the automobile industry, box makers, etc. For high-grade veneer hardwoods are used almost exclusively. The industry consumes annually the equivalent of about 780 million board feet of high-grade material, the bulk of which can be secured only from virgin stands. The demand among hardwoods is chiefly for red gum and, second, for white oak. One section of the industry, which uses such northern hardwoods as maple, birch, and basswood, is located in the Lake States. As in the case of many other hardwood-using industries, the veneer industry has for some years been centered mainly in the Middle Western States. Supplies, at first local, are now largely in the South, and the main demand has been transferred from oak to gum. In the case of ash the situation is said to be even more serious. The industry has preferred the denser northern upland ash for handles. The swamp-grown ash of the Mississippi bottom lands has a smaller percentage of the dense material and has been less sought up to the present time. This has greatly limited the area from which the wood has been secured. Ash in sufficient quantities to support the handle and other competing industries is practically gone, therefore, from the Middle Western States north of the Ohio. It is predicted by one man thoroughly familiar with conditions that five years more will practically see the finish of ash timber in any quantity in this section. The demand for ash and hickory handles is so great that manufacturers can not meet requirements. The export demand is said to be even greater than before the war and American handles are being shipped to all parts of the world. The veneer situation is similar to that described for other forest products-short supplies, abnormal demands, and competition, in this case among such consumers as phonograph Average prices of handle material are practically unobtainmakers, manufacturers of other musical instruments, the auto-able because of the great variety in which such material is mobile industry, and furniture manufacturers. As indicated in purchased-logs, boits, dimension sizes (split, hewn, and sawn), the preceding discussion on the furniture industry, wholesale veneer prices have increased from three to four times between January 1, 1916, and April 1, 1920. Log prices have risen in proportion. Indiana white-oak logs, 20 inches and over in diameter, have increased during the same period from $75 to $200, and flitches from $100 to $300 per thousand board feet. In general, there is only one-fourth of the normal supply of veneer flitches and logs in sight. Practically the only firms not experiencing extreme difficulty in securing supplies seem to be those factories which can still obtain local timber. In a few agricultural regions reserve stocks in farmers' wood lots have been drawn out by the current high prices. The scarcity of logs has compelled some factories to close down. Veneer and ply-wood production, while nearly normal in September, 1918, had fallen approximately to 80 per cent between January and March, 1919, to 60 per cent in November, to 50 per cent in December, and is now estimated at not over 40 to 50 per cent. The veneer industry requires high-grade material. It takes practically clear logs, generally 16 inches and more in diameter at the small end. The industry must, for its higher-grade products, depend very largely upon the fine old timber found almost entirely in virgin stands. The general depletion of hardwood stands has made the industry, along with many others which accept only high-grade material, primarily dependent upon the only reserve of virgin hardwoods of any extent-the southern Mississippi Valley. Here logging operations have been seriously handicapped by adverse weather and other conditions, and as a result log supplies for the industry as a whole have fallen off 75 per cent. Veneer and ply-wood production have fallen off 50 per cent, wholesale prices have gone up from three to four times, and manufacturing concerns in the same and competing industries are bidding frantically against each other to secure the inadequate supplies of veneer stock available in order to meet their current demands. The consumer pays the full bill of increased log and veneer prices, and undoubtedly more, in the advancing prices charged for final products. THE HANDLE INDUSTRY. For the high-grade hickory and ash required by the handle industry no satisfactory substitute has yet been found, and these two woods make up about two-thirds of the total used. The supplies now come mainly from the South. Here the most accessible timber has been taken. The few large concerns maintain large and expensive organizations, which literally comb the country to secure material. More and more it is becoming necessary to work into the districts remote from transportation facilities. Practically the entire territory within which hickory is found in commercial quantities is thus covered. flitch, and plank. While prices quoted are from two to three times those which obtained before the war, manufacturers state that in practice they are paying any price necessary to get supplies. They find themselves in active competition with other industries requiring hickory and ash, and particularly with the manufacturers of automobile wheels. Average wholesale prices of standard size hickory handles 36 inches long have advanced from $1.20 per dozen in 1916 to $2.50 