C. FORESTS A.XI) FORESTRY IN THE UNITE!) STATES. 



The following brief account of the forest conditions of the United States; of the trees of 

 economic value which compose its forests; of the materials in kind and quantity which they 

 furnish; and of the status of the movement for the introduction of forestry principles in their use, 

 is brought together mainly from scattered data published by the Division of Forestry and from 

 other sources. 



ORIGINAL CONDITION OF FOREST AREAS. 



The territorial distribution of forest areas in the United States, and indeed on the whole 

 continent, can be divided with more or less precision into three grand divisions: 



(1) The Atlantic forest, covering mountains and valleys in the East, reaching westward to 'the 

 Mississippi Kiver and beyond to the Indian Territory and south into Texas, an area of about 

 1,3G1,.'530 square miles, mostly of mixed growth, hard woods and conifers, with here and there 

 large areas of coniferous growth alone a vast and continuous forest. 



(2) The mountain forest of the West, or Pacific forest, covering the higher elevations below 

 timber line of the Kocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Coast Range, which may be estimated at 

 181,015 square miles, almost exclusively of coniferous growth, of enormous development on the 

 northern Pacific coast, more or less scattered in the interior and to the south. 



(3) The prairies, plains, lower elevations, and valleys of the West, with a scattered tree 

 growth, on which, whether from climatic, geologic, or other causes, forest growth is confined 

 mostly to the river bottoms or other favorable situations, an area of about 1,427,655 square miles, 

 of which 276,9(55 square miles may be considered under forest cover of deciduous species east 

 of the llockies and of coniferous and deciduous species in the west of this divide. 



Until the present century, in fact until nearly the last half of it, the activity of man on this 

 continent has practically been confined to the eastern portion, which, as stated, was originally 

 covered with a dense or at least continuous forest. The substructure of the entire civilization of 

 the United States was hewn out of these primeval woodlands. 



Out of the vast virgin forest area of the eastern half of the country there have been 

 cleared for farm use during this time 250,000,000 acres, or 400,000 square miles, leaving about 

 961,330 square miles covered actually or nominally with forest growth or waste. 



Timber being a great obstacle to the settlement of the land, and the market for it until 

 recently being confined and limited, a large amount had to be wasted and disposed of in the log 

 pile, where the flames made quick work of the scrub as well as of the finest walnut trees. 



The settlement of the western mountain country, although emigration to Oregon began in 

 1842, assumed proportions of practical importance only when the gold fever took many travelers 

 over the plains and mountains to California in 1849 and the following years. If only the legiti- 

 mate need of the population of this region for cleared laud and for timber had made drafts upon 

 the forest resources, the change in forest conditions would have been insignificant, but the 

 recklessness which the carelessness of pioneer life and seemingly inexhaustible resources 

 engender has resulted in the absolute destruction by fire of many thousand square miles of forest 

 growth and the deterioration in quality and future promise of as many thousands more. 



The third region, the so-called "treeless area," has experienced, since the advent of the white 

 settlers and the driving out of the Indians, changes which are almost marvelous. The prairies 

 were reached by settlers in any considerable number only as late as the third and fourth decades 



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