UNITED STATES_Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" Volume 10, Slice 6

_The Forest Regions._--The great treeless region east of the Rocky

Mountains separates the wooded area of the United States into two grand

divisions, which may be called the Eastern and the Western forests. The

Eastern forest is characterized by the predominance, on the whole, of

broad-leafed trees, the comparative uniformity of its general types over

wide areas, and its naturally unbroken distribution. In the Western

forest conifers are conspicuously predominant; the individual species

often reaches enormous and even unequalled dimensions, the forest is

frequently interrupted by treeless areas, and the transitions from one

type to another are often exceedingly abrupt. Both divisions are

botanically and commercially rich in species.

The Eastern forest may conveniently be subdivided into three members:

1. The Northern forest, marked by great density and large volume of

standing timber, and a comparative immunity, in its virgin condition,

from fire. The characteristic trees are maples, birches and beech

(_Fagus atropunicea_), among the hardwoods and white pine (_Pinus

strobus_), spruce (_Picea rubens_ and _Picea mariana_) and hemlock

(_Tsuga canadensis_) among conifers.

2. The Southern forest is on the whole less dense than the Northern, and

more frequently burned over. Among its characteristic trees are the

longleaf (_Pinus palustris_) and other pines, oaks, gums, bald cypress

(_Taxodium distichum_) and white cedar (_Chamaecyparis thyoides_).

3. The Central Hardwood forest, which differs comparatively little from

adjacent portions of the Northern and Southern forests except in the

absence of conifers. Among its trees are the chestnut (_Castanea

dentata_), hickories, ashes and other hardwoods already mentioned.

The Western division has two members:

1. The Pacific Coast forest, marked by the great size of its trees and

the vast accumulations of merchantable timber. Among its characteristic

species are the redwood (_Sequoia sempervirens_) and the big tree (_S.

Washingtoniana_), the Douglas fir (_Pseudotsuga taxifolia_), sugar pine

(_Pinus lambertiana_), western hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_), giant

arborvitae (_Thuja plicata_) and Sitka spruce (_Picea sitchensis_).

2. The Rocky Mountain forest, whose characteristic species are the

western yellow pine (_Pinus ponderosa_), Engelmann spruce (_Picea

engelmanni_) and lodgepole pine (_Pinus murrayana_). This forest is

frequently broken by treeless areas of greater or less extent,

especially towards the south, and it suffers greatly from fire. Subarid

in character, except to the north and at high elevations, the vast

mining interests of the region and its treeless surroundings give this

forest an economic value out of proportion to the quantities of timber

it contains.

This distribution of the various forests is indicated on the first of

the two accompanying maps. The second map shows the situation of the

national forests hereafter mentioned.

The forests of Alaska fall into two main divisions: the commercial

though undeveloped forests of the south-east coast, which occur along

the streams and on the lower slopes of the mountains and consist chiefly

of western hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_), Sitka spruce (_Picea

sitchensis_), yellow cedar (_Chamaecyparis nootkatensis_) and giant

arborvitae (_Thuja plicata_), usually of large size and uninjured by

fire; and the vast interior forests, swept by severe fires, and

consisting chiefly of white and black spruces (_Picea canadensis_ and

_nigra_), paper birch (_Betula papyrifera_) and aspen (_Populus

tremuloides_), all of small size but of great importance in connexion

with mining. Northern Alaska and the extreme western coast regions are

entirely barren.

[Illustration: Forest Regions of the United States

_The unshaded areas are treeless, except along the Streams_]

_The National Forest Policy._--The forest policy of the United States

may be said to have had its origin in 1799 in the enactment of a law

which authorized the purchase of timber suitable for the use of the

navy, or of land upon which such timber was growing. It is true that

laws were in force under the early governments of Massachusetts, New

Jersey and other colonies, providing for the care and protection of

forest interests in various ways, but these laws were distinctly

survivals of tendencies acquired in Europe, and for the most part of

little use. It was not until the apparent approach of a dangerous

shortage in certain timber supplies that the first real step in forest

policy was taken by the United States. Successive laws passed from 1817

to 1831 strove to give larger effect to the original enactment, but

without permanent influence towards the preservation of the live oak

(_Quercus virginiana_ Mill.), which was the object in view. A long

period of inaction followed these early measures. In 1831 the

solicitor of the treasury assumed a partial responsibility for the care

and protection of the public timber lands, and in 1855 this duty was

transferred to the commissioner of the general land office in the

Department of the Interior. The effect of these changes upon forest

protection was unimportant. When, however, at the close of the Civil War

railway building in the United States took on an unparalleled activity,

the destruction of forests by fire and the axe increased in a

corresponding ratio, and public sentiment began to take alarm. Action by

several of the states slightly preceded that of the Federal government,

but in 1876 Congress, acting under the inspiration of a memorial from

the American Association for the Advancement of Science, authorized the

appointment of an officer (Dr Franklin B. Hough) under the commissioner

of agriculture, to collect and distribute information upon forest

matters. His office became in 1880 the division of forestry in what is

now the United States Department of Agriculture.

As the railways advanced into the treeless interior, public interest in

tree-planting became keen. In 1873 Congress passed and later amended and

repealed the timber culture acts, which granted homesteads on the

treeless public lands to settlers who planted one-fourth of their

entries with trees. Though these measures were not successful in

themselves they directed attention towards forestry. The act which

repealed them in 1891 contained a clause which lies at the foundation of

the present forest policy of the United States. By it the president was

authorized to set aside "any part of the public lands wholly or in part

covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not,

as public reservations, and the President shall, by public proclamation,

declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof."

