According to the census reports for 1900, lumber is excelled in value
among American productions only by iron and steel, textiles and
slaughtering and meat packing. The West, having 607,500 square miles,
or 55.4 per cent of the total wooded area of the country, exclusive of
Alaska, will surely be paramount in this important industry. Indeed,
we, this early, find the Director of the Census making this important
admission in one (203) of his bulletins:
The white pine area in the Northwest has passed its maximum
of production and the attention of lumbermen is being
diverted from this region to the Southern pine forests and
to the enormously heavy forests of the Northwest coast,
which will, in the course of a decade or two, become the
chief source of lumber for the country.
Texas, with 64,000 square miles, leads the Union in wooded area.
Oregon is second, with 54,300 square miles, and Minnesota third, with
52,200 square miles. Arkansas, California, Missouri, Montana, and
Washington each have over 40,000 square miles of wooded area. Oregon,
Washington, and California have at least one third of the standing
timber of the country, but they cut less than ten per cent of the
total lumber product. The redwood forest of California is, perhaps,
the densest forest, measured by the amount of lumber per acre, in the
world. In quantity of standing timber, Oregon leads the Union with 225
billion feet; California second with 200 billion feet, and Washington
third with nearly 196 billion feet. Minnesota, with a product of
$43,600,000 leads the West and Washington is second, with $30,300,000.
The total value of the lumber product of the West in 1900 was
$184,135,988, against $109,201,667 in 1890 and $6,075,896 in 1850. The
lumber cut was 10,925,736 M feet, board measure, or a little less than
one third of the output of the Union. Among Western states, Minnesota
led with 2,342,388 M feet, Arkansas second with 1,623,987 M feet, and
Washington third with 1,429,032 M feet. Oregon cut 734,528 M feet.