Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1908-02-11
USE OF LUMBER
Building Operations And The
Timber Supply.

Cement and steel and brick and
stone are not yet used in sufficient
quantities to encourage lumber users
to predict the time when the forests
will rot be called upon to furnish the
principal material used in building
operations. Notwithstanding the re-
markable increase in the use of ce-
ment and other freproof materials,
the last report of the building opera
tions in forty-nine of the leading
cities of the United States for the
year, collected by the Geological
Survey, show that SO per cent were
of wooden construction.
Even if the remaining forty-one
per cent of the buildings were built
of brick, stone and concrete, vast
quantities of wood are consumed
both in the construction and in the
finish, though in latter form, metal
is taking the place of wood to very
large extent. The amount of lumber
given above does not take into con-
siderations this item at all.
While this percentage is represen-
tative of the building industry in the
United States, dealers point out that
it does not include the large guam
titles of lumber used for the con-
struction of dwellings, stores and
other buildings in the thousands of
small cities and towns scattered over
the country and not included in the
forty-nine cities on which a reckon
ing was made. In Clowns and small
cities wood is usually the predomi-
mating building material and is safe
to say that if the statistics had in
Guided figures for all places of what
ever size, the percentage of wooden
construction would have been much
greater. These figures, as rule, are
only for the corporate limits, and
the suburbs of these cities have
each very large amounts to be added.
The cost, also, is relatively higher in
these cites than in towns nearer
the base of the supply.
In wooden buildings, New York
City is at the bottom of the list,
though it leads with $18,O75 as the
average cost of buildings. Except at |
San Francisco, where abnormal con-
ditions have prevailed since the fire,
Boston shows the greatest increase
of any of the cities in the total cost !
Of building operations. The average
cost of buildings is constantly in
creasing, having risen over three
dollars during the last
three years. The average value of a
is given in the report as 49,
]55.
Lumber is by far the greatest
drain on the forests, and the wonder
full development of the country dur.
ing the past decade has called for
the use of nearly forty billion board |
feet year. The largest quantity
ever reported for a single year was
for 1906, when thirty-seyen and one
half billion feet, with mill value of
1921, Isl, 1888, was used. Including
the value of the lath and shingles
used with this amount, the total
value of the wood used for building
is brought up to $685., 796,513.
The increasing price of lumber
and the rapidly increasing use of
perfected fireproof system and con-
structions should have much to do |
in holding down the amount which
the forests are called upon to yield
each year, but so far these more
materials have not de-
creased the lumber cut of the nation. |
Don't use harsh physics. The re-
action weakens the bowels, leads to