STATEMENTS BEFORE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES AND IN ANSWER TO SENATE RESOLUTIONS.

Statement on the relation of irrigation problems to forest conditions by B. E. Fernow, before Special Senate Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands. Fifty-first Congress, first session. Senate Report No. 928, vol. 4, 1890. Pp. 112-124.

Statements in Report No. 1002, Fifty-second Congress, first session. (To accompany S. 3235) "to provide for the establishment, protection, and administration of public forest reservation, and for other purposes." Pp. 12. 1892.

Senate Document No. 172, Fifty-third Congress, second session. Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture . . . transmitting information in relation to investigations and experiments in the planting of native pine seed in the sand hills of the Northwest. Pp. 14. 8. 1894.

Statements in House Report No. 1442, Fifty-third Congress, second session. Investigations and Tests of American Timbers. P'p. 4. 1894.

Statements in House Report No. 897. Public Forest Reservations. Pp. 23. 1894. Statement of B. E. Fernow, Chief of Forestry Division, to the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, [in support of H. R. 8389, and H. R. 8390, providing for forestry schools] February 16, 1895. Pp 4.

Senate Document No. 40, Fifty-fifth Congress, first session: White Pine Timber Supplies. Statement prepared by the chief of the division. Letter of the Secretary of Agriculture. Pp. 21. 1897.

C. FORESTS AND FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES.

The following brief account of the forest conditions of the United States; of the trees of economic value which compose its forests; of the materials in kind and quantity which they furnish; and of the status of the movement for the introduction of forestry principles in their use, is brought together mainly from scattered data published by the Division of Forestry and from other sources.

ORIGINAL CONDITION OF FOREST AREAS.

The territorial distribution of forest areas in the United States, and indeed on the whole continent, can be divided with more or less precision into three grand divisions:

(1) 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 1,361,330 square miles, mostly of mixed growth, hard woods and conifers, with here and there large areas of coniferous growth alone-a vast and continuous forest.

(2) The mountain forest of the West, or Pacific forest, covering the higher elevations below timber line of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Coast Range, which may be estimated at 181,015 square miles, almost exclusively of coniferous growth, of enormous development on the northern Pacific coast, more or less scattered in the interior and to the south.

(3) The prairies, plains, lower elevations, and valleys of the West, with a scattered tree growth, on which, whether from climatic, geologic, or other causes, forest growth is confined mostly to the river bottoms or other favorable situations, an area of about 1,427,655 square miles, of which 276,965 square miles may be considered under forest cover of deciduous species east of the Rockies and of coniferous and deciduous species in the west of this divide.

Until the present century, in fact until nearly the last half of it, the activity of man on this continent has practically been confined to the eastern portion, which, as stated, was originally covered with a dense or at least continuous forest. The substructure of the entire civilization of the United States was hewn out of these primeval woodlands.

Out of the vast virgin forest area of the eastern half of the country there have been cleared for farm use during this time 250,000,000 acres, or 400,000 square miles, leaving about 961,330 square miles covered actually or nominally with forest growth or waste.

Timber being a great obstacle to the settlement of the land, and the market for it until recently being confined and limited, a large amount had to be wasted and disposed of in the log pile, where the flames made quick work of the scrub as well as of the finest walnut trees.

The settlement of the western mountain country, although emigration to Oregon began in 1842, assumed proportions of practical importance only when the gold fever took many travelers over the plains and mountains to California in 1849 and the following years. If only the legitimate need of the population of this region for cleared land and for timber had made drafts upon the forest resources, the change in forest conditions would have been insignificant, but the recklessness which the carelessness of pioneer life and seemingly inexhaustible resources engender has resulted in the absolute destruction by fire of many thousand square miles of forest growth and the deterioration in quality and future promise of as many thousands more.

The third region, the so-called "treeless area," has experienced, since the advent of the white settlers and the driving out of the Indians, changes which are almost marvelous. The prairies were reached by settlers in any considerable number only as late as the third and fourth decades

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of this century, but they and their successors have not only occupied a farm area of 80,000,000 productive acres, but they have also dotted the open country with groves, smaller or larger, either by planting them or, by keeping out fire and cattle, aiding the natural reforestation.

PRESENT CONDITION.

The requirements of the settlement of agricultural lands, then, have necessitated the removal of the forest from about 250,000,000 acres. But in addition two other causes-fire and wood consumption-have reduced the really forest-bearing area still further. While the larger amount of wood products is not secured by clearing lands, but mostly by culling the virgin forest of the best kinds and the best individual trees, so that at least a woodgrowth more or less valuable continues to occupy the ground, many of these areas are so severely culled that they are of no economic value. Especially when, as is often the case, fires follow the operations of the lumbermen, not only the old timber and the young growth, but the mold, the fertility of the soil, a product of centuries of decaying vegetation, is also destroyed and the ground is occupied by weeds and useless brush. If left to itself and no fires recurring, these wastes may again become valuable forests, but this recuperation will take generations if not centuries before an economic value attaches to the area. Thus in Wisconsin, as we will see further on, at least 4,000,000 acres have been turned into veritable desert by these processes.

It will be readily understood that if we consider forests from the economic point of view as woodlands either containing or promising for the future wood of useful kinds, not merely tree weeds and brush, we must classify and distinguish with more precision than merely into farm and forest.

