The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-02-20
Building Operations and the TimbeI
Supply.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. II, 1908.
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 not be
called upon to furnish the principal
materials used in building operations.
Notwithstanding the remarkable in
crease in the use of cement and other
! freproof materials, the last reports of
| the building operations in forty nine of
the leading cities of the United States
for the year, collected by the Geologi-
cal Survey, show that 50 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 quantl-
ties of wood are consumed both in the
construction and in the finish, though
in the latter form, metal is taking the
place of wood to very large extent.
| The amount of lumber given above
does not take into consideration this
| item at all.
While this percentage is representa-
| tive of the building industry in the
| United States, dealers point out that
it does not include the large quantities
of lumber used for the construction of
dwellings, stores and other buildings in
| the thousands of small cities and towns
scattered over the country and not in
| cluded in the forty-nine cities on which
! a reckoning was made In towns and
small cities wood is usually the FREEDOM
mating building material and it is safe
to say that if the statistics had lnclud-
ed figures for all places OF whatever
size, the percentage OF wooden con-
struction would have been much great
er. These figures, as a rule, are only
| for the corporate limits, and the sub
urbs of these cities have each very
large amounts to be added. The cost,
also, is relatively higher in these cities
| than in towns nearer the base OF the
supply.
In wooden buildings, New York City
| is at the bottom of the list, though 1T
leads with S1S,O75 as the average cost
of buildings. Except at San Francisco,
where abnormal conditions have pre-
vailed 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 con-
stantly increasing, having risen over
| three hundred dollars during the last
three years, The average value of a
building is given in the report as 81
OBS
Lumber is by far the greatest drain
on the forests, and the wonderful de-
velopment of the country during 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
seven and one half billion feet, with a
mill value of 1921, Isl 1888 was used. In.
Guiding the value of the lath and
shingles used with this amount, the
total value of the wood used for build
ings is brought up to S656, 796, 5l3.
The increasing price of lumber and
the rapidly increasing use of perfected
fireproof systems of construction should
have much to do in holding down the
amount which the forests are called up
on to yield each year, but so far these
more substantial materials have not
decreased tie lumber cut of the nation.