FORESTRY 427 



cane had reached 7,600,000 tons, and from beets 8,400,000 

 tons. 



Another use of forest products has yet to be developed in 

 the United States. In Europe every twig is used ; that is r 

 the forest refuse, which we destroy as " brush," is all utilized. 

 To use this material seems to the American a waste of time, 

 involving an amount of labor that is not paid for by the 

 result; but since many uses for forest refuse have been 

 developed in European countries, there is no reason why 

 some of them may not be introduced here. 



132. Forest reservations. The great importance of 

 exercising some control over forests has led the national 

 government to adopt a system of forest reservations, which 

 are under its care. To a certain extent, states have done 

 the same thing, but it will be impossible to include them in 

 this brief statement. It is not the purpose of the govern- 

 ment to withdraw such forests from use, but rather to super- 

 vise their use so that they may continue to be productive. 

 Furthermore, some forests are reserved by the government 

 not so much for the sake of a continuous timber supply, as 

 to protect certain regions from floods and soil destruction. 

 Naturally such forests are found on the important water- 

 sheds of our drainage systems. 



These reservations are so fluctuating in extent, depending 

 upon the attitude of the president towards forest reservation, 

 that it is impossible to give their exact extent as a general 

 statement. Some conception of the forest areas involved, 

 however, and their distribution may be obtained from the 

 following statement of the reservations in 1901, the begin- 

 ning of such reservations being in 1891. The statement, 

 therefore, covers the period of the first ten years of forest 

 reservation. During that period nearly 50,000,000 acres 

 of forest land were reserved, distributed among 13 states. 

 The list of states, the number of reservations, and the 

 approximate number of acres involved are as follows, in 