per dozen in 1920. Retail prices, which were from 25 to 30 cents per handle in 1916, are now 50 cents. One of the effects of the exhaustion of local timber is the gradual elimination of the small handle factory. When timber can no longer be secured locally, the only source of cheap supplies, large organizations become essential in order to cover a large territory. Without the necessary capital for this the small concern must give way to the large manufacturer. There is said to be a steady drift toward concentration of handle manufacture by large concerns and the disappearance of local industries. THE VEHICLE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT INDUSTRIES. The vehicle and agricultural-implement industries compete for hickory and ash with the handle industry, and in addition use other hardwoods, such as oak, for which they must compete with such industries as the furniture makers. They are located mainly in the Middle West, but now derive most of their wood supplies from the South. A number of far-sighted organizations are said to have purchased more or less extensive hardwood tracts some years ago, from which they are now able to draw their wood supplies in part at least. For the remainder they depend on outside purchases. To secure hickory, which occurs scatteringly over large areas, the vehicle and agricultural-implement industries ordinarily maintain extensive buying, logging, and milling organizations in the South. They draw upon every conceivable sourcefarmers' wood lots, small mills, large sawmills, and even specialized operations designed to secure hickory alone. These concerns in general carry in stock about a two years' supply of special-dimension stock. Hardwood lumber prices have now gone so high that a number of them are making purchases in the open market only when prices do not exceed a prescribed maximum, and amounts secured have fallen to about one-quarter of their utilization. These industries have found in the case of farm implements that it is impossible to increase the prices of their products beyond a certain point without a marked falling off in sales. The result is that the material in the open market goes to the industries which are able to pass increased costs on to the consumer. Another result has been the withdrawal from the field of a number of purchasing organizations. Here Practically the only case in the vehicle and implement industries in which the scale of buying has not been reduced is for automobile wheels and other automobile purposes. demand absorbs all the supply, is constantly becoming greater, and as yet there seems to be no limitation as to price. Makers of automobile wheels say that they can still get the material required if they make sufficient effort and pay the price, but it is necessary to go farther and farther away for it. A very careful analysis of cost data by one concern shows that the largest element in recent cost increases is securing special stocks such as hickory from remote and inaccessible regions. The preceding discussion applies particularly to the large concerns. Small factories without large organization and outside connections for securing supplies are laboring under more serious difficulties, through the interruption of normal channels of distribution. Material is secured practically green. Neither the lumber nor the vehicle industry is adequately equipped with kilns or the trained personnel to kiln-dry the refractory hardwoods in the large sizes used. Excessive losses, in some cases running as high as 40 per cent of the material and even higher, are reported. This is merely another phase of the situation hardly known outside of the industries most directly concerned, growing directly out of a shortage of supplies and aggravating the shortage still more. The many inquiries received by the Forest Service from vehicle and implement makers asking for information on possible substitution for the woods used in vehicle making is merely another indication of the difficulties in getting supplies at the present time, and of uncertainty as to the future. Because of the trouble and uncertainty of securing hickory and the rapidly increasing prices, vehicle manufacturers are substituting steel where possible, even though this involves still higher prices. THE NEWSPAPERS. High prices and serious difficulties as to supplies are by no means confined to lumber. The newsprint situation has been very much in the foreground, particularly since the middle of 1919. Practically the only newspapers in the United States, from the large metropolitan dailies to the small country newspapers published weekly, which have not experienced serious difficulties are those having long-term contracts or those fortunate enough to produce their own newsprint. Under prewar conditions newsprint paper was contracted for on a yearly term basis at $2 a hundred pounds or less. Contract prices during and since the war have risen to $3.50, $5, $6, and at the present time even to $7, and it has been reported that 75 per cent of the existing contracts provide for a price readjustment at the end of every three or six months. Prewar prices included freight; present prices do not. Few newspapers are now able to contract for their entire requirements. The smaller newspapers entirely and the larger papers to a very material extent must now depend upon the spot market, in which the full