186 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



than can be supplied by the proper clearing up of the forest or grove 

 and the removal of fallen branches or the refuse left in the usual cutting 

 of fuel for home use or for market. There is no expense of planting and 

 cultivation, as in the case of the cane or of sorghum. The productiou 

 of whatever amount of maple sugar is made may be considered, tliero- 

 fore, as almost clear gain. And the production may be indefinitely ex- 

 tended. It may bo carried on upon a large or small scale and upon any 

 farm or homestead, even where there are but few trees. It is eminently 

 a home or domestic industry, attended with but little expense, and ^f 

 manifest advantage. Vermont now produces sugar and sirup to the 

 amount of more than 12,000,000 i)ounds a year, or about 36 pounds lor 

 each of her inhabitants. She might easily double this amount, not to 

 say increase it fivefold. There are twenty of our States at least in 

 which the manufacture of sugar from the maple might be carried on in 

 the same proportion. It would seem, therefore, that with the probable 

 production of sugar from the sorghum plant throughout all the States 

 except those of the extreme north, where frost prevents its ripening, 

 and with the Southern States so well adapted .to the growth of the 

 cane, the time need not be distant when our entire supply of sugar may 

 be derived from our own soil. 



INVESTIGATIONS DURINa THE PRESENT YEAR. 



Since -the publication of the last report this division has been making 

 further investigations, by means of circulars widely distributed by the 

 agents in the field. These circulars called for information in regard to 

 the abundance or scarcity of the forests in the several States and Terri- 

 tories ; the kinds of trees found growing naturally ; to what extent the 

 forests have been cut, and for what purposes ; whether the forests are in- 

 creasing or decreasing in extent, and at what rate; whether any changes 

 in the streams have been noticed as the result of the removal of the 

 forests; whether floods and summer droughts have increased; what 

 effect, if any, the removal of the forests has had upon the annual amount 

 of rainfall ; also to what extent forest trees have been planted, and with 

 what success ; what kinds that have been planted have failed, and the 

 causes of failure ; whether j^roper care and attention have been given 

 them, and what proportion of trees planted are growing and thrifty ; 

 and whether the planting or removal of forest trees has produced any 

 perceptible climatic changes. 



Much time has necessarily been occupied in comparing the replies to 

 these circulars and tabulating them. The results thus obtained will 

 furnish much valuable material for another volume of reports on for- 

 estry. Meanwhile the returns may be summarized in part, as follows : 



PRESENT FOREST AREA OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



The extent of our national territory is so great, so much of it is yet 

 but sparsely settled, and so much still unsurveyed, that it is very diffi- 

 cult to ascertain with accuracy how much of it is clothed with forests. 

 In taking the last census, the General Government endeavored for the 

 first time to take account of the forests of the country in anything like 

 a complete manner. Hitherto, it had only taken account of those that 

 were embraced in farms, which left a large amount of forests unconsid- 

 ered. The compilations of the last census have given us a very valua- 

 ble body of information in regard to the wooded area of the country. 

 With the aid of that census and other sources of information the eu- 



