77G REVIEWS OF BOOKS. [April 



western plains, or what is in the report called the Great American 

 Desert, which have proved quite successful. Millions of trees have been 

 planted in portions of Kansas and Nebraska States, formerly all but 

 destitute of trees, wliich have grown and flourished. And on Cape 

 Cod it has been found that, by planting groves of pine along the 

 seaboard, it becomes easy, in the shelter they eventually afford from 

 the salt spray and ocean storms, to establish any other kind of tree 

 adapted to the latitude. 



On the subject of the consumption of timber for railroad ties 

 or sleepers alone, it appears that from 3 to 4 per cent, of the 

 entire woodland of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is 

 annually required to meet the demand. 



The maple-sugar industry seems, judging from the statistics of 

 the report, a most important one. From this source alone, a little 

 over one-twelfth of the whole sugar product of the country from all 

 sources is derived. The sugar-maple is one of the most widely 

 distributed of American trees ; the sugar it yields is identical in 

 composition with that of the sugar-cane ; it is produced at small 

 •expense, and the tapping of the trees during the brief season when 

 sugar may be made has no ill effect on the vitality of the trees, or 

 on the quality of the timber for any purpose ; so that it may be 

 looked upon as one of the most valuable of American trees, taking 

 all its products into account. 



The present area of forests in the whole of the States is 

 489,280,000 acres, or 26*4 per cent, of the total area of the land. 

 A table given in illustration of this part of the subject shows that 

 the forest area is very unequal in proportion to the land in the 

 various States, varying, as in the State of Maine, from 6 2 '7 per cent, 

 to 2 "8 per cent, in Nevada. 



On the subject of the increase or decrease of the forests, the 

 inquiries instituted by the Department have confirmed the conclu- 

 sions previously arrived at, namely, that American forests were 

 decreasing all over the country rapidly, and in a large portion of it 

 at an alarming rate. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, it appears 

 the forest area is increasing as " the people are learning that much 

 of their rough, hilly, swampy land is more profitable for the growth 

 of trees than any other crop, and they are allowing nature to clothe 

 it with the covering it formerly had." 



Suspension of the sale of Government timber lands is recommended 

 in the report wherever they are adjacent to the head-springs of 

 rivers, or otherwise important to climatic influence or the general 

 welfare of the land, as a wise policy, till by careful survey it may 

 be ascertained what portion of them may be disposed of without 

 injury to the country. 



