172 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 
the truth is that the original forest area comprised 850,- 
000,000 acres, 300,000,000 having been cleared to date, 
and already we have burned and used 2,700,000,000,000 
board feet—200,000,000,000 feet more than is now 
standing—since the Colonists landed on the Virginia 
coast. The American forests, rich as they are, are by 
no means inexhaustible. Of this area, three-fourths, 
containing four-fifths of all the standing timber, is 
privately owned, so that the future timber supply is 
largely in the hands of the individual lumberman. Real- 
izing that the future citizens will need forest products 
the Federal Government has set aside the one hundred 
and fifty-five national forests, containing approximately 
165,000,000 acres. This vast area administered by the 
Forest Service contains approximately 600,000,000,000 
board feet of lumber, has a total cash value of nearly 
$2,000,000,000 and is open to the freest possible use. 
Over one million dollars’ worth of timber is sold each 
year; one-sixth of the total meat supply grazes for a 
portion of the year within the forest boundaries, farnt 
homesteads and mining claims can be acquired under 
suitable regulations, hunters and campers have free 
access and in short every part of the forest is put to its 
best permanent use. 
Thirty-three States have forestry departments and 
the total area of State forests amounts to 3,426,000 
acres. In addition to the regular forestry departments 
there are two hundred and thirty-one local forestry or- 
ganizations and forty-two associations for the protection 
of timber land. There are ninety-seven forests, owned 
and operated for the benefit of cities and towns; no less 
than sixty-three State forest experiment stations and 
twenty-three institutions of college standing give de- 
grees in forestry. 
