THE USE OF WOOD FOR FUEL. 3 
haul for wood. For similar reasons domestic consumers in the cities 
can not well use wood to any great extent. Wholesale rail trans- 
portation of fuel wood is not desirable because of its bulk as com- 
pared with coal of the same heating value. The substitution can best 
be made in places where team-hauled wood will take the place of 
rail-hauled coal. Farmers who own woodlands and villagers who 
can buy wood from near-by farms can reduce their consumption of 
coal with least inconvenience to themselves and with the greatest 
benefit to the public interest. 
Because of the large proportion of wood normally used in the 
South and the long hauls involved in the West it is not likely that 
the use of wood for fuel can be greatly increased in those regions. 
In New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and the Lake States it ought to be 
entirely practicable in many cases to replace coal with wood. In 
these 17 States is a rural population of about 20,000,000, which is 
estimated to use annually 18,000,000 tons of coal. If by substituting 
wood one-quarter less coal could be burned on farms and one-tenth 
less in villages, the total saving would amount to nearly 3,000,000 
tons, or between 65,000 and 70,000 carloads. 
For many uses, and particularly for summer-time use, wood is a 
more convenient and cheaper fuel than coal. Churches, halls, summer 
cottages, and other buildings where heat is wanted only occasionally, 
and then on short notice, find wood more satisfactory for this 
purpose. | 
PRESENT USE OF WOOD FUEL. 
Up to the present time practically no systematic attempt has 
been made to take a census of the wood fuel cut or on hand each year. 
Wood seems to be the only form of fuel on which annual statistics 
of production are not available. 
In 1916 and 1917 the Bureau of Crop Estimates in the Department 
of Agriculture secured estimates of the number of cords used on the 
farms but not the total amount cut. It is understood that in 1918 
the amount sold from the farm annually will be obtained also, thus 
showing the total cut. 
According to figures collected by the Bureau of Crop Estimates - 
(see Table 1) about 83,000,000 cords of wood fuel were used in 1917 
on the farms of the United States. Similar estimates made in 
December, 1916, indicated that about 82,000,000 cords were used. 
It is likely that the total amount consumed on farms and in villages 
and cities is upwards of 100,000,000 cords annually. In these esti- 
mates, and in all other references to “cord” in this bulletin, unless 
otherwise stated, a cord is reckoned as 128 stacked cubic feet—i. e., a 
pile 8 by 4 by 4 feet. 
