinds of timber. Outside of local areas of the Pacific coast nowhere else is forest growth so rapid. Even land cleared and farmed to the complete exhaustion of its soil will in this region in time reclothe itself with forests, if only it is protected. Field estimates by counties show that south of Pennsylvania there are in the Appalachians 58 million acres of forest land, practically all of which is covered by hardwood and over 85 per cent of which is in a cut-over or culled condition. Including the mountains of Pennsylvania, New York, and New England it is probably safe to estimate that the entire Appalachian area includes as much as 75 million acres primarily adapted for hardwood timber. Only a very small part of this is still in virgin growth. By far the great part of it has been cut over, and some of it has been cleared. [Cir. 116] 16° Well managed and protected from fire, this area has enormous producing powers. Studies by the Forest Service of average virgin and cut-over lands in eastern Tennessee show that under protection these lands are capable of producing 50 cubic feet of wood per acre annually. Even taking the production as 40 cubic feet, this means for the area of 75 million acres a possible annual production of 3 billion cubic feet. : How does this compare with the annual requirements? The 25 billion feet, board measure, used annually (allowing a product of 8S feet B. M. for each cubic foot, which is believed to be not too -high under present utilization) represents a little over 3 billion cubic feet. This is just about equal to the amount which the Appalachian forest is capable of producing. When it is remembered that the Appalachians will probably not be called upon to furnish more than three-fourths of the total supply, it is clear that there is a good mar- gin of safety. Therefore, if the Appalachian forests are rightly managed and taken soon enough, they will insure continuously the hardwood supply of the country, and do it without exhausting the forest. In fact, it can be done so that the systematic treatment will at the same time improve the forest. Our experience will doubtless be the same in this respect as that of Germany.’ In Saxony the cut, which represents only the growth, increased during the period from 1820 to 1904 55 per cent, bringing the annual yield to 93 cubic feet per acre. Prussia shows a still more pronounced increase. In i830 the cut was only 20 cubic feet par acre, and in 1865 had increased to only 24 cubic feet. But in 1890, owing to proper management, it had risen to 52, and in 1904 to 65 cubic feet. These results came largely from nonagricultural lands, sandy plains, swamps, and rough mountain slopes, and from forests which had been mismanaged, much the same as ours. Much of the Appalachian forest has been so damaged that years will be required for it to reach again a high state of productiveness. Its present average production is probably not over 10 cubic feet per acre per year. he increase would of course be gradual and it would be slow at first. It would be some time before it could average the 40 cubic feet per acre used in the above estimate. Until it does we can expect a shortage in hardwood timber. The longer the delay in putting this forest under control, the longer continued and more extreme will be the shortage. Approved: JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture. a¥From article by Dr. B. E. Fernow, Forestry and Irrigation, February, 1907. [Cir: 116) =f re iy sa | v, a ‘ 9 f f : | i rt I ar Pak BOS