Some eighteen million acres had been proclaimed as reservations at the

time when, in 1896, the National Academy of Sciences was asked by the

secretary of the interior to make an investigation and report upon "the

inauguration of a rational forest policy for the forest lands of the

United States." Upon the recommendation of a commission named by the

Academy, President Cleveland established more than twenty-one million

acres of new reserves on the 22nd of February 1897. His action was

widely misunderstood and attacked, but it awakened a public interest in

forest questions without which the rapid progress of forestry in the

United States since that time could never have been made.

Within a few months after the proclamation of the Cleveland reserves the

present national forest policy took definite shape. Under this policy

the national government holds and manages, in the common interest of all

users of the forests or its products, such portions of the public lands

as have been set aside by presidential proclamation in accordance with

the act of 1891. These lands are held against private acquisition under

the Homestead Act (except as to agricultural lands as hereafter

mentioned), the Timber and Stone Act, and other laws under which the

United States disposes of its unappropriated public domain, but not

against private acquisition under the Mineral Land Laws. They are

selected from lands believed to be more valuable for forest purposes

than for agriculture, and are managed with the purpose of securing from

them the best and largest possible returns, present and future, whether

in the form of water for irrigation or power, of timber, of forage for

stock, or of any other beneficial product. The aggregate area of the

reserves, or national forests, has been steadily increased until they

now include nearly all the timber lands left of the public domain.

The general lines of this policy were in part laid down by the

commission already mentioned, in its report submitted to the secretary

of the interior, May 1, 1897, and by the act of June 4, 1897, which was

largely shaped by the work of the commission. Until this act was passed

the national forests had been in theory closed against any form of use;

nor had the possibility of securing forest preservation by wise use

received much thought from those who had favoured their creation. Such a

state of affairs could not continue. Before long public opinion would

have forced the opening to use of the resources thus arbitrarily locked

up, and in the absence of any administrative system providing for

conservative use, the national forests would inevitably have been

abolished, and the whole policy of government forest holdings would have

ceased. The act of June 4, 1897 was therefore of the first importance.

This act conferred upon the secretary of the interior general powers for

the proper management of the national forests through the general land

office of his department. It provided for the designation and sale of

dead, mature and large timber; authorized the secretary to permit free

use of timber in small quantities by settlers, miners and residents;

empowered him to "make such rules and regulations and establish such

service as will insure the objects of such reservations, namely, to

regulate their occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon

from destruction"; and made violation of the act or of such rules and

regulations a misdemeanour. The statute limited the power to establish

forest reservations to the purpose of improving and protecting the

forest, securing favourable conditions of water flows, and furnishing a

continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of

the United States. Lands found, upon due examination, to be more

valuable for other purposes than for forest uses might be eliminated

from any reservation, and all mineral lands within the reservations were

left open to private appropriation under the mineral laws. The rights of

settlers and claimants were safeguarded, and civil and criminal

jurisdiction, except so far as the punishment of offences against the

United States in the reservations was concerned, was reserved to the

States.

While the administration of the national forests was entrusted to the

general land office, the same act assigned the surveying and mapping of

them to the United States Geological Survey, which has published

descriptions and maps of some of the more important.

No attempt was made in the general land office to develop a technical

forest service. There were, indeed, at the time of passage of the act,

less than ten trained foresters in the United States, no means of

training more, and very little conception of what forestry actually

meant. The purpose of the administration was therefore mainly protection

against trespass and fire, particularly the latter. Regulations were

made giving effect to the provisions of the act of June 4, set forth

above, but in the absence of technical knowledge as to what might safely

be done, the tendency was rather to restrict than to extend the use of

the forest. Meanwhile, however, there was rapidly developing in another

branch of the government service an organization qualified for actual

forest management.

One year after the passage of the act of June 4, 1897, the division of

forestry in the Department of Agriculture ceased to be merely a bureau

of information, and became an active agency for introducing the actual

practice of forestry among private owners and for conducting the

investigations upon which a sound American forest practice could be

based. The work awakened great interest among forest owners, and exerted

a powerful educational influence upon the country at large. The division

extended its work and became (July 1, 1901) the Bureau of Forestry. It

drew into its employment for a time nearly all the men who were

preparing themselves in increasing numbers (at first abroad, then in the

newly-founded schools in the United States) for the profession of

forestry, and was soon recognized as qualified to speak authoritatively

on technical questions connected with the administration of the national

forests. This led to a request from the secretary of the interior for

the advice of the bureau on such questions. Working plans were

accordingly undertaken for a number of the forests. The general land

office, however, was not ready to attempt active forest management.

Though some timber was sold and the grazing of stock regulated to some

extent, the main object of the land office administration continued to

be protection against fire. Many of the regulations which it made could

not be enforced.

The disadvantages of dispersal of the Federal government forest work

among three separate agencies grew more and more apparent, until, on the

1st of February 1905, control of the 63,000,000 acres of forest reserves

which up to that time had been set aside was transferred from the

general land office to the Bureau of Forestry. In recognition of its

new duties the designation of the bureau became the Forest Service.

[Illustration: National Forests and National Parks of the United States.]

Other provisions of the act which affected the transfer were that forest

supervisors and rangers should be selected, so far as possible, from

qualified citizens of the state or territory in which each forest was

situated, and that all money received from the sale of any products or

the use of any land or resources of the national forests should be

covered into the treasury and constitute a special fund for their

protection, administration, improvement and extension. Five days later a

statute gave forest officers the power to arrest trespassers; and on the

3rd of March the lieu land selection law was repealed. This law had

opened the way for grave abuses through the exchange of worthless land

by private owners within the forests for an equal area of valuable

timber lands outside.

