THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The object of this circular is to answer, so far as present knowledge 

 permits, many questions which are constantly arising concerning the 

 extent of our forest resources, their ownership, the rate at which they 

 are being cut, and the outlook for a future timber supply. The 

 data here given have been drawn from every available source. The 

 bulk of them are based upon statistics collected by the Bureau of 

 the Census, the Forest Service, and the Geological Survey, supple- 

 mented by reports of State foresters and conservation commissions, 

 State and national. 



The statistics of the cut and value of lumber and other forest prod- 

 ucts, except naval stores, are for the year 1907, because at this writing 

 such statistics are not yet completed for 1908, and also because the 

 1908 figures in several instances, as the result of the business depres- 

 sion, are not as high as those for previous years, nor as high as they 

 will be again with the return of better times. 



The estimates of the original and present forest areas and stands 

 are at best only approximate. They are offered tentatively, and 

 any information which will make them more accurate will be gladly 

 received. Great as is the need for it, there has never been a timber 

 census of the United States, nor, with one or two exceptions, any 

 close estimate of the forest resources of any individual State. Such 

 a census must eventually be taken to furnish the basis for permanent 

 forest conservation. 



FOREST REGIONS. 



ORIGINAL FORESTS. 



The original forests of the United States exceeded in the quantity 

 and variety of their timber the forests of any other region of similar 

 size on the globe. There were Rve great forest types : the Northern, 

 Southern, Central, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Coast. Their bound- 

 aries are roughly sketched in figure 1. 



The Northern forest ran from Maine through New England, across 

 New York and most of Pennsylvania, through central and northern 

 Michigan and Wisconsin to Minnesota, with an extension along the 

 high Appalachian ridges as far southwestward as northern Georgia. 



[Cir. 166] (3) 



