FACTS AND FIGURES IN RESPECT TO THE FORESTS OF THE COUNTRY AND THEIR - PDF document

PROCEEDINGS OF THE A MERICAN F ORESTRY C ONGRESS AT ITS MEETING HELD IN BOSTON, SEPTEMBER 1885 WASHINGTON DC JUDD & DETWILLER, PRINTERS

FACTS AND FIGURES IN RESPECT TO THE FORESTS OF THE COUNTRY AND THEIR CONSUMPTION BY N.H. EGLESTON, Chief of the Division of Forestry, Department of Agriculture, Washington. The census of 1880 embodies the results of the first attempt by the Government to accretion the extent and character of the forests of the country as a whole. No previous census had undertaken to do more than to take note of the forests embraced in and forming a part of the farms. The volume prepared under the direction of Professor Sargent is a most valuable compendium of information, and will often be resorted to a treasury of facts in regard to the forest condition of the country. Of course it is could not be, a complete account of the subject. The field of inquiry is too large and other sources of information are too limited at present to make this possible. Estimates must often be made where exact information cannot be obtained. In the prosecution of its work the Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture has been endeavoring from year to year to ascertain such additional facts as would enable it to present a more complete view of the condition of the country in respect to its forests than it had been possible to give before. To insure the utmost accuracy the estimates made by the Division, from the reports of its agents and all other sources of information, have been submitted for verification or correction to the governors or other officers of the several States and Territories, and the result arrived is given in the accompanying table: In this table, in order to show the comparative extent of forest, only the land area available for use as farm or forest is given. The land occupied by towns and cities and that covered by large bodies of water, such as lakes, is excluded. Our whole available land surface, therefore, Alaska being left out of consideration, is 1,860,070,400 acres. The total forest area is 479,080,000 acres. The total farm area is 301,000,000. Of unimproved and waste lands, including "old fields," there are 1,082,018,980 acres. In regard to the consumption of our forests, we have some very significant, if not startling, figures. We had in 1884, as reported in Poor's Manual of Railroads, 160,497 miles of track. The average number of ties used for each mile is 2,640, which would make the whole number used 413,152,080. As the roads generally demand the best timber, choosing young, thrifty trees, which will not commonly make more than two ties each, not more than one hundred ties can ordinarily be cut from an acre of timber land. though with proper cultivation the yield should be much larger. To build the existing roads, then, has required the available timber on 4,131,520 acres. The average duration of ties is seven years. To keep the existing roads in repair, therefore, will require 59,021,700 ties, or the product of 590,217 acres. The average length of new road built every year is about 5,000 miles, requiring 13,200,000 ties, or the timber of 132,000 acres. If we allow twenty-five rears as the time necessary for trees to attain a size suitable for making tics, then it would require the annual growth of 14,755,425 acres to keep good the existing roads, and 3,300,000 to supply the annual demand for new roads, to say nothing of keeping the latter in repair; so that we need to hold in reserve not less than 18,000,000 acres of woodland for the maintenance of the road-beds of our rail- roads, aside from the additional demand for the building of cars, bridges, depots, and platforms. In other words, it would require the timber growing on an area larger than the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, rind Rhode Island corn tined. The census also reports that in 1880 forest fires consumed the trees on 10,274,089 acres, or an area equal to that of Massachusetts and New Jersey. The consumption of our forests for the supply of fuel for factories, locomotives, steamboats, stores, and dwellings requires the product of not less than 6,500,000 acres annually. The estimated cut of lumber last rear would lay bare 5,000,000 acres. All other products of the forest, such as hewn timber, posts, telegraph poles, and miscellaneous articles, of which we have no definite reports, it may reasonably be supposed would clear 4,260,000 acres- making in all 27,410,306 acres of woodland. Making an allowance of 10 per cent, for any possible over-estimate, we still have 25,000,000 acres as the annual consumption of our forests, or 68,493

for every passing day. This would clear the State of Rhode Island, if it were entirely wooded, in ten days, or the States of Kentucky or Virginia in a single year. We may well inquire, and ask the country to inquire with us, most earnestly, What can be done to lessen this drain upon our forests, by the prevention of the needless destruction occasioned by fires- two-fifths of all- land by a more economical use of those products of the forest which are legitimately called for?