The law has been modified since by the change of the old name "Forest

Reserves" to "National Forests." The act of June 11, 1906, opened to

homestead entry lands within national forests found by examination to be

chiefly valuable for agriculture. The administration and improvement of

the national forests are now provided for directly by congressional

appropriation. The power to create national forests conferred on the

president by the act of March 1891 has been repealed for the states of

Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, but for no

others.

The Forest Service began in earnest the development of all the resources

of the national forests. Mature timber was sold wherever there was a

demand for it and the permanent welfare of the forests and protection of

the streams permitted, but always so as to prevent waste, guard against

fire, protect young growth and ensure reproduction. Regulations were

adopted which allowed small sales to be made without formality or delay,

secured for the government the full value of timber sold, and eliminated

unnecessary routine. Care was taken to safeguard the interests of the

government and provide for the maintenance of good technical standards.

The conduct of local business was entrusted to local officers. Large

transactions with general policies were controlled from Washington, but

with careful provision for first-hand knowledge and close touch with

the work in the field. Business efficiency and the convenience of the

public were carefully studied. In short, an organization was created

capable of handling safely, speedily and satisfactorily the complex

business of making useful a forest property of vast extent, scattered

through sixteen different states of an aggregate area of over 1,500,000

sq. m. and with a population of 9,000,000.

The growth since the 1st of July 1897 of the area of the national

forests, of the expenditures of the government for forestry, and of the

receipts from the national forests, is shown by the statement which

follows. Though the act of June 4, 1897, became effective immediately

upon its passage, the fiscal year 1899 was the first of actual

administration, because the first for which Congress made the

appropriation necessary to carry out the law.

_Area of National Forests, Annual Expenditures of the Federal

Government for Forestry and National Forest Administration, and

Receipts from National Forests, 1898-1909._

+---------+-----------------+--------------------+--------------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+

+---------+-----------------+--------------------+--------------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+

| | Acres. | $ | $ | $ | $ | $ |

| 1898 | 40,866,184 | 20,000.00 | . . | . . | . . | . . |

| 1899 | 46,168,439 | 28,520.00 | 175,000.00 | 7,534.83 | 0.00016 | 0.0038 |

| 1900 | 46,515,039 | 48,520.00 | 210,000.00 | 36,754.02 | .00078 | .0045 |

| 1901 | 46,324,479 | 88,520.00 | 325,000.00 | 29,250.88 | .00063 | .0070 |

| 1902 | 51,896,357 | 185,440.00 | 300,000.00 | 25,431.87 | .00049 | .0060 |

| 1903 | 62,211,240 | 291,860.00 | 304,135.00 | 45,838.08 | .00074 | .0054 |

| 1904 | 62,611,449 | 350,000.00 | 375,000.00 | 58,436.19 | .00093 | .0072 |

| 1905 | 85,693,422 | 632,232.36[2] | 217,907.64[2]| 73,276.15 | .00085 | .0059 |

| 1906 | 106,994,018 | 1,191,400.21 | . . | 767,219.96 | .00717 | .0089 |

| 1907 | 150,832,665 | 1,800,595.20 | . . | 1,571,059.44 | .01041 | .0097 |

| 1909 | 167,677,749 | 2,948,153.08 | . . | 1,807,276.66 | .00931 | .0151 |

+---------+-----------------+--------------------+--------------+------------------+------------------+-----------------+

Until 1906, the sole source of receipts was the sale of timber. In the

fiscal year 1907, however, timber sales furnished less than half the

receipts. The following statement concerning the timber sales of the

fiscal years 1904-1907 will serve to bring out the change that followed

the transfer of control to the forest service in the midst of the fiscal

year 1905:--

+--------+---------------+-------------+---------------+

+--------+---------------+-------------+---------------+

| 1904 | 112,773,710 | 58,435,000 | 58,436.19 |

| 1905 | 113,661,508 | 68,475,000 | 73,270.15 |

| 1906 | 328,230,326 | 138,665,000 | 245,013.49 |

| 1907 | 1,044,855,000 | 194,872,000 | 686,813.12 |

+--------+---------------+-------------+---------------+

These figures show (1) a large excess each year in the amount of timber

sold over that cut and paid for; (2) nine times as much timber sold at

the end of the four-year period as at the beginning and three times as

much cut; and (3) a much higher price obtained per thousand board-feet

at the end of the period than at the beginning. Each of these matters

calls for comment. The sales are of stumpage only; the government does

no logging on its own account.

1. More timber is sold each year than is cut and paid for, because many

of the sales extend over several years. With increasing sales the amount

sold each year for future removal has exceeded the amount to be removed

during that year under sales of earlier years. Large sales covering a

term of years are made because the national forests contain much

overmature timber, which needs removal, but which is frequently too

inaccessible to be saleable in small amounts. To prevent speculation the

time allowed for cutting is never more than five years, and cutting must

begin at once and be continued steadily.

2. The volume of sales has increased rapidly because much forest is ripe

for the axe, the demand is strong, and control by trained men makes it

safe to cut more freely. The increase is marked both in small and in

large sales, but a score of sales for less than $5000 are made against

one for more. The total cut is still far below the annual increment of

the forests. As the demand grows restrictions must increase in order to

husband the present supply until the next crop matures.

