HULEE ER OF’ PFE 
CS) USDEPARTIENTOPAGRCULURE 
No. 153 
Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester. 
January 28, 1915. 
FOREST PLANTING IN THE EASTERN UNITED 
_ STATES. 
By C. R. Trttotson, Forest Examiner. 
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FOREST PLANTING. 
Nearly every farm includes one or more pieces of land which can 
be more profitably planted to timber than to an agricultural crop. 
Such an area may be some small corner not easily accessible, or else 
a piece of poor, sandy, _ 3 
swampy, or worn-out land, Z 
or it may be an old woodlot i 
in poor condition and not 
fully stocked with growing |( Y 
timber. ess 
The 1910 census shows 
that the average farm in the 
United States contains 138 
acres, of which 75 are re- 
corded as improved and 63 
as unimproved, the latter 
consisting of ‘‘woodland”’ 
and ‘‘all other unimproved land.”’+ The woodland and other unim- 
proved land covers the enormous total area of 400,346,000 acres. 
Of this nearly 245,000,000 acres are in the States east of Texas and 
the Rocky Mountains, about 175,000,000 acres of which are in wood- 
lots. There remain about 70,000,000 acres of unforested and un- 
improved land in this eastern portion of the country, most of it best 
suited for growing timber. This area will be reduced by drainmg 
the swamp lands potentially adapted to agricultural crops, but will 
be increased by the addition of lands becoming worn out and unfit for 
growing field crops. 
Since 1870-in New England the proportion of improved farm land 
has gradually declined as follows: In 1870, 61.3 per cent; in 1880, 
Fig. 1.—Sketch map of the United States, the shaded area 
showing section studied in this bulletin. 
1‘ Woodland” includes all land covered with natural or planted forest trees which produce, or later may 
produce, firewood or other forest products. ‘ All other unimproved lands ” includes brush land, rough 
or stony land, swampy land, and any other not improved or in forest. 
Note.—This bulletin is of interest to landowners throughout the northeastern United States, as shown 
by the shaded portion of the sketch map on this page. 
60370°—Bull. 153—15 1 
