CHANGES IN FOREST AREA IN NEW ENGLAND 



447 



Of course some of the present farm land and urban area is in the 

 5 per cent originally treeless, which would give the forest a little ad- 

 vantage; but in New England (unlike Illinois) the overlapping of occu- 

 pied and treeless land is very small, for much of the latter, like saU 

 marshes, bogs, and alpine summits, is practically uninhabitable ; and 

 what little error may result from this overlapping is very likely more 

 than counterbalanced by fields and pastures overlooked by the census 

 enum.erators on account of their owners having moved away and aban- 

 doned them. 



ISSO 



1890 



ME. 



HM 



MASS. 



'^•'.^ 

 cant*. 



WT. 



mo 



Fig. I. — Estiiinitcd percentage of forest area in each Nezv England state from 



1620 to igio 



Instead of putting the results of all these computations in a tal)le, 

 with figures giving a deceptive a])pearance of greater accuracy than 

 can be claimed for them, they are represented graphically by curves in 

 the accompanying diagram, one for each state. Horizontal distances 

 represent time and \ertical distances the j^ercentage of the total area 

 supposed to be wooded at any time. If the computed tigures had been 

 followed literally in ])lotling these curves, there W(nild have resulted 

 some minor irregularities which would be confusing and prol)ably not 