3. The stumpage price would seem on the face of the figures to have

risen from about one dollar to more than three dollars per thousand

board-feet. The receipts, however, for any one year are not exclusively

for the timber cut in that year, since payments are made in advance. In

the year 1907 the average price obtained was something less than $2.50

per thousand. It is therefore true that stumpage prices have risen

greatly, although conditions new to the American lumbermen are imposed.

Full utilization of all merchantable material, care of young growth

in felling and logging, and the piling of brush, to be subsequently

burned by the forest officers if burning is necessary, are among these

conditions. Timber to be cut must first be marked by the forest

officers. Sales of more than $100 in value are made only after public

advertisement.

Only the simplest forms of silviculture have as yet been introduced. The

vast area of the national forests, the comparatively sparse population

of the West, the rough and broken character of the forests themselves,

and the newness of the problems which their management presents, make

the general application of intensive methods for the present

impracticable. Natural reproduction is secured. The selection system is

most used, often under the rough and ready method of an approximate

diameter limit, with the reservation of seed trees where needed. The

tendency, however, is strongly towards a more flexible and effective

application of the selection principle, as a better trained field force

is developed and as market conditions improve.

One conspicuous achievement was the reduction of loss by fires on the

national forests. During the unusually dry season of 1905 there were

only eight fires of any importance, and the area burned over amounted

only to about .16 of 1% of the total area. In 1900 about .12 of 1% was

burned. This was accomplished by efficient patrol, co-operation of the

public, and by preventive measures, such as piling and burning the brush

on cut-over areas.

Since the beginning of 1906 the largest source of income from the

national forests was their use for grazing. Stock-raising is one of the

most important industries of the West. Formerly cattle and sheep grazed

freely on all parts of the public domain. In the early days of the

national forests the wisdom of permitting any grazing at all upon them

was sharply questioned. Unrestricted grazing had led to friction between

individuals, the deterioration of much of the range through

overstocking, and serious injury to the forests and stream flow. The

forests of the West, however, are largely of open growth and contain

many grassy parks, the results of old fires, and many high mountain

meadows. Under proper regulations the grass and other forage plants

which they produce in great quantity can be used without detriment to

the forests themselves, and with great benefit to the stock industry,

which often can find summer pasturage nowhere else. Except in southern

California grazing is now permitted on all national forests unless the

watersheds furnish water for domestic use; but the time of entering and

leaving, the number of head to be grazed by each applicant, and the part

of the range to be occupied are carefully prescribed. Planted areas and

cut-over areas are closed to stock until the young growth is safe from

harm, and goats are allowed only in the brushland of the foothills.

The results of regulation, in addition to the protection of forest

growth and streams, are the prevention of disputes, improved range,

better stock, stable conditions in the stock industry, and the best use

of the range in the interest of progress and development. The first

right to graze stock on the forests is given to residents, small owners

and those who have used the range before. Thus the crowding out of the

weaker by the stronger and of the settler by the roving outsider has

been stopped. In 1906 the forest service began to impose a moderate

charge for the use of the national forest range. The following statement

shows the amount of stock grazed on the national forests 1904-09, and

the receipts for the grazing charge:--

+------+------------------+----------------+---------------+

+------+------------------+----------------+---------------+

| | | | $ |

| 1904 | 610,091 | 1,806,722 | . . |

| 1905 | 692,124 | 1,709,987 | . . |

| 1906 | 1,015,148 | 5,763,100 | 514,692.87 |

| 1907 | 1,200,158 | 6,657,083 | 863,920.32 |

| 1909 | 1,581,404 | 7,819,594 | 1,032,185.70 |

+------+------------------+----------------+---------------+

A work of enormous magnitude which has now begun is planting on the

national forests. At present, with low stumpage prices and incomplete

utilization of forest products, clear cutting with subsequent planting

is not practicable. There are, however, many million acres of denuded

land within the national forests which require planting. Such planting

is still confined chiefly to watersheds which supply cities and towns

with water. The first planting was done in 1892, in California. Since

then similar work has been done on city watersheds in Colorado, Utah,

Idaho and New Mexico. Other plantations are in the Black Hills national

forest, where large areas of cut-over and burned-over land are entirely

without seed trees, and in the sandhill region of Nebraska. Up to 1908

about 2,000,000 seedlings had been planted, on over 2000 acres--a small

beginning, but the work was entirely new and presented many hard

problems.

The nursery operations of the forest service are concentrated at seven

stations, located in southern California, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico

(2), Utah and Idaho, where stock is raised for local planting and for

shipment elsewhere. These nurseries are small. Their annual productive

capacity is between 8,000,000 and 10,000,000 seedlings. Each nursery is

practically an experimental forest-planting station, at which a large

variety of species are grown and various methods are tried.

The organization of the administrative work of the national forests is

by single forests. On the 1st of January 1908 the total number of

forests was 165 with a total area of 162,023,190 acres (on April 7,

1909, the numbers were 146 national forests in the U.S. with 167,672,467

acres, besides two in Alaska with 26,761,626 and one in Porto Rico with

65,950 acres). In charge of each forest is a forest supervisor. Under

the supervisors are forest rangers and forest guards, whose duties

include patrol, marking timber and scaling logs, enforcing the

regulations and conducting some of the minor business arising from the

use of the forests. Guards are temporary employes; rangers are employed

by the year. The supervisors report directly to and receive instructions

from the central office at Washington. In this office there are four

branches--operation, grazing, silviculture and products--each of which

directs that part of the work which belongs to it, dealing directly with

the supervisor. For inspection purposes, however, the forests are

separated into six districts, in each of which is located a chief

inspector with a corps of assistants. The inspectors are without

administrative authority, but assist by their counsel the supervisors,

and through inspection reports keep the Washington office informed of

the condition of all lines of administrative work in progress.

