Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-15
CEMENT, STEEL AND
BRICK GAIN GROUND
FORESTS MUST CONTRIBUTE
FOR YEARS, HOWEVER
Percentage of Wooden Construction
in Forty-nine of Leading Cities
Is Over Half of the
Total

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 ma
terials used in building operations. Not
withstanding the remarkable increase
in the use of cement and other fire.
proof 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 geographical
survey, show that SO per cent were of
wooden construction.
Even il the remaining Al 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 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 IL
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 pre-
dominating building material, and it is
safe to say that if the statistics had in
cluded figures for all places of what
ever size the percentage of wooden
construction would have been much
greater.
For Corporate Limits
These figures, as a 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 cities than in
towns nearer the base Of supply.
In wooden buildings New York city
is at the bottom of the list, though it
leads with $1S,075 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 building operations
is constantly increasing, having risen
over $500 during the last three years.
The average value of a building is
given In the report as $2035.
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 a 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 $3.50, ,796,51S.
The increasing price of lumber and
the rapidly increasing use of perfected
freproof systems of construction 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 substantial materials have
not decreased the lumber cut of the
nation.