THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



being covered, over thousands of square miles, with an open growth of yellow pine of considerable size. The 

 streams and bottoms of the high mountains are lined with deciduous trees, of which the cotton wood, the cherry, 

 the ash, the alder, and the walnut arc the largest and most important. The group of short, detached mountain 

 ranges which occupies with a general north and south trend the southeastern part of the territory is covered with a 

 rich and varied forest growth. The highest slopes are covered with forests of pine, in which, in the Santa Catalina 

 range at least, great bodies of splendid cypress (Gupressus Guadalupensis) are found; a little lower the red fir 

 and white pine (Pinus reflexa), different oaks and junipers with a madrona, are scattered over the dry, gravelly 

 slopes and ridges between 5,000 and 7,000 feet elevation. These in turn are replaced below 5,000 feet with an open 

 growth of small evergreen oaks. The bottoms of the canons and the borders of the streams between 4,000 and 

 8,000 feet elevation are lined in these mountains with hackberry, sycamore, cottouwood, willows, cherries, and 

 ashes. The arroyos in the mesas are often covered, as in southern New Mexico, with noble groves of mesquit, or iu 

 drier situations support a stunted growth of acacias, yuccas, cacti, and other desert plants. 



The yellow pine is the only tree of Arizona of great importance as a source of lumber supply. Oaks and 

 other hard-wood trees are invariably defective and of little value except for fuel. The red fir, white pine, and 

 cypress occur only at high elevations, and are generally too scattered and too difficult of access to make their 

 manufacture into lumber practicable for the present at least. 



The pine forests of central Arizona and southwestern New Mexico are of great importance to the development 

 of the treeless regions which surround them. No other body of timber of any extent or value exists near the 

 southern boundary of the United States between the pine belt of eastern Texas and the forests of the California 

 mountains. These southern interior forests have nowhere yet greatly suffered. Their inaccessibility has protected 

 them. Railroads, however, now either penetrate this forest region, or will soon do so, and these, with the rapid 

 development of the mining industry now going on in the southwest, threaten these forests with the dangers which 

 are fast exterminating those of Colorado and Utah. 



During the census year 10,240 acres of woodland were destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of $56,000. 

 These fires were set by careless hunters, prospectors, and Indians. 



Pine lumber is sawed in Pima and Final counties, principally upon the Santa Catalina, Santa Rita, and Huachuca 

 mountains, to supply important mining centers in this part of the territory. It is also manufactured iu small 

 quantities in portable mills near Indian reservations and other centers of population throughout the forest region. 

 Returns from 13 mills only, situated iu Pima, Final, Apache, and Yavapai counties, have been received. Southern 

 Arizona is now, in spite of its fine forests of pine, almost entirely supplied by rail with lumber manufactured iu 

 California. 



UTAH. 



The Uintah range, occupying with an east and west trend the whole of the northeastern part of the territory, 

 the Wahsatch mountains and their southern extension, the San Pitch and the Sanpete ranges, extending north 

 and south nearly through the center of the territory, and the mountains which bound on the east the great 

 Colorado plateau, bear at high elevations fir, spruce, and pine forests of considerable extent. The foot-hills of 

 these mountains and their high valleys are dotted with an open growth of nut pine, juniper, and mountain mahogany 

 (Cercocarpus). The high Colorado plateau and the arid deserts of western and southern Utah are treeless, with the 

 exception of a few stunted junipers and nut pines which struggle for existence upon some of the low mountain 

 ranges, and of willows and cottonwoods which line the banks of the infrequent and scanty streams. 



The western flank of the Wahsatch mountains north of the fortieth degree of latitude has already been almost 

 denuded of its best timber to supply the wants of the agricultural and mining settlements of the Salt Lake region, 

 and the scanty forests of the territory have everywhere suffered serious loss from fire and wasteful methods of 

 cutting timber and railway ties and of manufacturing charcoal. 



During the census year 42,865 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 $1,042,800. These fires were set by Indians, wood-cutters, careless hunters, and prospectors. 



Small quantities of lumber pine, cottonwood, and a little spruce are manufactured through the Wahsatch 

 region, the principal centers of manufacture being Beaver City and Cedar City, in the south, the neighborhood of 

 Salt Lake City, and Cache county in the extreme northern part of the territory. Utah is, however, almost entirely 

 supplied with lumber from the eastern slopes of the California sierras and from Chicago. Small tanneries in Salt 

 Lake City obtain a supply of red fir and spruce bark from the neighboring mountains. 



The following notes upon Utah forests, made during the prosecution of a special investigation into the meat- 

 producing capacity of the territory, have been supplied by Mr. E. C. Hall, a special agent of the Census, in the 

 division of " Meat Production in the Grazing States and Territories" : 



"The timber of the Wahsatch mountains, in Cache, Rich, Morgan, and Weber counties of Utah, hardly suffices 

 for the wants of the settlers. The trees from which lumber is obtained are cedar and a variety of white pine 

 (Pinus flexilis). Some fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasii) is found, but it is not common north of the latitude of Salt Lake 

 City. This tree likewise furnishes an inferior kind of lumber. In general, in Utah, north of latitude 40, the west 



