1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



55 



The Forests of the United States. 



A notable advance in our knowledge of 

 the forest resources of the country is 

 marked by the appearance of the first vol- 

 ume on the subject issued by the United 

 States Geological Survey. This is Part 

 V. of the Nineteenth Annual Report of 

 that organization, and is devoted mainly 

 to the work accomplished in the forest re- 

 serves in the western part of the country. 

 These descriptions are preceded by a 

 paper by Mr. Henry Gannett, who has 

 been in charge of this work, entitled, 

 " Forests of the United States." This is 

 an excellent introduction to the other vol- 

 umes which are to follow, since it gives in 

 a concise, striking manner a review of 

 what is known concerning the forests of 

 our country. 



Mr. Gannett, as chief Geographer of 

 the United States Geological Survey, and 

 also of the Eleventh and Twelfth censuses, 

 has brought to the study of the forest con- 

 ditions a training and experience un- 

 equalled for a broad, comprehensive work 

 of this character. As an explorer and 

 originator of methods of rapid map pro- 

 duction, Mr. Gannett has had extraordi- 

 nary advantages and has acquired a breadth 

 of conception and ability to grasp the 

 larger salient facts and eliminate them 

 from minor obscuring detail. This ex- 

 perience he has used in his geographic and 

 statistical work and by simple diagrams 

 has been able to present important facts 

 heretofore obscured by unnecessary elab- 

 oration. In his discussion of the forests 

 of the country and his management of 

 forest surveys he has pursued the same di- 

 rect, effective treatment, grasping the 

 larger, more important facts, and pre- 

 senting them clearly to public view. 



In the introduction to his paper on the 

 forests, Mr. Gannett shows that up to the 

 present the study of these has been carried 

 on almost entirely from the botanical side 

 and that the geographic and economic 

 aspect has received little attention except 

 for purely commercial purposes. Even 

 such an elementary fact as the extent of 



woodland we know only in an indefinite 

 way, and of standing timber available for 

 use we know almost nothing. He adds 

 that: "In view of the agitation for the 

 protection of our forests which has been 

 going on for at least a generation, and 

 which has reached such intensity that it 

 has become with many persons almost a 

 religion, it is strange that there should be 

 practically no knowledge to serve as a basis 

 for such a cult." 



He then proceeds to discuss by states 

 the area of woodland, noting the source of 

 the' information, and shows that the per- 

 centage of land area wooded in the states 

 along the Atlantic border varies from about 

 40 to 80: in Ohio it is 23 and in Illinois 

 18, sinking to 7 per cent, in Kansas and i 

 pei cent, in North Dakota; continuing 

 westward the percentage increases to 32 

 in Colorado; 22 in California; and 71 in 

 Washington. Taking the United States 

 as a whole, exclusive of Alaska, 37 per 

 cent, of the area of the country is wooded. 



The next, and most important fact be- 

 yond extent of woodland is the amount of 

 merchantable timber ; and here it is shown 

 that most of the estimates which have 

 found their way into print are the merest 

 guesses and not worthy of the paper on 

 which they are printed. 



A summary of the information available 

 has been brought together, giving in each 

 state the estimated merchantable timber of 

 various species in millions of feet board 

 measure. 



The consumption of timber in the United 

 States is briefly discussed from the statistics 

 obtained by the Census Office and partic- 

 ularly that of the Rocky Mountain region 

 and Pacific States. The forests of the 

 West are noted as being characterized by 

 an almost entire absence of deciduous 

 trees, the growth available for lumber be- 

 ing composed of Pines, Firs, Spruces, 

 Hemlocks, Cedars and Larches. 



Particular attention has been given to 

 the forest conditions and standing timber 

 of the State of Washington, this being, 



