While a history of the lumber business is justified fully by its importance, records are meager and its compilation is, therefore, difficult. In the preparation of this work the sources drawn upon have been so multitudinous as to render impracticable individual acknowledgment or complete reference to authority. Government reports and records of the United States and other American countries have been read diligently and every important fact concerning the industry has been extracted; thousands of individuals have been interviewed; the files of the American Lumberman and its predecessors, the Northwestern Lumberman and The Timberman, which have been the most fertile sources of information, have been carefully examined, and the files of other lumber journals-American, Canadian and English-have yielded their share of information.
Grateful acknowledgment is extended by the editor to the many individuals in private and public life who have interested themselves in this work and who have assisted in supplying many of the facts that go to make up this history. The compilation of the matter incorporated in this work has involved the expenditure of a vast amount of labor and a large sum of money; but, if it shall prove to be of interest and value to lumbermen and students of lumbering and shall supply a missing link in the industrial and commercial history of the world, its aim will have been fully attained and the ambition of its editor and its publishers will have been realized.