Administrative officers alternate frequently between field and office

duties.

The number of forest officers in the several grades on the 1st of

January 1908 were: 6 chief inspectors, 26 inspectors, 106 forest

supervisors, 41 deputy forest supervisors, 820 forest rangers and 283

forest guards. The total number of employes of the forest service on the

same date, including the clerical force, was 2034.

Besides the administration of the national forests, the forest service

conducts general investigations, carries on an extensive educational

work, and co-operates with private owners who contemplate forest

management upon their own tracts. This last work is undertaken because

of the need of bringing forestry into practice, the lack of trained

foresters outside of the employ of the government, and the lack of

information as to how to apply forestry and what returns may be

obtained. Co-operation takes the form of advice upon the ground and, on

occasion, of the making of working plans. The educational work of the

service is performed chiefly through publications, the purpose of which

is to spread very widely a knowledge of the importance of forestry to

the nation and of the principles upon which its practice rests. The

investigations which the service conducts extend from studies of the

natural distribution and classification of American forests and of their

varied silvicultural problems to statistics of lumber production and

laboratory researches which bear upon the economical utilization of

forest products. As examples of these researches may be mentioned tests

of the strength of timber, studies of the preservative treatment of wood

for various uses, wood-pulp investigations and studies in wood

chemistry.

_Forest Instruction._--Most of the men now in the forest service

received their training in the United States. There are several

professional schools of forestry. The Yale Forest School, which was

opened as a department of Yale University in September 1900, offers a

two-years' graduate course with abundant field work, and also conducts a

summer school of forestry, especially adapted to the training of forest

rangers and special students, at Milford, Pennsylvania. The university

of Michigan and Harvard University also offer a two-years' graduate

course in forestry. The Pennsylvania State College has recently

established a four-years' undergraduate course in forestry. The Biltmore

Forest School in North Carolina, the oldest of all these schools, offers

a one-year course in technical forestry. A large number of the

agricultural colleges give instruction in forestry. Among these are

Nebraska, Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Washington and Mississippi

agricultural colleges, the university of Georgia and Iowa State College.

Berea College, Kentucky, deserves special mention as a college which has

done valuable work in teaching forestry without attempting to turn out

professional foresters.

_Forestry among the States._--Among the states forestry has hardly

reached the stage of practical application on the ground. New York holds

1,500,000 acres of forest land. It has a commission to care for its

forest preserve, and to protect the forest land throughout the state

from fire. The constitution of the state, however, prohibits the cutting

of timber on state land, and thus confines the work entirely to

protection of the forest and to the planting of waste areas.

Pennsylvania is at present showing the most efficient activity in

working out a forest policy. It has state forests of 820,000 acres, a

good fire law more and more satisfactorily enforced, and eight nurseries

for growing planting material. In 1905, 160,000 white pine seedlings

were set out. It has also a school for forest rangers, to be employed on

the state forests, and it has just established a state professional

school of forestry.

Twenty-six of the states have regularly appointed forest officers, six

have carried on studies of forest conditions in co-operation with the

forest service, and there is scarcely one which is not actively

interested in forestry. Laws, generally good, to prevent damage from

forest fires, have been enacted by practically all the states, but

their enforcement has unfortunately been lax. Public sentiment, however,

is making rapid progress. Among the best laws are those of Maine, New

Hampshire, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The New York

law, for example, provides for the appointment of one or more

fire-wardens in each town of the counties in which damage by fire is

especially to be feared. In other counties supervisors of towns are

_ex-officio_ fire-wardens. A chief fire-warden has general supervision

of their work. The wardens, half of the cost of whose services is paid

by the state, receive compensation only for the time actually employed

in fighting fires. They may command the service of any citizen to assist

them. Setting fire to woods or waste lands belonging to the state or to

another, if such fire results in loss, is punishable by a fine not

exceeding $250 or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, and

damages are provided for the person injured. Since fire is beyond

question the most dangerous enemy of forests in the United States, the

measures taken against it are of vital importance.

The following table shows the amount of forest land held by the

different states, and by the territory of Hawaii:--

_Area of State Forest Reservations, 1907._

Connecticut 1,360 acres

Hawaii 117,532 "

Indiana 2,000 "

Maryland 3,540 "

Michigan 39,000 "

Minnesota 42,800 "

New Jersey 2,474 "

New York 1,439,998 "

Pennsylvania 820,000 "

Wisconsin 254,072 "

_Forestry on Private Lands._--The practice of forestry among private

owners is of old date. One of the earliest instances was that of Jared

Eliot, who, in 1730, began the systematic cutting of timber land to

supply charcoal for an iron furnace at Old Salisbury, Connecticut. The

successful planting of waste lands with timber trees in Massachusetts

dates from about ten years later. But such examples were comparatively

rare until recent times. At present the intelligent harvesting of timber

with a view to successive crops, which is forestry, is much more common

than is usually supposed. Among farmers it is especially frequent. It

was begun among lumbermen by the late E.S. Coe, of Bangor, Maine, who

made a practice of restricting the cut of spruce from his forests to

trees 10, 12 or sometimes even 14 in. in diameter, with the result that

much of his land yielded, during his life, a second crop as plentiful as

the first. Many owners of spruce lands have followed his example, but

until very recently without improving upon it. Systematic forestry on a

large scale among lumbermen was begun in the Adirondacks during the

summer of 1898 on the lands of Dr W.S. Webb and Hon. W.C. Whitney, of a

combined area of over 100,000 acres, under the superintendence of the

then Division of Forestry. In these forests spruce, maple, beech and

birch predominate, but the spruce alone is at present of the first

commercial importance. The treatment is a form of the selection system.

