64 FOBEST commissioner's REPORT. 



wood per acre, 175,000,000 acres will be required for this purpose, 

 making a total of 875.000,000 acres of well stocked thrifty forest, 

 which are needed to furnish a continuous supply of forest material 

 at the present rate of consumption. This is equal to about four- 

 teen acres for each individual of our present population. 



Maine, although in extent larger than the other five New England 

 States combined, yet comprises only a one-hundredth part of the 

 land surface of the Union, excluding Alaska and the Indian Terri- 

 tory, but contains one-fortieth part of the forest area. 



It is obvious that this State has an abundant supply of forest 

 when compared with her own requirements for forest material, but 

 when considered as a part of our common country, the combined 

 forests of which should be placed against the combined demands of 

 the same for forest products, there appears to be a great deficiency 

 of forests. 



There are now more than 163,000 miles of railroad in the United 

 States which have made the exchange of commodities possible to 

 those of our people who are most widely separated, so that to-day, 

 so bulky and cheap a product as lumber is transported by rail 

 from the gulf to the lakes and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 

 Therefore, the prospective depreciation of our forest growth should 

 be considered from the commercial stand point of demand and 

 supply, placing the forest area of those states in which our lumber 

 and wood pulp are likely to find a latge market, against the con- 

 sumption of forest material in the same states. 



Now. let us apply these figures to the sixteen states north of the 

 Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi rivers, for these states 

 will, in the future, take a large part of the surplus forest products of 

 jMaine. (We are mindful of the fact that these states are not con- 

 fined to their own limits for their supply of lumber, but are now 

 taking large quantities from the Southern States and from the 

 Dominion of Canada.) 



In 1890 the population of this group of states was 32,084,262. 

 The number of acres of well cultivated forest necessary, on the 

 basis of fourteen acres per capita, to furnish a continuous supply 

 at the present rate of consumption, is 449.179,678. If to this we 

 add twenty-five per cent for wasti'ful practices in cutting and for 

 the loss by forest fires, the area required will be larger than the 

 entire forest area of the country in 1880. which was 489,280 000 

 acres. The entire land surface of this group of states is 267,798,- 