effects of competition for an inadequate supply are felt. In such competition there is full opportunity for speculation. Prewar spot market prices of about $2 have risen rapidly, particularly since January, 1920, until now sales reported at $15 as a maximum, and even higher rates are predicted. At $15 the paper alone for a 32-page newspaper would cost 7 cents. One eastern newspaper, with a consumption of 6,000 tons, has estimated that its 1920 paper bill will be $72,000 in excess of that for 1919. A western paper estimates that its 1920 paper bill will be $450,000 more than that for 1919. The cost of newsprint is said to be from one-third to onehalf the total cost of the entire newspaper. To meet increased costs publishers must increase revenues either by raising subscription prices or advertising rates, or accepting more advertising. The acceptance of more advertising means either the use of more paper or the elimination of reading matter. The ratio of reading to advertising matter before the war is said to have been about 60 to 40, and it is reported that this ratio is now reversed. Some increases have been made in subscription rates, but the chief source of larger returns has been through more advertising and higher advertising rates. The newspapers which have not been able to increase the amounts of advertising and advertising rates have been hard hit. Advertising rates during the past year have risen 35 per cent or more. Increased advertising costs, designed partly to pay increased operating expenses and partly to reduce newsprint consumption, are passed on to the consumer. Newspapers have been driven to extraordinary measures. Advertising has been refused. One New York paper is reported to have refused six pages of advertising for a single issue. Another New York paper is reported to have refused for a single issue advertising which would have returned $14,000. Attempts have been made to eliminate waste, and the size and number of editions have been cut. Features have been curtailed or eliminated, the proportion of advertising to reading matter has been largely increased, and efforts to increase circulation have been suspended. Unfortunately the situation is generally regarded by the public as a whole as one which can be easily remedied within a few months, and it is not realized that the life of the pulp and paper industry in the regions of its present development is absolutely dependent upon rapidly failing timber supplies, while little or no effort is being made toward their perpetuation. THE SITUATION SUMMARIZED. If the industries considered are representative of general conditions, and there is every reason to believe that they are, the lumber situation of the past few months has, for many industries and many classes of consumers, been one of serious shortages of supplies, of great demands, and of uncertainties in securing satisfactory amounts of desired materials. Rapidly rising prices have reached the highest points that have ever been known for lumber and for practically every other forest product consumed in the United States. Market conditions have been unstable, and it has been impossible for many consumers to plan with any certainty on cost of materials. The output of industries which depend upon lumber and other wood products has been very much reduced, and in an extreme case has gone as low as 50 per cent of normal. The entire nature of competition in the case of forest products has changed. Prior to the war the producers of lumber, newsprint paper, and other forest products competed with each other for business. Competition during the past few months has been very largely among consumers for generally inadequate supplies. Under any conditions such a reversal in the fundamental situation would result in higher prices; but the shortage and demands have been so extreme that wholesome restraints as to prices which might safely be paid have been removed, and in many cases it has been possible to pass on to the consumer, and even to augment, almost any lumber There price increases. This has not been universally true. has been some difference between industries in the extent to which they could go. Apparently limitations have been felt more by industries producing the necessities than by those with products which fall rather in the class of luxuries. The furniture maker finds himself handicapped in competing with the maker of musical instruments. The manufacturer of agricultural implements withdraws his buying and manufacturing organizations from the field because he can no longer The compete with the manufacturer of automobile wheels. large and well-financed organizations, able to draw their supplies from distant sources, have fared much better than the small manufacturer with limited capital who must secure his raw material locally. Unfortunately, in most cases it is the local supplies which have been most depleted, and the existing situation has tended to eliminate much more rapidly than in normal times the small concern in the best position to supply cheap products. With uncertainty as to supplies, with equal or greater uncertainty as to the costs, and with almost frantic bidding between members of the same industry and between different industries for materials, a larger speculative element than has ever before been known has been introduced into the sale of lumber and its further manufacture. This, again, has