3^4 



Forest Areas in United States. 



Forest Areas of the United States. 



A report recently presented by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to the House of Representatives contain, 

 a review of the forest conditions of the United States, from 

 which the following details of the forest areas of that country 

 have been abstracted. 



The natural forest area of the United States may be 

 divided into three principal divisions. First, the Atlantic 

 forest, covering mountains and valleys in the east, reaching 

 westward to the Mississippi river, and beyond to the 

 Indian Territory, and south into Texas, an area of about 

 1,361,000 square miles, mostly of mixed growth, hard woods, 

 and conifers, with here and there large areas of coniferous 

 growth alone. Second, the Pacific or Mountain forest 

 of the west, covering the higher elevations of the Rocky 

 Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Coast Range, which may 

 be estimated at 181,015 square miles, almost exclusively 

 of coniferous growth. Third, the prairies, plains, and 

 lower elevations and valleys of the west, with a 

 scattered tree grow th, chiefly confined to the river bottoms 

 and other favourable situations, covering an area of about 

 1,428,000 square miles, of which 277,000 square miles may 

 be considered under forest cover. 



These vast areas of natural forest land have, of course, 

 been materially diminished by the settlement of agricultural 

 lands, which necessitated the removal of the forest from about 

 250 million acres, and also by two other causes, viz., forest 

 fires and wood consumption . The larger amount of wood 

 products is not secured by clearing lands, but mostly 

 by cutting the best kinds and the best individual trees from 

 the virgin forest, so that at least a wood growth, more or 

 less valuable, continues to occupy the ground. Many of these 

 areas are, however, so severely cut that they are of no economic 

 value, especially when, as is often the case, fires follow the 

 operations of the lumbermen, and the old timber and the young 

 growth are destroyed, and the ground is occupied by weeds 

 and useless brush. No accurate information is, however, avail- 