The farm areas are ascertained by the census. But of the balance of areas we have no precise knowledge as to its condition, whether virgin and valuable forest growth or a useless and more than useless brush growth occupies them, preventing reestablishment of desirable growth, or whether it is waste, but open country.

Not only should we know the timber areas which contain supplies ready for the ax and for present consumption, but in the so-called second growth we must distinguish the areas which promise new supplies of value and those brush lands which are not only not growing a new timber crop, but, on the contrary, prevent the growth of timber and will for generations to come be mere waste lands.

The census authorities have never had a conception of these differences, hence we are without precise knowledge of the condition of things. It is to be hoped that for the next census, in the year 1900, provision will be made to arrive at this knowledge with some precision, under such a plan as outlined in Bulletin 16 of the Division of Forestry, the results of which for the State of Wisconsin appear at the end of this report.

Meanwhile, a canvass of the available information has enabled the Division of Forestry to estimate the present conditions (1893), as represented by the following tabulation, giving the approximated relation of improved land, forest, and waste land:

NOTE. The authority for the area of improved farm land is furnished by the census of 1890. The areas of forest, brush, and waste lands were ascertained by subtracting the area of cultivated land from the total land areas of the several States, and are placed as per cent of the total areas in column 4. The part of these supposed to be forest is estimated on information obtained by various agencies. For the western section of the country the further subdivision into forest, brush, and open country is based partly on statistics gathered by Colonel Ensign and published in Bulletin 2 of the Division of Forestry, and partly on the map republished from the report of the Division for 1892. These figures would indicate that, in round numbers, less than 350,000,000 acres are turned into farm lands, more than two-thirds of which was hewn out of the forest; that the productive area of forest growth, by no means all virgin, falls somewhat below 500,000,000 acres; that nearly 450,000,000 acres are open country, which is presumably incapable of producing any valuable forest growth on account of climatic deficiencies, leaving a balance of over 600,000,000 acres as waste and brush land, of which at least three-fourths have been made so by the combined efforts of ax and tire.

It will appear astonishing to those who have not paid attention to the question of the settlement of this country to learn from the above table that while of the total country only 18 per cent is improved, and for every acre of farm land in the forested country we have destroyed nearly three acres of forest growth, the better developed eastern part (east of Colorado) shows only 29 per cent improved, and even the long-settled Atlantic coast, which we are apt to consider fully occupied, still possesses 65 per cent of unimproved land, of which we estimate 43 per cent as woodland, while the percentage of woodland for the whole country is 26. There would be woodland enough to satisfy our needs for many decades if attention were but paid to its rational use and to the recuperation of the cut-over areas; but the condition of the wooded areas, which have been culled, is well known to be so poor, as far as market supplies are concerned, that for generations to come they must be left out of consideration.

The accompanying map (Pl. I) shows by various grades of color the approximate relative proportion of forest to total area, and the character of the merchantable kinds of lumber that are derived from the different regions is indicated.

A second map (Pl. II) shows more in detail the condition of that section of the country west of the ninety-seventh degree of longitude, which, being largely situated in the dry region, requires greatest attention to conservative forest use and contains still large areas of public timber lands. The information is derived from members of the United States Geological Survey and others acquainted with the region. It must not be overlooked, however, that these are not accurate surveys, but approximations, and that a large per cent, often from 25 to 50 per cent of the area falling within the timber land or brush-land area, is prairie, open country, waste land, or in culti vation. The location and size of the national forest reservations, first made under the act of March 3, 1891, have also been outlined on this map, suggesting a desirable extension of this policy which has since been had.

The figures and maps show the very uneven distribution of the forest areas, which is an important fact from an economic point of view. Seven-tenths are found on the Atlantic side of the continent, only one-tenth on the Pacific coast, another tenth on the Rocky Mountains, the balance being scattered over the interior of the Western States.

Both the New England States and the Southern States have still 50 per cent of their area, more or less, under forest cover, but in the former the merchantable timber has been largely removed.

The prairie States, with an area in round numbers of 400,000 square miles, contain hardly 4 per cent of forest growth, and the 1,330,000 square miles-more than one-third of the whole country-of arid or semiarid character in the interior contain practically no forest growth, economically speaking.

The character of the forest growth also varies in the different regions, as we will presently see more in detail. On the Pacific coast, hard woods are rare, the principal growth being coniferous and of extraordinary development. Besides gigantic redwoods, the soft sugar pine and the hard bull pine, various spruces and firs, cedars, hemlocks, and larch form the valuable supplies.

In the Rocky Mountains no hard woods of commercial value occur, the growth being mainly of spruces, firs, and bull pine, with other pines and cedars of more or less value.

The Southern States contain in their more southern section large areas occupied almost exclusively by pine forests, with the cypress in the bottom lands; the more northern portions are covered with hard woods almost exclusively, and intervening is a region of mixed hard-wood and coniferous growth. Spruces, firs, and hemlocks are found in small quantities contined to the mountain regions.

The Northern States are mainly occupied by hard-wood growths, with conifers intermixed, sometimes the latter becoming entirely dominant, as in the spruce forests of Maine, New Hampshire, or the Adirondacks, and here and there in the pineries of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, or in the hemlock regions of Pennsylvania and New York.

FOREST BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION.

As stated before, we may divide the North American forest according to its botanical features into two great forest regions, namely, the Atlantic, which is in the main characterized by broadleaved trees, and the Pacific, which is made up almost wholly of coniferous species. (See Pl. III.)

In the Atlantic forest, going from the south to the north, we can again discern several floral