increased prices to the ultimate consumer, and in extreme cases, such as dwelling houses, has removed the possibility of purchase from large classes. Many industries which were operated on a comparatively stable basis under prewar conditions now find themselves upon an uncertain and highly speculative basis. largely unnecessary and neither equipment nor personnel was provided. Growing out of the conditions described, a very great increase in artificial drying has become necessary; and this has been accompanied by difficulties in securing an adequate number of kilns and great losses in initial kiln operating, sometimes reaching 40 per cent or even higher and aggravating the shortage. Enough examples have been given to show the almost limitless ramifications through which shortages and high prices of forest products reach the public. The building industry, agriculture, the railroads, the press, house furniture, tools-these and their like concern our entire population. Shortages and high prices, accordingly, seriously affect the whole Nation. With a realization of the existing situation with respect to Other changes which are much less known, but almost equally The principa' effect of the war upon the lumber industry was to reduce the stocks available for ordinary purposes, through curtailment of production and through the diversion of large quantities of timber to special war uses. War requirements led to the placing of large orders for unusual sizes and dimensions for such products as Army wagons and wooden ships. Through Government regulation of transportation, of the use of capital, of new construction, and even of extensions and repairs, ordipary distribution was practically discontinued before the signing of the armistice. The lumber cut of the country fell from a prewar average of around 40 billion feet to a reported cut of only a little more than 33 billion feet in 1917, and of less than 30 billion feet in 1918. A very considerable proportion of this material, as previously indicated, was utilized for essential war purposes. Surplus woods and mill labor, skilled and unskilled alike, was rapidly drawn into other industries or into the fighting forces. In addition the lumber industry found itself in competition for labor with other industries producing war essentials. By the time of the cessation of hostilities a very considerable percentage of the labor ordinarily employed in lumber production had been diverted and scattered. Lumber stocks at the mills and those in the wholesale and retail yards of the country were very short and badly broken. The industry, therefore, came out of the war more or less disorganized as to labor, production, stocks, and markets. Following a period of great uncertainty on the part of the public, as well as of the industry, as to possible developments, the demand for lumber began and rapidly grew far beyond any anticipation. The shortage of houses was already serious in the United States at the beginning of the war. During the war it became very much worse. Without any stimulus whatever the demand for dwelling houses would have absorbed large quantities of lumber. The "build-a-home" movement was fostered by the Federal Government itself. Industrial construction had during the war also fallen far behind the growing demands of the country. Railroad purchase for repairs had necessarily been held to a minimum and extensions had practically been eliminated. The growing freight requirements of the country necessitated large-scale betterments and material extension. Similar demands had piled up during the war in practically all of the industries which use lumber. 2. The cumulative effect of forest depletion, both in the country as a whole and in the more important timber regions. This accumulated demand soon absorbed the short stock available, and lumber manufacturers were overwhelmed with orders. The lumber industry found itself unable to increase production rapidly. The output in 1919 was below normal in all the principal lumber regions of the country, with the possible exception of the South. In many of the former regions of large lumber output, the Lake States, New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern Appalachians, the timber is so largely gone that there was little opportunity for material expansion in cut to meet abnormal demands. In regions with timber reserves other factors have held the cut down. In the southern pine region bad weather hampered logging operations during the latter part of 1919. Precipitation was far above the average. This reduced the log production, and even caused shortages which compelled many mills to run on part time. During the first 11 months of the year 135 subscribing mills reported to the Southern Pine Association a total loss of 80,213 hours, or approximately 60 working days each, 41,878 hours or 31 working days each, being due to a shortage of logs. On the basis of normal production this loss represented a decrease in production for the 135 mills of nearly G600,000,000 feet. In the southern hardwood region weather conditions have been unfavorable since the fall of 1918. In the fall of 1919 the conditions, already very bad, became much worse, and effective logging or in some cases any logging has become practically impossible through repeated rains and floods. Normal log deliveries for one group of hardwood mills in October