474 APPENDIX. 



somewhat below 500 million acres ; that nearly 450 million 

 acres are open country which is presumably incapable of pro- 

 ducing any valuable forest growth on account of climatic defi- 

 ciencies, leaving a balance of over 500 million acres as waste 

 and brush land, of which at least three-fifths have been 

 made so by the combined efforts of axe and fire. 



The territorial distribution of the forest area may be broadly 

 defined as follows : — 



(i) The Atlantic forest, covering mountains and valleys in 

 the east, reaching westward to the Mississippi River and 

 beyond to the Indian Territory and south into Texas, an 

 area of about 1,361,330 square miles, mostly of mixed 

 growth, hardwoods and conifers, with here and there large 

 areas of coniferous growth alone — a vast and continuous 

 forest. 



(2) The mountain forest of the west, or Pacific forest, cov- 

 ering the higher elevations below timber line of the Rocky 

 Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Coast Range, which may be 

 estimated at 181,015 square miles, almost exclusively of 

 coniferous growth, of enormous development on the northern 

 Pacific coast, more or less scattered in the interior and to the 

 south. 



(3) The prairies, plains, lower elevations, and valleys of 

 the west, with a scattered tree growth, on which, whether 

 from climatic, geologic, or other causes, forest growth is con- 

 fined mostly to the river bottoms or other favorable situations, 

 an area of about 1,427,655 square miles, of which 276,965 

 square miles may be considered under forest cover of decidu- 

 ous species east of the Rockies and of coniferous and deciduous 

 species in the west of this divide. 



The maps to be found in the reports of the Forestry Di- 

 vision, United States Department of Agriculture, for 1893, 

 and in the oft-cited H. R. Doc. 181, give an idea of the rela- 

 tive location of these forest areas and their economic value. 

 Volume XI. Part 3 of the Twelfth Census contains not only 

 a very detailed and full elaboration of the statistics of the 



