Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/531

 PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY 479

In 1901 the estimated production of wool was 302,502,328 pounds ; in 1918, 298,870,000 pounds; in 1919, 313,638,000 pounds ; and in 1920, 302,207,000 pounds.

The census reports for 1914 show that the value of canned vegetables was 84,413,667 dollars ; of canned fruits, 24, S97, 174 dollars ; of dried fruits, 34,771,912 dollars; of canned soups, 7,877,057 dollars; and of all other products, including preserves, pickles, sauces, cider, and vinegar produced in canning establishments, 6,055,892 dollars. The total value of canned products, in 1914, was 158,015,702 dollars.

II. Forests and Forestkt.

The United States forests cover 463,000,000 acres, or about one-fifth of the whole country. Forests publicly owned contain one-fifth of all timber standing. Forests privately owned contain at least four-fifths of the standing timber. The original forests of the United States covered 822,000,000 acres, with a stand of not leas than 5,200 billion feet of merchantable timber, of which abut 2,215 billion board feet still remains. There are five great forest regions — the northern, the southern, the central, the Rocky Mountain, and the Pacific. The standing timber in the United States is being cut and destroyed at the rate of 26 billion cubic feet per year, or more than four times as fast as 7iew timber is growing.

The heavy demands for timber have been rapidly pushing the great centres of lumber industry toward the South and West. In consequence, the State of Washington now leads in lumber production, followed closely by Louis- iana, Oregon, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

The annual consumption, including waste in logging and in manufacture, is more than 26,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood. It includes over 110,000,000 cords of firewood, more than 40,000,000,000 board feet of lumber, 650,000,000 feet logs for veneer, 87,500,000 ties, nearly 1,300,000,000 staves, over 82,000,000 sets of heading, over 330,000,000 barrel hoops, over 4,550,000 cords of native pulpwood, 250,000,000 cubic feet of round mine timbers, 900,000,000 fence posts, 1,550,000 cords of wood for distillation, 1,250,000 cords for tanning extract, 200.000 cords for excelsior, ami 4,250,000 telegraph and telephone poles, 8,850,000,000 shingles, and 2,375,000,000 lath.

The present net area of the national forests, including those in Alaska and Porto Rico and lands acquired by purchase in the White Mountains and Southern Appalachian regions for national forest purposes, is 156,032,053 acres.

The operating costs of the national forests are about 4,000,000 dollars annually. For improvements (roads, trails, telephone lines', bridges, cabins, etc.) there is an annual appropriation of 400,000 dollars, plus ten per cent, of the receipts. In addition, the Federal Aid Roads Act in 1916, made avail- able 1,000,000 dollars yearly for ten years, lor roads and trails within or partly within the national forests. There was also included in the Post Office appropriation bill, which was approved February 28, 1919, an item of 3,000,000 dollars a year for three years for road work, which became available immediately on the approval of the bill. The total regular appropriation for the suppoit of the Forest Service, including its diversified investigative and co-operativo work, for the fiscal year 1921 is 6,295,822 dollars, including 300,000 dollars for fire-fighting and 125,000 dollars for co-operative fire protection.