and November, 1919, were but one-third of the quantities delivered during the same months in 1916. Some of the labor drawn away from the lumber industry during the war preferred other employment and remained in the towns and cities or in other sections of the country. It is estimated that southern pine operators were confronted with an average labor shortage of 20 per cent, and in many other lumber-producing regions operators found themselves unable to secure and hold full crews. The industry has been obliged to pay higher wages and grant shorter hours, and has possibly suffered from decreased efficiency. In the case of one operation in the South it required 23 man hours in July. 1914, to produce 1,000 board feet of lumber, while in July, 1919, it required 37 man hours. Again, in July, 1914, it required 134 men on the payroll to maintain a full crew of 100 men per day, while in July, 1919, 153 men were carried to maintain the same sized crew. Many operators in the Appalachian hardwood region say that they hardly know from day to day whether or not their mills will run. Illustrations of this character could be multiplied almost indefinitely for all parts of the country, but those already given sufficiently indicate the general situation. The unstable character of the lumber industry has been in no small degree responsible for its inability to secure and hold a desirable class of labor, particularly in logging. 250 per cent in January, 1919, and to 293 per cent in December, 1919, with an average for the year of 263 per cent. Using 1913 as 100 per cent, prices for January, 1919, had risen to 203 per cent, and in December, 1919, to 238 per cent. Regardless of every other conceivable condition, a very substantial rise in lumber prices would have been inevitable from such causes as the enormous credit expansion growing out of the war and the accompanying currency inflation, causes which are responsible for large price increases in all other commodities. It is unnecessary to dwell upon these general causes, but they must be taken fully into account in any attempt to analyze the extent to which timber depletion is responsible for price in creases. Abnormal conditions affecting forest products have not ob Dependence upon the South and the Northwest for timber has placed a greater burden upon the railroads of the country than they could carry under the disorganization following the war. The car shortage is estimated by various authorities attained alone in the case of the lumber industry. One further from 200,000 up. It is reported from the southern hardwood territory that only 60 to 65 per cent of the cars required for logs and lumber can be obtained. The secretary of the California Sugar & White Pine Co., a sales organization which served 35 mills in 1919, reports materially curtailed shipments in September, October, and November, due to a car shortage of 65 per cent. While the railroads do not altogether agree as to the extent of the shortage, it is certain that difficulties in securing cars, freight congestion, and embargoes have all served to accentuate difficulties in securing lumber supplies. Lumber, as one of the most bulky commodities, is always one of the first to suffer in case of freight congestion. A disorganized industry, short stocks, abnormal demands, and reduced production have all contributed to high prices for lumber. Even though it had still been possible to produce lumber in quantity in each of the regions from which it has been so largely depleted-New England, New York, Pennsylvania, the Lake States, and the Southern Appalachians-lumber prices would still have risen in response to other conditions which have grown out of the war. Price increases for other commodities are significant in this connection. As shown by the Department of Labor statistics, the prices for all commodities had, considering the year 1890 as 100 per cent, risen to example, that of newsprint, will be given. Because of war requirements, newsprint paper production suffered less than lumber. The industry was less disorganized and the response to increased demand was much more prompt. The Federal Trade Commission reports that newsprint production during the fiscal year 1919 exceeded that of 1918 by 8 per cent. Prewar production had reached 1,313,284 tons in 1914. During the 20-year period preceding the war the demand for newsprint had increased practically without a break by 200 per cent. Incidental to the increase in demand which might have been expected normally there grew out of reconstruction the most extensive use of advertising which the United States or possibly any country has ever seen. Within the year national advertising increased greatly. Advertising as a whole in 1919, as shown by nearly 100 newspapers in a little less than 20 of our largest cities, increased over that of 1918 by approximately 40 per cent. During the first two or three months of 1920 the amount of advertising exceeded that for a similar period in 1918 by something over 50 per cent. This demand created, in spite of the restriction of reading matter by the average newspaper, an abnormal demand for paper and was a powerful factor in the unprecedented rise in newsprint prices which has already been discussed. STEADY PROGRESS OF FOREST DEPLETION. FOREST DEPLETION AND MIGRATION OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY. Each successive chapter