Under it a second crop of equal yield would be ripe for the axe in

thirty-five years. Spruce and pine are the only trees cut. The work had

been executed, at least up to the year 1902, with great satisfaction to

the owners and the lumbering contractors, as well as to the decided

benefit of the forest. The lumbering is regulated by the following

rules, and competent inspectors are employed to see that they are

rightly carried out: (1) No trees shall be cut which are not marked. (2)

All trees marked shall be cut. (3) No trees shall be left lodged in the

woods, and none shall be overlooked by the skidders or haulers. (4) All

merchantable logs which are as large as 6 in. in diameter at the small

end must be utilized. (5) No stumps shall be cut more than 6 in. higher

than the stump is wide. (6) No spruce shall be used for bridges,

corduroy, skids, slides, or for any purpose except building camps, dams

or booms, unless it is absolutely necessary on account of lack of other

timber. (7) All merchantable spruce used for skidways must be cut into

logs and hauled out. (8) Contractors must not do any unnecessary damage

to young growth in lumbering; and if any is done, they must discharge

the men who did it.

These two instances of forestry have been most useful and effective

among lumbermen and other owners of forest land in the north-east. Among

those which have followed their example are the Berlin Mills Paper

Company in northern New Hampshire, the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company in

northern Michigan, and the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company in New

York, all of which have employed professional foresters.

The most notable instance of forestry in the south is on the estate of

George W. Vanderbilt at Biltmore, N.C. This was the first case of

systematic forestry under regular working plans in the United States. It

was begun in 1891 on about 4000 acres, and has since been extended until

it now covers about 100,000 acres. A professional forester with a corps

of trained rangers under him is in charge of the work. The Pennsylvania

Railroad has recently employed a trained forester and several assistants

and has undertaken systematic forestry on a large scale.

The effect of the work of the forest service in assisting private owners

is evidenced by the fact that down to the year 1908 670 wood lots and

timber tracts had been examined by agents of the forest service, of

which 250 were tracts over 400 acres in extent, and planting plans had

been made for 436 owners covering a total area of 80,000 acres. Expert

advice is also given to wood lot owners upon application by many of the

state foresters.

_American Practice._--The conditions under which forestry is practised

in Europe and in America differ so widely that rules which are received

as axiomatic in the one must often be rejected in the other. Among these

conditions in America are the highly developed and specialized methods

and machinery of lumbering, the greater facilities for transportation

and consequent greater mobility of the lumber trade, the vast number of

small holdings of forest land, and the enormous supply of low-grade wood

in the timbered regions. High taxes on forest properties, cut-over as

well as virgin, notably in the north-western pineries, and the firmly

established habits of lumbermen, are factors of great importance. From

these and other considerations it follows that such generally accepted

essentials of European methods of forestry as a sustained annual yield,

a permanent force of forest labourers, a permanent road system and the

like, are in most cases utterly inapplicable in the United States at the

present day in private forestry. Methods of forest management, to find

acceptance, must there conform as closely as possible to existing

methods of lumbering. Rules of marked simplicity, the observance of

which will yet secure the safety of the forest, must open the way for

more refined methods in the future. For the present a periodic or

irregular yield, temporary means of transport, constantly changing

crews, and an almost total ignorance of the silvics of all but a few of

the most important trees--all combine to enforce the simplest

silvicultural treatment and the utmost concentration of purpose on the

two main objects of forestry, which are the production of a net revenue

and the perpetuation of the forest. Such concentration has been followed

in practice by complete success.

The forests with which the American forester deals are rich in species,

usually endowed with abundant powers of reproduction, and, over a large

part of their range, greatly dependent for their composition and general

character upon the action of forest fires. Of the commercially valuable

trees there may be said to be, in round numbers, a hundred out of a

total forest flora of about 500 species, but many trees not yet of

importance in the lumber trade will become so hereafter, as has already

happened in many cases. The attention of the forester must usually be

concentrated upon the growth and reproduction of a single species, and

never of more than a very few. Thus the silvicultural problems which

must be solved in the practice of forestry in America are fortunately

less complicated than the presence of so many kinds of trees in forests

of such diverse types would naturally seem to indicate.

The forest fire problem is one of the most difficult with which the

American forester has to deal. It is probable that forest fires have

had more to do with the character and distribution of forests in America

than any other factor except rainfall. With an annual range over

thousands of square miles, in many portions of the United States they

occur regularly year after year on the same ground. Trees whose thick

bark or abundant seeding gives them peculiar powers of resistance,

frequently owe their exclusive possessions of vast areas purely to the

action of fire. On the economic side fire is equally influential. The

probability, or often the practical certainty, of fire after the first

cut, commonly determines lumbermen to leave no merchantable tree

standing. Forest fires are thus the most effective barriers to the

introduction of forestry. Excessive taxation of timber land is another

of almost equal effect. Because of it lumbermen hasten to cut, and

afterwards often to abandon, lands which they cannot afford to hold.

This evil, which only the progress of public sentiment can control, is

especially prevalent in certain portions of the white pine belt.

