1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



This action is due chiefly to the failing 

 of the natural supply of this material in 

 all but the newer portions of the United 

 States. About one million acres of tim- 

 ber are consumed annually by railroads in 

 building and repairing, and, at the present 

 rate of timber depletion, the increased 

 cost of such material will soon be a serious 

 factor in railroad economy. The Santa 

 Fe line has already done some experimen- 

 tal planting, and the results have done 

 much to stimulate interest. This road 

 planted 1280 acres in Catalpas fifteen years 

 ago. The total expense was $128,000; 

 but it is estimated by the railroad officials 

 that in ten years more the tract will have 

 produced $2,560,000 worth of poles, ties 

 and posts. 



Having become convinced of the neces- 

 sity of growing their own timber, the 

 railroads naturally wish to take advantage 

 of the assistance offered by the govern- 

 ment to tree planters, which consists of 

 expert advice, and of the working plans 

 for planting, based on personal examina- 

 tion. The object of the government is to 

 demonstrate the value of tree plantations 

 to land owners, especially those in the 

 treeless regions of the West. 



Wooded Area of the United States. 



The former official estimate of the 

 wooded area of the United States, placed 

 at 26 per cent., has been raised to 37 per 

 cent, by the latest computations of the 

 Division of Geography and Forestry of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey. That office 

 has issued a bulletin containing new figures 

 on American forests, some of which tend 

 to prove the national timber resources 

 greater than is supposed. 



The two latest states to be examined are 

 Oregon and Washington. The former is 

 estimated to contain 234,653 million feet, 

 B.M., in standing timber; the latter, 114,- 

 778 million feet. Destruction by fire has 

 been exceedingly serious in Washington. 

 On the assumption that the burned areas 

 contained on an average as much timber 

 as the untouched portion, 40,000 million 

 feet have been destroyed since lumbering 

 began. This amount would supply all 

 the sawmills of the United States for two 



years, and, at a value of only 75 cents a 

 thousand, means a dead loss in the State 

 of $30,000,000. The amount actually 

 logged in the same period has been 36,000 

 million feet, making the estimate by the 

 same comparison of areas. Oregon has 

 suffered less from both fire and lumbering, 

 owing to the smaller facilities for market- 

 ing the product. 



A Study of Forest Fires. 



Investigation of the causes, effects and 

 means of prevention of forest fires in the 

 West, will be carried on this summer in 

 Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, 

 New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, 

 Montana, Idaho, South Dakota. Besides 

 field study, designed chiefly to discover 

 means of preventing the evil, the Division 

 is making a historic record of all impor- 

 tant fires which have occurred in the Uni- 

 ted States since 1754. Although incom- 

 plete as yet, this indicates that the annual 

 recorded loss by forest burnings in the 

 United States is, at the very lowest, $20,- 

 000,000. It will probably run far above 

 this sum, as the Pacific coast states have 

 been only partially examined. 



Accounts of over 5500 disastrous fires 

 have been obtained in the seventeen states 

 already examined. Michigan, Minnesota, 

 and Wisconsin have suffered the most 

 severely. These records are taken chiefly 

 from newspapers, and where it has been 

 possible to compare them with the figures 

 of practical lumbermen, it has been found 

 that the tendency of the press is to under- 

 estimate the damage. 



Cooperation in Scientific Research. 



A system of cooperation for the coming 

 summer has been arranged between the 

 Division of Forestry and the forest reserve 

 work of the U. S. Geological Survey, of 

 the Department of the Interior. Field 

 parties of each division will collect in- 

 formation desired by the other division, 

 and, in some instances, exchange of men 

 may be made. This system marks a dis- 

 tinct change from conditions of a few 

 years ago, when there was sharp rivalry 

 between the scientific branches of the 

 Government service. 



