2 BULLETIN 153, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



61.2 per cent; in 1890, 54.4 per cent; in 1900, 39.6 per cent; in 1910, 

 36.8 per cent. These figures indicate a tendency to discontinue the 

 use of land for purposes for which it is unfitted. Most of the un- 

 improved farm land in the East and the Middle West is best suited 

 to the growing of timber. Conditions in this region, moreover, are 

 particularly favorable for fire protection, intensive management, and 

 a maximum yield. 



Timber brings the highest price, of course, where the natural supply 

 is becoming scarce. In 1900 the average value of sawlogs in the 

 United States was S6.28 per thousand feet, board measure; in Iowa, 

 Indiana, and Ohio it was $12.16, S9.39, and $9.47, respectively. The 

 higher prices in these States were due partly to local scarcity and 

 partly to the fact that the timber consisted almost entirely of the 

 more valuable hardwoods. 



Lumber is manufactured usually in the locality of the standing 

 timber. Wood-manufacturing plants in some States formerly rich in 

 certain kinds of timber are now compelled to obtain their raw mate- 

 rial from neighboring States. At one time four-fifths of the area of 

 Indiana was covered with forests of valuable hardwoods. In 1900, 

 82 per cent of the lumber manufactured in that State came from 

 outside. 



The price of fence posts of the more valuable species has doubled 

 in some places during the last 20 years. To what extent the price 

 will continue to advance is difficult to say, because of the introduction 

 of preservative treatments for the poorer, cheaper kinds of timbers, 

 making them fully as useful as the higher grade timbers untreated, 

 and also because of the increasing use of concrete posts. Wooden 

 posts will always be needed for temporary fences, however, and many 

 farmers will undoubtedly always prefer them for permanent ones be- 

 cause of their light weight. A farm of 160 acres requires annually 

 75 to 100 posts for the repair of fences and often additional ones for 

 temporary fences. A small plantation of trees suitable for fence 

 posts appears, then, to be a very desirable farm asset. 



Another class of forest products for a timber plantation is that of 

 cordwood for domestic use and for sale. The annual consumption 

 of cordwood in the United States to-day is about 86,000,000 cords. 1 

 In large cities — those of 30,000 inhabitants or more — at the present 

 day, the average value of firewood is about $7 per cord, and in cities 

 of 1,000 to 30,000 population this value averages about $4 per cord. 



A number of the States, through demonstration areas and the 

 distribution of stock free of charge or at cost, are taking active steps 

 to encourage forest planting. Sixteen States 2 have sought further 



1 Forest Service Circular 181. 



3 Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New 

 Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhoae Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyomine- 