_Forest Associations._--Public sentiment in favour of the protection of

forests is now widespread and increasingly effective throughout the

United States. As the general understanding of the objects and methods

of forestry becomes clearer, the tendency, formerly very marked, to

confound ornamental tree planting and botanical matters with forestry

proper is rapidly growing less. At the same time, the number and

activity of associations dealing with forest matters is increasing with

notable rapidity. There are now about thirty such associations in the

United States. One of these, the Society of American Foresters, is

composed exclusively of professional foresters. The American Forestry

Association is the oldest and largest. It has been influential in

preparing the ground work of popular interest in forestry, and

especially in advocating and securing the adoption of the federal forest

reservation policy, the most important step yet taken by the national

government. It publishes as its organ a monthly magazine called

_Forestry and Irrigation_. The Pennsylvania Forestry Association has

been instrumental in placing that state in the forefront of forest

progress. Its organ is a bi-monthly publication called _Forest Leaves_.

Other states which have associations or societies of special influence

in forest matters are California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado,

New Hampshire, Georgia and Oregon. Arbor Day, instituted in Nebraska in

1872 as a day for shade-tree planting by farmers who had settled on the

treeless prairies, has been taken up as a means of interesting school

children in the planting of trees, and has spread until it is now

observed in every state and territory. It continues to serve an

admirable purpose.

_Lumbering._--According to the census report for 1905 the capital

invested in logging operations in the United States was $90,454,596, the

number of employes engaged 146,596, and their wages $66,990,000;

sawmills represented an invested capital of $381,621,000, and employed

223,674 persons, whose wages were $100,311,000, while planing mills

represented a capital of $222,294,000 and employed 132,030 persons

whose wages were $66,434,000.

+-------------------+------------------------------+-----------+---------+---------+----------+

+-------------------+------------------------------+-----------+---------+---------+----------+

| Conifers | 30,200,000 thousand bd. ft.| 2517 | 1173 | 2170 | 5860 |

| Hardwoods | 7,300,000 " " | 612 | 577 | 461 | 1650 |

| Shingles | 11,900,000 " " | 107 | 54 | 109 | 270 |

| Pulpwood | 2,900,000 cords | 261 | 79 | . . | 340 |

| Wood distillation | 1,200,000 " | 108 | 12 | . . | 120 |

| Heading | 146,000,000 sets | 32 | 33 | 45 | 110 |

| Tight cooperage | 267,000,000 | 22 | 36 | 32 | 90 |

| Slack cooperage |1,097,000,000 | 27 | 22 | 21 | 70 |

| Poles | 3,500,000 | 35 | 15 | . . | 50 |

| Veneer | 300,000 thousand bd. ft.| 50 | 30 | . . | 80 |

| Round mine timbers| 165,000,000 cub. ft. | 165 | 35 | . . | 200 |

| Hewn cross ties | 77,500,000 | 207 | 503 | . . | 710 |

| | +-----------+---------+---------+----------+

| | | 4143 | 2569 | 2838 | 9550 |

+-------------------+------------------------------+-----------+---------+---------+----------+

All the operations of the lumber trade in the United States are

controlled, and to no small degree determined, by the peculiar unit of

measure which has been adopted. This unit, the board-foot, is generally

defined as a board one foot long, one foot wide and one inch thick, but

in reality it is equivalent to 144 cub. in. of manufactured lumber in

any form. To purchase logs by this measure one must first know about

what each log will yield in one-inch boards. For this purpose a scale or

table is used, which gives the contents of logs of various diameters and

lengths in board feet. Under such a standard the purchaser pays for

nothing but the saleable lumber in each log, the inevitable waste in

slabs and sawdust costing him nothing.

The table at foot gives the estimated consumption of wood for certain

purposes in the United States in 1906.

In addition to this amount, an immense quantity of wood is used each

year for fuel, posts and other domestic purposes, and the total annual

consumption is not less than 20 billion cub. ft.

The years 1890 to 1906 were marked by rapid changes in the rank of the

important timber trees with reference to the amount of timber cut, and a

shifting of the important centres of production. Among coniferous trees,

white pine has yielded successively to yellow pine and Douglas fir,

while the scene of greatest activity has shifted from the Northern

forest to the Southern, and from there is rapidly shifting to the

Pacific Coast. The total cut of coniferous lumber has increased

steadily, but that of the hardwoods is falling off, and in 1906 it was

15% less than in 1899, while inferior hardwoods are gradually assuming

more and more importance, and the scene of greatest activity has passed

from the middle west to the south and the Appalachian region.

_Conifers._--The coniferous supply of the country is derived from four

forest regions: (1) The Northern forest; (2) the Southern forest; (3)

the Pacific Coast forest; and (4) the Rocky Mountain forest.

1. The Northern forest was long the chief source of the coniferous

lumber production in the United States. The principal timber tree of

this region is the white pine, usually known in Europe as the Weymouth

pine. It has an average height when mature of 110 ft., with a diameter a

little less than 3 ft., but the virgin timber is approaching exhaustion.

White pine was one of the first trees to be cut extensively in the

United States, and Maine, the pine tree state, was at first the centre

of production. In 1851 the cut of white pine on the Penobscot river was

144 million ft., that of spruce 14 million and of hemlock 11 million.

Thirty years later the pine cut had sunk to 23 million, spruce had risen

to 118 million, and hemlock had passed pine by a million feet.

Meanwhile, the centre of production had passed from the north woods to

the Lake States, and for many years this region was the scene of the

most vigorous lumbering activity in the world. The following figures

show the cut for the Lake States from 1873 to 1906. It is certain that

the remarkable decline in the cut of white pine which these figures show

will continue still farther.

