production of oil in 1859 was 2,000 barrels, which sold at twenty-nine dollars a barrel. The market was not able to absorb the large production of the next few years which rose to 3,000,000 barrels in 1862, when the price fell to ten cents a barrel at the well. The building of pipe-lines improved transportation, and improvements in refining and better lamps gave a steady demand and prices rose to remunerative figures.

Until the invention of the internal-combustion engine gasoline was of little importance and was often a waste product. In the last decade the demand for gasoline has been tremendous and gasoline is now more valuable than kerosene. Increased demand for crude-oil for fuel purposes and for oil for the manufacture of gas, as well as the demand for lubricating-oils and gasoline has caused doubt as to whether the wells could continue to furnish an adequate supply. The Great War was "a gasoline war," and most of the great nations of the world are now looking for supplies of their own wherever indications show that oil may exist. In the meantime, the wells of the United States are producing increased supplies, but the price has steadily risen, as the demand has increased more rapidly than the supply. In 1917 the total production of crude-oil in the United States was 335,315,601 barrels, valued at $522,635,213. Pennsylvania, which long led in petroleum production, is now surpassed in that respect by Oklahoma, California, Kansas, Texas, Illinois, Louisiana, and West Virginia, in the order given. Production in Pennsylvania, including contiguous territory in New York, declined from 28,458,208 barrels in 1890 to 8,612,885 barrels in 1917, and this despite an increased price for oil and its stimulating

A VIEW OF PART OF THE BAKERSFIELD OIL REGION OF CALIFORNIA

California is now one of the greatest oil-producing states

effect on drilling. There is little hope that petroleum production can keep up with demand. Increased supplies may come from the shales of Colorado and new fields may be opened, but old fields are sure to decrease in productivity. The only secure hope for the future lies in economy chiefly through the invention of a more efficient internal-combustion engine and in the discovery of substitutes for gasoline. Alcohol, which can be produced in abundance from vegetables, grain, and fruit, seems to promise best as a substitute.

Lumbering. The early colonists found the entire eastern part of what is now the United States covered with a dense growth of timber. They had no need to economize in the use of wood as there was plenty and to spare. In many parts of the country the trees were regarded as an encumbrance and were cut and burned, or girdled and let die in order to make room for agriculture.

Relation between forest depletion and
forest growth (in billions of cubic feet)

FROM "TIMBER DEPLETION, LUMBER PRICES," ETC.

A "SKIDDER MACHINE" DRAGGING LOGS FROM WHERE THEY ARE CUT TO THE LOGGING
COMPANY'S RAILROAD TRACKS

Much of the timber that has survived until our time is in places remote from settlements, or where the soil is so poor as to make it not worth while to remove the trees. A considerable trade in lumber existed in colonial times. As early as 1652 there was a sawmill in Virginia “built at a cost of forty-eight beaver skins." The first sawmill in New England was in operation at Dorchester in 1628. Dutch colonists built many mills along the Hudson valley. The first settlers in Maine and New Hampshire were lumbermen.

Lumber for export consisted of materials for ships, such as masts and spars, staves, shingles, hoops, and boards.

As the trees became scarce in one locality, the lumbering industry steadily pushed its way into more remote places. Unfortunately forest culture, the genetic side of the industry, has not kept step with forest destruction.

"Less than 5 per cent of the virgin forests of New England remain, and the total stand of saw timber in these states is not more than one-eighth of the original stand. New York, once the leading state in lumber production, now manufactures only 30 board feet per capita yearly, although the requirements of its own population are close to 300 board feet per capita. The present cut of lumber in Pennsylvania is less than the amount consumed in the Pittsburgh district alone. The original pine forests of the Lake States, estimated at 350,000,000,000 feet, are now reduced to less than 8,000,000,000 feet, and their yearly cut of timber is less than one-eighth of what it used to be. These four densely populated regions, containing themselves very large areas of forest land, are now largely dependent upon timber grown and manufactured elsewhere