Forests, Farms, Unimproved and Waste Land in the United States Unimproved and Land area* Forest area Farm area Waste Land State % forest Acres Alabama 32,985,600 17,500,000 7,000,000 8,485,600 53.1 Arizona 72,268,800 10,000,000 100,000 62,168,800 13.8 Arkansas 33,948,800 20,000,000 6,500,000 7,448,800 58.9 California 99,827,200 20,000,000 11,000,000 68,827,200 20 Colorado 66,332,800 8,000,000 700,000 57,632,800 12.1 Connecticut 3,100,800 650,000 1,700,000 750,800 21 Dakota 94,528,000 3,000,000 6,700,000 84,828,000 3 Delaware 1,254,400 300,000 800,000 154,400 23.9 Florida 34,713,600 20,000,000 4,000,000 10,713,600 57.6 Georgia 37,747,200 18,000,000 8,500,000 11,247,200 47.7 Idaho 53,945,600 10,000,000 300,000 43,645,600 18.5 Illinois 35,840,000 3,500,000 26,500,000 5,840,000 9.8 Indiana 22,982,400 4,500,000 14,000,000 4,482,400 19.6 Iowa 35,504,000 2,300,000 20,000,000 13,204,000 12.7 Kansas 52,288,000 3,500,000 11,000,000 37,788,000 6.7 Kentucky 25,600,000 12,800,000 11,000,000 1,800,000 50 Louisiana 29,068,800 13,000,000 3,000,000 13,068,800 44.6 Maine 19,132,800 12,000,000 3,500,000 3,632,800 62.7 Maryland 6,310,400 2,000,000 3,400,000 910,400 31.7 Massachusetts 5,145,600 1,000,000 2,200,000 1,945,600 19.6 Michigan 36,755,200 14,000,000 7,500,000 15,255,200 38.1 Minnesota 50,591,200 22,000,000 7,300,000 21,291,200 43.4 Mississippi 29,657,000 13,000,000 5,300,000 11,357,000 44 Missouri 43,990,400 16,000,000 17,000,000 10,990,400 36.4 Montana 92,998,000 25,000,000 1,400,000 66,598,000 26.9 Nebraska 48,758,400 1,300,000 6,000,000 41,458,400 3.1 Nevada 70,233,600 2,000,000 500,000 67,733,600 2.8 New Hampshire 5,763,200 3,000,000 2,350,000 413,200 52 New Jersey 4,771,200 2,330,000 2,100,000 341,200 48.8 New Mexico 78,375,400 8,000,000 300,000 70,075,400 10.2 New York 30,476,800 8,000,000 18,000,000 4,476,800 26.2 North Carolina 31,091,200 18,000,000 700,000 12,391,200 57.9 Ohio 26,086,400 4,500,000 18,200,000 3,386,400 17.3 Oregon 60,518,400 20,000,000 3,000,000 37,518,400 33 Pennsylvania 28,790,400 7,000,000 13,500,000 8,290,400 24.3 Rhode Island 694,400 200,000 300,000 194,400 28.8 South Carolina 19,308,800 9,000,000 4,500,000 5,808,800 46.6 Tennessee 26,720,000 11,000,000 8,500,000 7,220,000 41.2 Texas 167,865,600 40,000,000 13,000,000 114,865,600 23.2 Utah 52,601,600 4,000,000 500,000 48,101,600 7.6 Vermont 5,846,400 1,900,000 3,300,000 646,400 32.5 Virginia 25,680,000 13,000,000 9,000,000 3,680,000 50.6 Washington 42,803,200 20,000,000 500,000 22,303,200 44.3 West Virginia 15,772,800 9,000,000 4,000,000 2,772,800 57 Wisconsin 34,848,000 17,000,000 1,500,000 16,348,000 48.8 Wyoming 62,448,000 7,800,000 100,000 54,548,000 10.9 The United States 1,855,970,400 479,080,000 290,250,000 1,086,640,400 26.4 * Total areas are exclusive of lakes and land embraced in cities.