FOREST CONDITIONS. 337 



proximation for all practical purposes of the 

 economist. 



The larger portion of this area of 500 million 

 acres is, however, not to be conceived as filled with 

 standing timber ready for the axe, but consists of 

 "culled" forest, which means that the merchant- 

 able timber of the better kinds has been removed 

 more or less closely. 



How nearly this assertion must be true we may 

 learn from the simple contemplation of the fact, 

 that the constantly increasing population of the 

 United States has drawn its wood supplies from 

 this area originally of less than 700 million acres, 

 without systematic attention to reproduction. If 

 we assume that the consumption per capita has 

 not been quite as large as it is now (350 cubic feet), 

 although there is not much reason for such assump- 

 tion, and add up the population annually calling 

 for such supplies since the year 1780 only, we find 

 that not less than 2,500 million people have had 

 their annual requirements satisfied ; that means a 

 total of not less than 600 to 700 billion cubic feet. 



from 31,750 square miles to about 26,904, of which nearly 50 per 

 cent is " cut over, largely burned over and waste brush lands, and 

 one-half of this as nearly desert as it can become in the climate of 

 Wisconsin.'' 



From such statements it will appear that the method of arriving 

 at the forest acreage, used by Mr. Gannett, chief geographer, in the 

 Nineteenth Report of the U. S. Geol. Survey, namely to deduct the 

 farm area of twenty years ago from the total land area, leads to no 

 useful result for purposes of the economist, 

 z 



