2 BULLETIN 153, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
61.2 per cent; m 1890, 54.4 per cent; in 1900, 39.6 per cent; in 1910, 
36.8 per cent. These figures indicate a tendency to discontinue the - 
use of land for purposes for which it is unfitted. Most of the un- 
improved farm land m the East and the Middle West is best suited 
to the growing of timber. Conditions in this region, moreover, are 
particularly favorable for fire protection, intensive management, and 
a Maximum yield. 
Timber brings the highest price, of course, where the natural supply 
is becoming scarce. In 1900 the average value of sawlogs in the 
United States was $6.28 per thousand feet, board measure; in Iowa, 
Indiana, and Ohio it was $12.16, $9.39, and $9.47, respectively. The 
higher prices in these States were due partly to local scarcity and 
partly to the fact that the timber consisted almost entirely of the 
more valuable hardwoods. . 
Lumber is manufactured usually in the locality of the standing 
timber. Wood-manufacturimg plants in some States formerly rich in 
certain kinds of timber are now compelled to obtain their raw mate- 
rial from neighboring States. At one time four-fifths of the area of 
Indiana was covered with forests of valuable hardwoods. In 1900, 
82 per cent of the lumber manufactured in that State came from 
outside. 
The price of fence posts of the more valuable species has doubled 
in some places during the last 20 years. To what extent the price 
will continue to advance is difficult to say, because of the introduction 
of preservative treatments for the poorer, cheaper kinds of timbers, 
making them fully as useful as the higher grade timbers untreated, 
and also because of the increasing use of concrete posts. Wooden 
posts will always be needed for temporary fences, however, and many 
farmers will undoubtedly always prefer them for permanent ones be- 
cause of their ight weight. A farm of 160 acres requires annually 
75 to 100 posts for the repair of fences and often additional ones for 
temporary fences. A small plantation of trees suitable for fence 
posts appears, then, to be a very desirable farm asset. 
Another class of forest products for a timber plantation is that of 
cordwood for domestic use and for sale. The annual consumption 
of cordwood in the United States to-day is about 86,000,000 cords.* 
In large cities—those of 30,000 inhabitants or more—at the present _ 
day, the average value of firewood is about $7 per cord, and in cities 
of 1,000 to 30,000 population this value averages about $4 per cord. 
A number of the States, through demonstration areas and the 
distribution of stock free of charge or at cost, are taking active steps 
to encourage forest planting. Sixteen States” have sought further ~ 
i Forest Service Circular 181. 
2 Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New 
Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyomine. 
