506 



THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



with very few trees that were dyiug. Spruce timber had perished in this manuer before, aiid he pointed out a 

 broad valley in which most of the trees were dead and falling when he came into this region, twenty-five years 

 before. He had carefully endeavored to ascertain the cause; was positive that insects either under the bark or 

 upon the leaves had nothing to do with the death of the spruce trees, and he is sure that it is not due to drought, 

 as he has seen the greatest destruction on the northern slopes. No active destructive agent being apparent, he 

 inclines to the opinion that the spruce trees die because they have reached the limit of their life, and that it is 

 some peculiarity of the winter rather than the summer that turns the scale against them ; for this reason they 

 perish in quantities, sometimes in sections. He has counted the rings of many trees, and considers 100 to 150 years 

 the average lifetime of the spruce." 



Whatever has caused the destruction of these forests, the damage thus occasioned, both in the loss of valuable 

 timber and in the increased danger of forest fires from the presence of such a body of dead wood is enormous. It 

 is believed by Mr. Pringle that from one-third to one-half of the fully-grown spruce timber left in the Adirondack 

 region is dead. 



NEW JERSEY. 



The original forests of New Jersey have disappeared, except from some of the highest and most inaccessible 

 ridges situated in the northwestern part of the state, and these, with the increased demands of the railroads 

 for ties and other material, are now fast losing their forest covering. The forests of New Jersey are insufficient to 

 supply the wants of the population of the state, and nearly all the lumber it consumes is brought from beyond its 

 limits. The forests of pitch pine, which once covered large areas in the southern counties, have now generally 

 been replaced by a stunted growth of oaks and other broad-leaved trees. 



The forests of New Jersey, especially those on the dry sandy soil of the southern part of the state, have long 

 suffered from destructive fires. During the census year 71,074 acres of forest were reported destroyed by fire, 

 causing a loss of $252,240. Of these fires twenty-eight were set by locomotives, seven through malice, seven by 

 fires set on farms escaping to the forest, and six each by the carelessness of hunters and charcoal-burners. 



The manufacture of cooperage stock and other industries using hard woods have been largely abandoned, 

 owing to the decrease of the local supply of timber. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Pennsylvania once possessed vast forests of white pine and hemlock stretching over both flanks of the 

 Alleghany mountains and extending from the northern boundaries of the state to its southern limits. East and 

 west of the Alleghany region the whole country was covered with a heavy growth of broad-leaved trees mixed 

 with hemlocks and occasional groves of pines. Merchantable pine has now almost disappeared from the state, 

 and the forests of hard wood have been either replaced by a second growth or have been so generally culled of 

 their best trees that comparatively little valuable hard-wood timber now remains. Large and valuable growths of 

 hemlock, however, are still standing in northwestern Pennsylvania. From all parts of the state manufacturers 

 using hard wood report great deterioration and scarcity of material, and Pennsylvania, which during the census 

 year was only surpassed by Michigan in the value of its forest crop, must soon lose, with its rapidly disappearing 

 forests, its position as one of the great lumber -producing states. 



The following estimates of merchantable pine and hemlock standing in Pennsylvania May 31, 1880, have been 

 prepared by Mr. H. C. Putnam. They are based upon the reports of a large number of timber-land owners and 

 experts familiar with the forests of the state: 



WHITE PINE (Pinus Stratus). 



HEMLOCK (Tsiiga CaaadensU). 



Of lumber of all kinds 1,848,304,000 feet, including 288,561,000 shingles and 183,740,000 laths, were manufactured 

 in the state during the census year; the nature of the returns, however, prevents anything beyond an estimate, 

 based upon extended correspondence, of the amount of pine and hemlock sawed. 



