FORESTS AND PUREST PRODUCTS. Forests of yel low pine, interspersed with tamarack and West ern white pine, are common east of the Cascades and north of the Columbia River. Light forests of yellow pine also cover the eastern part of the State south of Spokane. East of the Cascades dense heavy forests of red fir prevail except near the coast, where its place is taken by the hemlock, cedar, and Sitka spruce. The total wooded area is estimated at 47,700 square miles, 71 per cent. of the State's area. This includes large areas that have been burned or cat over, and 9500 square miles of forest reserved in the mountainous cemntry and 324 square miles of the :Mount Rainier National Park. The red fir con stitutes over one'-half of the stock of mereantile timber, estimated in feet. This and the have been cut most extensively, the red lir being manufactured into lumber and the cedar into shingles. Puget Sound makes a large part of the timber land aecessible to water trans plertat ion, in enlimminenee of which the lumber in elnstry has been much more extensive than in (begun or California. The industry has de veloped almost wholly sillec 1880. (See table under Menufnriurus.) In 1900 the State ranked fifth among the lumber States. Wholesale meth ods of lumbering are followed. Donkey engines and wire (-aides are in common use in the lum ber camps, and logging railways are often built for the transportation of logs.
lAlannfaCtnring has developed almost wholly since I in which ,,year rail road eonnection was made with the older parts of the country. A new impetus was given to the industry through the discoveries of gold in Alaska in 1897. The rapidity of development is shown by the filet that while the value of manufactured products was lolly. $3,250.134 in 1 S80, it was $86,795051 in 1900. The number of people engaged in the industry in creased meanwhile from 1147 to 38,800, the lat ter being 6.0 per cent. of the population for that year. By far the most important branch of in dustry is the sawing of lumber. (See above.) Next in importance is the manufaeture of flour and grist mill products. ..\11 Oriental market is developing for the products of this industry. The canning and preserving of fish has developed al most wholly since 1890. (See FisitEntEs.) The slaughtering and meat-packing industry is of equal importance with the foregoing. Seattle is the largest and most rapidly developing manu facturing centre, followed at a distance by Ta coma and Spokane. Statistics for the inibistries mentioned and for a number of less important ones are given on the following page.