64 North American Forests and Forestry 



overwhelming majority of the American people is 

 still dependent on this most primitive of all fuels. 

 This refers especially to the rural population, but 

 also in a large degree to the villages and smaller 

 cities. Statistics leave one utterly in the lurch when 

 he tries to realize the extent of fire-wood consump- 

 tion : for the greater portion of it takes place in the 

 homes of the producers themselves, while wood 

 which is sold goes ordinarily direct from the man 

 who cuts it to the person that uses it. Conse- 

 quently there is no middleman to whom the census 

 taker could apply for information. Generally 

 speaking, the price of fire-wood is limited, in this 

 country, to the cost of cutting and hauling it. But 

 there are exceptions in favored localities, especially 

 near large towns. For instance, the management 

 of the celebrated Biltmore forest in North Caro- 

 lina, which will repeatedly be mentioned in these 

 pages, has during recent years made enough out of 

 the sale of fire-wood to pay the considerable expense 

 of managing that property according to silvicultural 

 methods. In some parts of the country the rail- 

 way locomotives are still using wood for fuel, and 

 in a few manufacturing branches wood is preferred 

 to coal. 



Turning now to the lumber industry proper, we 

 must distinguish between two principal branches of 

 it, which almost, though not entirely, coincide with 

 the popular distinction between hard woods and 

 soft woods. Among hard woods are included the 

 kinds of lumber coming from broad-leaved trees, 