in the history of the lumber industry in the United States has been a story of depletion and migration. In softwoods it is a history of regional industries, each developing in its turn, dominating the consuming markets of the country, and declining at last so far as to be unable to meet the local requirements of its region. Each has had the same essential features of beginning, rise, and fall from light culling operations to clean cutting of good timber and poor alike and of the shifting of cut from the more to the less desirable species. The story of each region will be taken up in detail, but the main outlines should first be made clear. In New England lumbering early became a leading industry, supporting local needs, furnishing the basis for the early shipbuilding industry, and providing exports. The industry expanded very slowly, and owing to the shifting of the cut from one section to another, from one species to another, and finally | from virgin stands to second growth, partly on deserted farm lands, production did not reach the maximum until as late as 1907. Since then it has been falling rapidly. New York followed New England as the center of softwood lumber producton and was the leading lumber State in the country in 1850, although the greatest volume production was reached from 10 to 20 years earlier. Pennsylvania followed New York, and led all the States in 1860, but has now declined until one city district consumes more than the total lumber cut of the State. White-pine operations in the Lake States began with a single sawmill in 1832; eastern shipments were being made three or four years later; and the culmination was reached in 1892 with a cut of nearly 9 billion feet. Dreary wastes, dismantled sawmills, deserted towns, and an insignificant pine output of a single billion feet in 1918 are depressing reminders of the day when Lake States lumber supplied the markets of the country from the Rockies to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Canadian boundary literally to the Gulf. The great development of the southern industry began in the seventies and increased rapidly to what was probably the maximum, about 16 billion feet, in 1909. In its turn, southern pine dominated the markets little if any less completely than white pine; but the South is following the course of other regions, and the remaining supplies of virgin pine are only about one-fifth of the original stand. Within a single decade southern pine production promises to exceed by little, if any, the needs of the South. A great start has been made in the last chapter of the history of virgin softwood stands. Since 1894 Pacific coast and Rocky Mountain timber has been forcing its way increasingly into the middle western and eastern markets. Within the year it has dominated those of the Lake States and has even entered in appreciable quantities those of the South itself. To the West only, of all our heritage of magnificent softwood forests, can the country look to an increasing cut; but even here there are already local evidences of depletion, warnings that the conclusion of the story will be the same as that of other regions and in far less time than has been estimated. Hardwood depletion and the migration of centers of production has followed along much the same line, although regional boundaries have been much less distinct. Cutting began early in New England and along the Atlantic coast, spread slowly to the westward through New York and Pennsylvania as local supplies were cut out, and became important in Ohio and the Middle Atlantic States after water and rail transportation was developed. From here it spread north into the Lake States and south into Kentucky and Tennessee and the southern Appalachian Mountains. The stands of these various regions have been successively depleted. In New England and New York, aside from second growth, largely in farm wood lots, there remain only the stands of hardwoods in the North. The commercial cut of the Middle Western States is almost a thing of the past. That of the Lake States has fallen off materially, as has also even that of the southern Appalachians. The end of the cut in the Appalachian States is pretty definitely in sight. The only reserve of importance is the southern Mississippi Valley, and even here it is doubtful if future production will for any length of time materially exceed the average output of the last few years. BASIS FOR DATA. Before taking up the various timber regions1 the basis for the data used should be given. It should be recognized that thoroughly reliable data on such subjects as the remaining stand of timber, its quality, rate of growth, and extent of depletion, and on the forest areas of different classes, can be obtained only by a thoroughgoing timber survey requiring two or more years. Nothing of this character has ever been attempted in the United States. More has been done in estimating the amount of saw timber than on any other of the subjects mentioned. The most comprehensive data on timber stand were secured by the Bureau of Corporations. A part of the country only was. covered for timber of saw-timber size, and such questions as the volume of material below saw-timber size, extent of depletion, rate of growth, the requirements of our industries, etc., were not in 1 Figure 1 shows diagrammatically the more or less arbitrary State groups which are used in part for statistical purposes only. It shows also the principal saw timber sections of the United States. The regions of the discussion do not follow either consistently. but the areas included in each are indicated in the text. The State groups used are made up as follows: New England: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Middle Atlantic: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Lake Michigan. Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Central Ohio, Indiana. Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee. Iowa, Missouri, eastern Kansas, and eastern Nebraska. South Atlantic and East Gulf: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Florida, and Alabama. Lower Mississippi: Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, eastern Texas. and eastern Oklahoma. Rocky Mountains: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, western South Dakota (Black Hills). New Mexico. Arizona. Utah, and Nevada. Pacific coast: California. Oregon, and Washington. That part of the Kaniksu National Forest in Washington is included in the Rocky Mountain region, while those parts of the Eldorado. Inyo, Mono. and Tahoe National Forests in Nevada are included in the Pacific coast region. The comparatively small area of rather open woodland, chiefly on farms lying in the Great Plains between the ninety-seventh meridian and the Rocky Mountains, is not considered in the report. Some 100.000.000 to 150.000.000 acres of low-grade woodland and scrub, such as open juniper and pinon of the West, scrubby mountain stands, and chaparral, are also omitted. phases of timber supply only for parts of States or regions. Some of the timber remaining in the United States has never been cruised under any method. That cruised has been estimated by different methods and by different men, and also at different times when widely varying standards of utilization were in effect. For the State of Washington, for example, a large percentage of the estimates date back to 1890 and 1895, when "red fir" and hemlock were considered inferior species and given little attention. Possibly the estimates secured for the southern pine region are as satisfactory as any. Here it was possible to obtain the results of a recent survey which brought together the best estimates available from a large percentage of timber owners. For some regions it was possible to do little more than revise the Bureau of Corporations' estimates by subtracting the cut and depletion as offset by estimated growth. The Bureau of Corporations' estimates form, in part, the basis for the data used in the southern Mississippi Valley hardwood region and the Pacific Coast States. In all cases, however, such data were supplemented by additional estimates, wherever obtainable, from such sources as later and more reliable cruises of individual holdings and county tax estimates. For hardwood stands in particular the available estimates are not satisfactory. The Bureau of Corporations' study covered only the hardwoods of the southern Mississippi Valley, which were at that time regarded as having comparatively little value, and satisfactory estimates could not be secured. Many of the industries which are now dependent for their raw materials upon the hardwoods are in great need of accurate information as to the extent of existing stands and what they can count on for the future. The data available show, however, that the future is very uncertain. For New York results are based on a questionnaire to private owners in 1918 which covered the territory only in part. Similar data were available for parts of New England. Only a part of the estimates for National Forest timber is based on thoroughgoing cruises. The report embodies the first attempt to cover for the entire country the total volume of material below saw-timber size in cubic feet. It can only be an approximation. The data on forest areas have been compiled from a great variety of sources secured for different purposes by different organizations with varying degrees of accuracy. For several of the classifications, such as productive and unproductive areas, the data are fragmentary. The estimates of growth are based on a limited number of studies of growth made at various times during the past 20 years. While representing somewhat more detailed data than were ever before available, they are still very inadequate and no claim is made that the figures given are more than an approximation. In response to the request of the Senate, the Forest Service has endeavored to describe the situation in fairly specific terms, using the best information available. It recognizes that much of the data used lacks scientific accuracy and is tentative rather than final in character. An attempt has been made to utilize every available source of information and to check the figures by the judgment of well-informed men in the different regions. While an exhaustive and detailed survey of the forest resources of the United States is necessary to establish these figures with finality, there can be no question as to the broad facts of depletion which they indicate. NEW ENGLAND. THE GROWTH AND DECLINE OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY. New England has passed through every stage of forest exploitation from the days when only the best white pines and oaks were merchantable to present dependence upon outside |