48 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



It will appear astonishing to those who have not paid attention to the question of the settle- 

 ment of this country to learn from the above table that while of the total country only 18 per 

 vent is improved, and for every acre of farm laud in the forested country we have destroyed 

 nearly three acres of forest growth, the better developed eastern part (cast of Colorado) shows 

 only 20 per cent improved, and even the long-settled Atlantic coast, which we are apt to consider 

 fully occupied, still possesses *>5 per cent of unimproved land, of which we estimate 43 per cent 

 as woodland, while the percentage of woodland for the whole country is 215. There would bo wood- 

 land enough to satisfy our needs for many decades if attention were but paid to its rational use 

 and to the recuperation of the cut-over areas; but the condition of the wooded areas, which have 

 been culled, is well known to be so poor, as far as market supplies are concerned, that for genera- 

 tions to come they must be left out of consideration. 



The accompanying map (PI. I) shows by various grades of color the approximate relative 

 proportion of forest to total area, and the character of the merchantable kinds of lumber that are 

 derived from the different regions is indicated. 



A second map (PI. II) shows more in detail the condition of that section of the country west 

 of the ninety-seventh degree of longitude, which, being largely situated in the dry region, requires 

 greatest attention to conservative forest use and contains still large areas of public timber lands. 

 The information is derived from members of the United States Geological Survey and others 

 acquainted with the region. It must not be overlooked, however, that these are not accurate 

 surveys, but approximations, and that a large per cent, often from 25 to 50 per cent of the area 

 falling within the timber land or brush-land area, is prairie, open country, waste land, or in culti- 

 vation. The location and size of the national forest reservations, first made under the act of March 

 3, 1891, have also been outlined on this map, suggesting a desirable extension of this policy which 

 has since been had. 



The figures and maps show the very uneven distribution of the forest areas, which is an 

 important fact from an economic point of view. Seven-tenths are found on the Atlantic side of 

 the continent, only one-tenth on the Pacific coast, another tenth on the Kocky Mountains, the 

 balance being scattered over the interior of the Western States. 



Both the New England States and the Southern States have still 50 per cent of their area, 

 more or less, under forest cover, but in the former the merchantable timber has been largely 

 removed. 



The prairie States, with an area in round numbers of 400,000 square miles, contain hardly 4 

 per cent of forest growth, and the 1,330,000 square miles more than one-third of the whole 

 country of arid or seiniarid character in the interior contain practically no forest growth, 

 economically speaking. 



The character of the forest growth also varies in the different regions, as we will presently see 

 more in detail. On the Pacific coast, hard woods are rare, the principal growth being coniferous 

 and of extraordinary development. Besides gigantic redwoods, the soft sugar pine and the hard 

 bull pine, various spruces and firs, cedars, hemlocks, and larch form the valuable supplies. 



In the Rocky Mountains no hard woods of commercial value occur, the growth being mainly 

 of spruces, firs, and bull pine, with other pines and cedars of more or less value. 



The Southern States contain in their more southern section large areas occupied almost 

 exclusively by pine forests, with the cypress in the bottom lands; the more northern portions are 

 covered with hard woods almost exclusively, and intervening is a region of mixed hard- wood and 

 coniferous growth. Spruces, firs, and hemlocks are found in small quantities confined to the 

 mountain regions. 



The Northern States are mainly occupied by hard-wood growths, with conifers intermixed, 

 sometimes the latter becoming entirely dominant, as in the spruce forests of Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, or the Adirondacks, and here and there in the pineries of Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Minnesota, or in the hemlock regions of Pennsylvania and New York. 



FOREST BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. 



As stated before, we may divide the North American forest accord ing to its botanical features 

 into two great forest regions, namely, the Atlantic, which is in the main characterized by broad- 

 leaved trees, and the Pacific, which is made up almost wholly of coniferous species. (See PI. III.) 



In the Atlantic forest, going from the south to the north, we can again discern several floral 



