FOREST COM MISSION KR'S REPORT. 79 



COMMERCIAL RANGE. 



In .spite of its wide range paper birch is, in most places, not 

 an abundant tree. It is scattered through forests of other trees 

 and pure stands of any size are rare. In the United States the 

 only extensive stands are in the Lake States and in northeastern 

 New England. In the Lake States there are several belts of 

 it on burned-over areas, but these stands are not, as a rule, fully 

 stocked. The birch is short, branchy, and usually of poor qual- 

 ity for anything except fuel. Minnesota contains the largest 

 and best stands in this region, and there are localities where this 

 birch, now considered worthless, might be utilized to good advan- 

 tage. Xorthern New England, on the other hand, has exten- 

 sive stands, some of them practically pure, in which the birch is 

 of excellent quality. New England is, therefore, the only part 

 of the United States in which paper birch is at present of com- 

 mercial importance, and it is there one of the most valuable 

 hardwoods in the forest. 



The distribution of the birch in commercial quantities through 

 this region is shown on the map (fig. i). This does not indi- 

 cate that the birch is not found outside of the areas marked. 

 It grows throughout all three of these States, and occasionally 

 in sufificient quantities to be cut in southern ^'ermont and New 

 Hamp.shire and in other parts of Maine. The map simply shows 

 in a general way what may be called the paper birch region of 

 the Northeast — that is, the region in which it occurs extensively 

 over large areas. Not all of the area is covered exclusively 

 with paper birch. Other species are found everywhere, and 

 there are tracts in which the birch is entirely wanting. To 

 eliminate these tracts and to show exactly where the birch is 

 predominant is impossible in a map of this character, so that 

 only the general outlines of the birch region are .shown. Much 

 of the timber in this region is already of sufficient size to be 

 merchantable, but young growth is also found in many places. 



Maine is plainly the paper birch State of the country. Ver- 

 mont has about 300,000 acres of birch land in the north central 

 part of the State, New Hampshire has approximately 570,000 

 acres in the northea.stern part, while Maine has over 5,500,000 

 acres extending in a broad belt directly across the central part 

 of the State. 



