778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



census report of our forest resources is the attempt made by Professor 

 Sargent to give at a glance, by means of maps, the history and present 

 condition of our woodlands throughout the country. In the census of 

 1870 maps had been used for the purpose of showing the distribution 

 of our native and foreign population, the greater or less degree of 

 illiteracy in different portions of the country, and the areas of land 

 devoted to the cultivation of the great staples, corn, wheat, and to- 

 bacco. The vital statistics were also, to some extent, reduced to the 

 map form, and the deaths from consumption, fevers, and some other 

 classes of diseases were presented in the same way. 



In the census report now in preparation this plan of presenting 

 classes of facts at once through the eye by means of maps is applied 

 to the woody covering of the country. More especially, the object 

 has been to show the present extent of the supply of pine-timber, as 

 being of chief importance in connection with the lumber industry of 

 the country, and so bearing, more or less directly, upon many other 

 interests and occupations. The hard-woods, also, where prevalent to 

 any considerable extent, are of course denoted on the maps. Other- 

 wise, their amount and localities are briefly described in the accom- 

 panying text of the report. 



In general, one map is devoted to each State or Territory, though 

 in the case of Vermont and New Hampshire the two are grouped to- 

 gether. The maps are carefully prepared, and the engraving and 

 printing in colors are such that the eye perceives at once in what por- 

 tion of any State or Territory the supply of pine is undiminished, and 

 where and to what extent it has been cut off. It is also made ap- 

 parent at once where the pine has exclusive possession of the soil, and 

 where it grows mingled with the hard-woods. 



In connection with the maps, but on a separate page, the statistics 

 in regard to the lumber-supply are given in properly arranged tables, 

 these with the corresponding map constituting a "Forestry Bulletin." 

 The first of the Bulletins to be printed was that relating to the " Pine 

 Supply of Texas," and a brief description of this will show the method 

 pursued in all. The map of Texas is on a scale of one hundred miles 

 to the inch. The water-courses are given with great completeness, 

 and the county lines as far west as the one hundredth parallel. The 

 map is so printed in colors as to show the parts of the State abounding 

 respectively in the short-leaved or loblolly pine (Pinus toeda) mixed with 

 the oak and other hard-woods ; second, those abounding in the short- 

 leaved or yellow pine {Pinus mitis), mixed with oak and other hard- 

 woods, together with a little loblolly pine ; third, those abounding 

 in the long-leaved pine (Pinus Australia), and, fourth, the regions 

 from which merchantable pine has been cut off. A glance at the 

 map shows that Texas is poorly supplied with pine-timber, the en- 

 tire State, with the exception of the few eastern counties, being 

 uncolored, which indicates the absence of trees in any such numbers 



