132 FOUESTKY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



safety, we may increase by 20 per cent, or say 18,000,000,001) feet, of which (5,000,000,000 would be 

 white pine. 



For Pennsylvania the partial returns of the commissioner of forestry would make an estimate 

 of 10,000,000,000 feet pine and hemlock appear highly extravagant. In a private communication 

 he estimates the standing timber of white pine at 500,000,000, of spruce at 70,000,000, and of hem- 

 lock at 5,000,000.000 feet, B. M. 



For New York, without much basis, 5,000,000,001) may bo allowed as an extravagant figure, 

 with a cut of not less than 500,000,000 feet; another 3,000,000,000 for New Hampshire; and, with 

 a closer estimate, based on figures given by the forest commissioner of Maine, that State may be 

 given at best not to exceed 10.000,000,000 feet of spruce, pine, and hemlock. 



It is well known that in the "Pine Tree" State the white pine is long since reduced to a 

 small proportion of the coniferous wood standing. The spruce country is confined to the ele- 

 vated northern half of the State, north of a line from the White Mountains to Mars Hill, with a 

 spruce-bearing area of probably less than 0,000 square miles. The stand on the two main 

 spruce-producing drainage basins, the Kennebec and Androscoggin, has been estimated at round 

 5,000.000,000 feet, P.. M., witli a present cut of round 350,000,000 feet. Partial statistics of the 

 cut would indicate a total cut of coniferous woods in Maine of not far from 500,000,000 feet in IX! 15 

 and preceding years. 



In all these estimates of standing timber the writer has leaned toward extravagance rather 

 than understatement, and thus the total is found to add up 100,000,000,000 feet of coniferous 

 growth in the Northern States, of which less than half is pine, to satisfy a cut of at least 

 18,000,000,000 to 20,000,000,000 feet per annum. 



The writer does not say that in less than six years every stick of pine, spruce, and hemlock 

 will be cut, for such figures as these do not admit of mathematical deductions, but the gravity of 

 the question of supply is certainly apparent. Even doubling the estimates, it is found that, with 

 the present rate and method of cutting, ten years would exhaust our virgin timber of these classes. 

 We should add that much more intimate knowledge exists now regarding these supplies than was 

 possible in 1880, when much of the country was still unopened and unknown. 



OTHER CONIFEROUS SUPPLIES. 



The Southern pines, to be sure, will enter more largely into competition, as also the cypress 

 and other coniferous woods of the South. 



The entire region within which pines occur in the South in merchantable condition comprises 

 about 230,000 square miles, or, in round numbers, 147,000,000 acres; for land in farms, 10,000,000 

 acres must be deducted, and allowing as much as two-thirds of the remainder as representing pine 

 lands (the other to hard woods), we would have about 90,000,000 acres on which pine may occur. 

 An average growth of 3,000 feet per acre an extravagant figure when referred to such an area 

 would make the possible stand 270,000,000,000 feet, provided it was in virgin condition and not 

 largely cut out or culled. Altogether, the writer has reached the conclusion that, adding all other 

 coniferous wood in the South, an estimate of 300,000,000,000 feet would be extravagant, which, 

 added to the Northern supply of coniferous wood, gives a total supply of 400,000,000,000 feet to 

 draw from in the Eastern United States; and as the entire cut of these classes of wood appears 

 now to be not less than 25,000,000,000 feet a year, and probably is hearer 30,000,000,000, it may be 

 stated with some degree of certainty that not fifteen to twenty years' supply of coniferous timber 

 can be on hand in the Eastern States. 



In 188G the writer ventured a statement that there was 000,000,000,000 feet of coniferous 

 growth in the Kastern States; the cut was then estimated at 12,000,000,000 feet. If an average 

 cut of 20,000,000,000 for the last ten years be allowed, which is reasonable, the present estimate of 

 400,000,000,000 standing would lend color to the approximate correctness of these figures. 



If the inquiry is extended to the coniferous growth of the Pacific coast, which, in spite of the 

 distance, must finally come to our aid, only partial comfort will be found. The writer's estimate of 

 1,000,000,000,000 feet standing has been by competent judges declared extravagant. The annual 

 cut on the Pacific coast approaches certainly 4,000,000,000 feet; hence, adding these figures to 

 those obtained for the East, with 1,400,000,000,000 feet standing at best, and a cut of at least 

 30,000,000,000 feet per annum, there would appear to be, under most favorable contingencies, not 



