338 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



Taking into consideration the wasteful use of tim- 

 ber, — the log-rolling fires in clearing for farm use, 

 owing to the lack of market, — we may assume that 

 less than half of this consumption was secured 

 from these farm areas, the other part necessitating 

 the culling of certainly 300 million acres, so that 

 hardly 200 million acres containing merchantable 

 timber may remain, even if we make allowance 

 for aftergrowth. Comparing this probability cal- 

 culation with the amount of standing timber, given 

 on page 52, as an extravagant estimate, this area 

 would have to contain an average of 10,000 feet 

 B.M., or 2000 cubic feet of such wood as we 

 use, which is not likely to be the case, or at least 

 questionable. 



This area, moreover, is continually reduced by 

 fire and by clearing for farm purposes, as the 

 change of improved farm areas in the forested 

 states from census year to census year shows, 

 namely, an increase of about 25 million acres each 

 decade in round figures. Some abandoned farms 

 in New England, and in the South, to be sure, 

 are gradually returning to forest growth, but these 

 additions are small in proportion to the farm in- 

 crease. Nevertheless, taking the forested area 

 actually grown or growing to timber, in good, bad, 

 or indifferent condition, it represents in the forest 

 country of the Atlantic side still 40 to 45 per 

 cent of the total land area, while about 20 to 25 

 per cent may be set down as waste lands. 



