Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/497

Rh the Bureau of Labor (Bulletin No. 99, March, 1912) reports for lumber products a rise in price which is little short of phenomenal. Taking as a basis the price between 1890 and 1899, the price of hemlock lumber rose (1890-1912) from 105.2 to 172.9; of hard maple, from 100 to 129.5; of white oak, from 98.6 to 154.5; of white pine, from 96.4 to 214.2; of yellow pine, from 112.4 to 177.3; of poplar, from 97.2 to 196.4; of spruce, from 113.5 to 169.2; of shingles, from 110.7 to 130.1; of tar, from 122.4 to 176.4; of turpentine, from 122.0 to 203.1; and rosin claps the climax with an increase from 96.1 to 466.5. This series of twenty-two years, therefore, shows a remarkable rise in the wholesale price of timber and timber products. One turns from this extraordinary increase in the price of timber products to inquire into the increase in the value of the lands from which timber comes. Has the rise in the value of the land from which the raw material is derived corresponded with the rise in the value of the raw material?

The inability of officials and of private persons to supply data on the increase in the value of mineral lands was more than offset by their generosity in furnishing information regarding the rise in timber values. The editor of The Lumberman's Review, Frederick J. Caulkins, comments (March 19, 1913):

A number of private firms wrote interesting letters regarding the movement of prices in their own section. A lumberman from Au Sable, Mich., states (March 5, 1913):

A prominent lumber manufacturer from Bay City, Mich., writes (April 3, 1913):

Another lumberman gives an excellent illustration of a small increase in values (March 24, 1913):

Similar letters from other sections of the country show a