APPENDIX. 65 



000 acres, of this 87,880,000 acres was wood land iu 1880. Thus 

 it will be seen that to furnish continuously the wood substance 

 now consumed in them, would require about five times the extent 

 of forest area they now possess. 



If our estimate of the annual growth of 100 cubic feet of cord wood 

 per forest acre for the entire country be correct — and we think it 

 is approximately so for Maine, on well stocked land — the only other 

 uncertain elements iu the foregoing computations is respecting the 

 area of land to be devoted to the production of fence material and 

 the deduction which should be made for waste wood from lumbering 

 where such is utilized. I have allowed for this waste 250,000,000 

 cubic feet which is used for charcoal. 



In the census of 1880 all land not classed as cleared or barren is 

 termed forest In this State thousands of acres sparsely covered ■ 

 with scrub oak, dwarf pitch pine and worthless shrubs, are counted 

 as such. In that year the ratio of forest cover to cleared land was ' 

 about one to thiee for the entire country. The percentage of forest 

 to total area varies widely in different states and territories, 

 Nevada having the smallest, 2.8 per cent, and Maine the largest, 

 ()2.7 per cent. 



Our present knowledge of the extent and condition of the wood 

 lands of our own and other states, as well as of the forests owned 

 by the general government is very indefinite. 



It is believed by good judges, however, that the pine lands of 

 Michigan, AVisconsin and Minnesota mu^t be exhausted in twenty- 

 five years. A prominent Chicago lumberman who was familiar 

 with the condition of the forests of the Northwest was quoted by 

 The Tivibej'man^ a leading journal, devoted to the lumber trade, as 

 saying: "In twenty-five years from this time (December, 1887), 

 a pine tree will be as much of a curiosity in the Northwest as an 

 elephant is now." This man voiced the opinion of the leading lum- 

 bermen of that section of the country. 



That the enormous amount of material annually drawn from the 

 forests of the country is rapidly diminishing the forest area, is 

 evidenced by the forestry statistics of Ohio, where the condition of 

 the forests from year to year has been better known than in any 

 of the other states, the assessors reporting annually, of late years, 

 the number of acres covered with wood. An examination of these 

 reports shows a constant diminution of the forest area of that State. 



