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OUR FORESTS 



Forests have great commercial importance as well. Even in this 

 day of coal, wood is still by far the most-used fuel. It is useful in 

 building. It outlasts iron under water, in addition to being durable 

 and light. It is cheap and, with care of the forests, inexhaustible, 

 while our mineral wealth will some day be used up. Hard woods are 

 chiefly used in house building and furniture manufacture ; the soft 

 woods, reduced to pulp, are made into paper. Distilled wood gives 

 alcohol. Partially burned wood is charcoal. Vinegar and other 

 acids are obtained from trees, as are tar, creosote, resin, turpentine, 

 and other useful oils. The making of maple sirup and sugar forms a 

 profitable industry in several states. 



FOREST REGIONS 



The forest regions of the United States. 



The Forest Regions of the United States. The combined area 

 of all the forests in the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is about 

 500,000,000 acres. This seemingly immense area is rapidly de- 

 creasing in acreage and in quality, thanks to the demands of an 

 increasing population, a woeful ignorance on the part of the owners 

 of the land, and wastefulness on the part of cutters and users alike. 



A glance at the map shows the distribution of our principal 

 forests. The following figures taken from the United States Census 

 reports tell their own tale. In 1908, 31,231 sawmills cut 



