The Great Use of Wood in the United States and people with their brick houses, iron fences, and coal for fuel rarely appreciate the importance of wood. Nevertheless half the buildings in the United States and more than half in Canada are made of wood. It is estimated that nearly half the inhabitants employ wood extensively for fuel. Farmers are the greatest users of wood, for their buildings, imple ments, barrels, boxes, fences, and cordwood probably account for fully half the supply. Today the United States is the world's greatest pro ducer of wood, while Canada produces vast supplies in proportion to her • population. Russia has a larger acreage of forests than the two Amer ican countries, but it has not developed its supplies on a large scale. The estimated forest reserves of Canada, nearly one million million board feet and of the United States, over two million million, are probably not over thirty times as much as the United States uses each year. In , fact, the United States each year uses more than four times the annual growth of its forests. Almost no other country uses wood so freely, the average per capita consumption being normally over 300 board , feet in the United States, 150 in Germany, and 120 in Great Britain. Three-fifths of the United States forests are already gone and most of the timber which could easily be transported to large centers of popu lation is exhausted. Half of the timber still standing is in three states, Washington, Oregon, and California, while British Columbia contains nearly half the Canadian supply, including by far the best grades.
The Changes in the Forest Industries.—Three great changes arc taking place in the use of forest products in the United States. (1) The location of the main supply has moved southward and westward; (2) the relative importance of different kinds of wood has changed; (3) the methods of cutting and of conservation have altered. Until about 1850 the pine woods from Maine to northern New York and Pennsylvania were the chief sources of soft wood white pine being the chief species and also much the best. Even in 1880 Maine still stood seventh and New York, fourth among the lumber-producing states, as appears in the following table. Then the northern parts of the Lake States, especially Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, became the center of supply, as appears from the order of the states in 1890. The production of white pine in the Lake States rose from 31 million board feet in 1877, to 81 in 1892, and then fell to 3 in 1906. Next the growing need of soft wood led to the exploitation of the great forests of the southern part of the Atlantic coastal plain, bringing Georgia and North Carolina among the first eight states in 1900 and advancing Louisiana to second place in 1910. But the south could not furnish enough, and in 1910 Washington had become the greatest lumber producer, while the great coniferous forests of the Pacific mountains also placed Oregon and Cali fornia among the first eight states. With hardwood a change in loca
tion has likewise occurred. The oak and maple of the states from Pennsylvania to Michigan helped to give them a high place up to 1900, but now Tennessee and Arkansas have come into prominence. The hardwoods grow chiefly on the best soils and in the best climates. Hence, the area where they are still raised is greatly restricted by the growth of farming.
The change in the location of the chief lumber areas has caused new kinds of wood to spring into prominence. The following table shows how the wood derived from northern and eastern species fell off from 1899 to 1918, while that derived from southern and especially north western species increased.
The change in forest methods is well illustrated by the fact that the national forests in the United States increased from 46 million acres in 1899 to 167 million in 1909, while those of Canada rose from 700,000 in 1901 to 153 million in 1917. The need of a careful forest policy appears from the following annual averages for 1909 to 1918: Approximately 5 per cent of the remainder is lost in? seasoning and still more in converting the raw lumber into finished products. Scarcely a quarter of the actual wood is finally used.
Enormous waste also occurs through forest fires due largely to the dry waste wood left when the lumbermen lop off the tops and branches of the trees. In the five years from 1916 to 1920 about 160,000 forest fires burned over 56,000,0(X) acres of land in the United States and caused a loss of $86,000,000 in timber alone, and probably a far greater loss in the destruction of the nitrogenous humus of the soil. The con servation policy of the United States and Canada is rapidly diminishing such losses. In addition to thus conserving the lumber supply and helping to steady the price, the forest reserve system prevents the washing away of the soil which is often a serious consequence when forest fires destroy the roots and small plants which hold the soil in place after the trees are cut. Another and growingly important benefit of forest reserves is that they provide wonderful opportunities for recreation. In 1917 over a quarter of a million non-residents are estimated to have visited the Maine woods, and to have spent there at least $30,000,000. If those woods were permanent forest reserves their value and permanence in this respect would be greatly increased.
The Relative Importance of Fisheries at Present.—Because fishinl is one of the primary occupations like agriculture, mining, and lumber ing its importance is often over-rated. For every person classified by the United States Census in 1920 as a fisherman the following num bers were engaged in other occupations.