8 BULLETIN 55, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
This estimate is undoubtedly very crude, but even a crude estimate 
seems better than none. 
Only within the last four or five years have any records been kept 
of the cut of balsam fir for various purposes. Growing with spruce, 
and being used for the same purposes, it always went under the name 
of spruce. 
According to the census reports for 1909, the total lumber cut of bal- 
sam fir for the United States for 1909 1 amounted to 108,702,000feet, and 
according to the census report for 1910, 132,362 cords, or 66,181,000 
board feet, for pulp. The total annual cut of balsam fir in the 
United States at present is about 175,000,000 board feet. At this 
rate, the present stand, not counting the increment, will last for 
about 30 years. 
MAINE. 
In Maine, balsam fir is most common in the eastern part of the 
State, especially in the big flat country at the head of the St . John and 
Penobscot Rivers and their tributaries, and along the coast for about 
10 miles inland, where it constitutes nearly one-fifth of the coniferous 
forests. In the western part of the State, along the Androscoggin 
and Kennebec Rivers, its proportion in the forest is comparatively 
small. 
From actual measurements by the Forest Service, extended over 
many hundred acres and upon estimates obtained from persons most 
familiar with the Maine forests, it is safe to assume that balsam fir 
constitutes in volume for the whole State not less than 15 per cent 
of the spruce stand. Based upon an estimate by the Maine forest 
commissioner in his annual report for 1902, which gives the present 
stand of spruce as 21,239,000,000 feet, the present stand of balsam fir 
in Maine approximates 3,000,000,000 board feet. 
Replies to circular letters sent out in 1903 by the Forest Service 
to all saw and pulp mills in Maine, regarding the use of balsam fir, 
justify the conclusion that about 70,000,000 board feet of this species 
is being cut annually for pulp and lumber. This estimate is con- 
firmed by the statistics of the Bureau of the Census, which show that 
in 1910, 32,861 cords, or approximately 16,500,000 board feet, 2 of 
balsam fir was cut for pulp in Maine, and that in 1909 nearly 
50,500,000 board feet was cut for lumber. This would make the 
total annual cut of balsam fir in Maine about 67,000,000 board feet. 
The amount of balsam fir used by the sawmills appears to be pro- 
portionately larger than the amount used by the pulp mills. This is 
undoubtedly due to the great amount of spruce used for pulp. Pulp 
1 The total cut of balsam fir for lumber in 1910 was 74,580,000 board feet, but this figure does not include 
the cut in the State of New York, and therefore is incomplete For this reason the figures for 1909 were 
used. 
2 In converting cords into board feet, 2 cords are taken to be equal to 1,000 board feet. 
