WHAT WE HAVE. 5 
ber of forest-fed live stock can not be given. But notably in the 
southern pine belt and in the southern mountains, live-stock owners, 
especially small holders, turn out their sheep, cattle, and hogs in the 
forests for the larger part of each year. 
That the existence of nearly all kinds of wild game depends directly 
upon the conservation of the forest is well known. The deer killed in 
six States alone in the Northeast represents each year a food value of 
over $1,000,000. The raw furs exported yearly from the United 
States are worth $7,000,000 to $8,000,000, and raw furs worth in the 
ageregate still more are kept for manufacture here. Most of these 
furs are taken from forest animals. Relatively few kinds of fresh- 
water fish, and mainly those of inferior food value, will endure in 
streams fed from denuded watersheds. 
WHAT WE HAVE. 
Our forests now cover 550,000,000 acres, or about one-fourth of the United 
States. The original forests covered not less than 850,000,000 acres. 
Forests publicly owned contain one-fifth of all timber standing. Forests pri- 
vately owned contain at least four-fifths of the standing timber. The timber 
privately owned is not only four times that publicly owned, but it is generally 
more valuable. 
Forestry is now practiced on 70 per cent of the forests publicly owned and on 
less than 1 per cent of the forests privately owned, or on only 18 per cent of 
the total area of forests. 
. The orginal forests of the United States contained timber in quan- 
tity and variety far beyond that upon any other area of similar size 
in the world. They covered 850,000,000 acres, with a stand of not less 
than 5,200,000,000,000 board feet of merchantable timber, according 
to present standards of use. There were five great forest regions— 
the northern, the southern, the central, the Rocky Mountain, and the 
Pacific. 
The northern forest was the home of the white pine. With it grew 
red pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, balsam fir, and several hardwoods. 
Before clearing and logging began, the northern forest probably cov- 
ered 150,000,000 acres, and contained not less than 1,000,000,000,000 
board feet. In the southern forest the yellow pines were the most 
common trees, with hardwoods on the better soils and cypress in the 
swamps. The southern forest probably covered 220,000,000 acres and 
contained at least 1,000,000,000,000 board feet. The central forest 
was nearly all hardwoods, among which the more important were 
oak, yellow poplar, elm, hickory, chestnut, red gum, ash, and walnut. 
Its area was about 280,000,000 acres and its stand 1,400,000,000,000 
board feet. The Rocky Mountain forest was coniferous and grew 
mainly upon the mountains. Western yellow pine was the most com- 
mon tree, with lodgepole pine, larch, spruce, western red cedar, west- 
[Cir. 171] 