1873 3,993,780,000 | 1890 8,597,659,352

1874 3,751,306,000 | 1891 7,879,948,349

1875 3,968,553,000 | 1892 8,594,222,802

1876 3,879,046,000 | 1893 7,326,263,782

1877 3,595,333,496 | 1894 6,821,516,412

1878 3,629,472,759 | 1895 7,050,669,235

1879 4,806,943,000 | 1896 5,725,763,035

1880 5,651,295,000 | 1897 6,233,454,000

1881 6,768,856,749 | 1898 6,155,300,000

1882 7,552,150,744 | 1899 6,056,508,000

1883 7,624,789,786 | 1900 5,485,261,000

1884 7,935,033,054 | 1901 5,336,000,000

1885 7,053,094,555 | 1902 5,294,000,000

1886 7,425,368,443 | 1903 4,792,000,000

1887 7,757,916,784 | 1904 4,220,000,000

1888 8,388,716,460 | 1905 3,777,000,000

1889 8,183,050,755 | 1906 3,032,000,000

Second to the white pine among the coniferous lumber trees of the

Northern forest is the hemlock (_Tsuga canadensis_). It is used chiefly

for construction purposes and furnishes a comparatively low grade of

lumber.

The spruce (_Picea rubens_) is used chiefly for lumber, but it is in

large and increasing demand in the manufacture of paper pulp. For the

latter purpose hemlock, poplar (_Populus tremuloides_ and _P.

grandidentata_) and several other woods are also employed, but on a

smaller scale. The total consumption of wood for paper in the United

States for 1906 was 3,660,000 cords, of which 2,500,000 was spruce. Of

this, however, 720,000 cords were imported from Canada.

2. The chief product of the Southern forest is the yellow pine. This is

the collective term for the longleaf, shortleaf, loblolly and Cuban

pines. Of these the longleaf pine (_Pinus palustris_ Mill.), called

pitch-pine in Europe, is the most important. Its timber is probably

superior in strength and durability to that of any other member of the

genus _Pinus_, and in addition to its value as a timber tree it is the

source of naval stores in the United States. The average size of the

mature longleaf pine is 90 ft. in height and 20 in. in diameter.

Shortleaf (_Pinus echinata_) and loblolly (_P. taeda_) are other

important members of this group. Their wood very closely resembles that

of the longleaf pine and is often difficult to distinguish from it. The

trees are also of about the same size and height. Loblolly is, however,

of more rapid growth. The total cut of yellow pine in 1906 was

11,661,000,000 board ft.; it has perhaps not yet reached its maximum,

but is certainly near it.

Another important coniferous tree of the Southern forest is the bald

cypress (_Taxodium distichum_), which grows in the swamps. The cut in

1906 was 839,000,000 board ft., a gain of 69% over 1899.

3. But the great supply of coniferous timber is now on the Pacific

Coast. The Douglas fir (_Pseudotsuga taxifolia_), also known as Douglas

spruce, red fir and Oregon pine, is the foremost tree in Oregon and

Washington, and the redwood in California. When mature the Douglas fir

averages 200 ft. in height and 4 ft. in diameter, and the redwood 225

ft. in height and 8 ft. in diameter. Other important trees of the

Pacific Coast are sugar pine (_Pinus lambertiana_), western red cedar

(_Thuja plicata_), western larch (_Larix occidentalis_), Sitka spruce

(_Picea sitchensis_), western hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_) and western

yellow pine (_Pinus ponderosa_). These trees will all be of increasing

importance.

Logging on the Pacific Coast is characterized by the use of powerful

machinery and by extreme skill in handling enormous weights. This is

especially true in California, where the logs of redwood and of the big

tree (_Sequoia Washingtoniana_) are often more than 10 ft. in diameter.

Logging is usually done by wire cables operated by donkey-engines. The

journey to the mill is usually by rail. The mills are often of great

size, built on piles over tide water and so arranged that their product

is delivered directly from the saws and dry kilns to vessels moored

alongside. The products of the Pacific Coast forest make their way over

land to the markets of the central and eastern states and into foreign

markets. Among the lumber-producing states, Washington has in seven

years jumped from fifth place to first, and its output has increased

from 1,428,000,000 board ft. in 1899 to 4,305,000,000 ft. in 1906.

Oregon and California have increased their output from 734,000,000 each

in 1899 to 1,605,000,000 and 1,349,000,000 ft. respectively in 1906. Of

the total output of these three states (7,259,000,000 ft.) 4,880,000,000

ft. is Douglas fir and 660,000,000 redwood.

4. The important lumber trees of the Rocky Mountain forest are the

western yellow pine, the lodgepole pine, the Douglas fir and the

Engelmann spruce. The Douglas fir, here extremely variable in size and

value, reaches in this region average dimensions of perhaps 80 ft. in

height by 2 ft. in diameter, the western yellow pine 90 ft. by 3 ft. and

the Engelmann spruce 60 ft. by 2 ft. Mining, railroad and domestic uses

chiefly absorb the annual timber product, which is considerable in

quantity, and of vast importance to the local population. The lumber

output of the Rocky Mountain region is, however, increasing very rapidly

both in the north and in the south-west. One of the largest mills in the

United States is in Idaho.

The following table summarizes the cut of the important coniferous

species during the years 1899-1906:

+--------------+-------+-------+-------+------------------+

| Kind. | 1899. | 1904. | 1906. | (+) or Decrease |

+--------------+-------+-------+-------+------------------+

| | ft. | ft. | ft. | |

| Yellow Pine | 9,659 |11,533 |11,661 | + 20.7 |

| Douglas Fir | 1,737 | 2,928 | 4,970 | + 186.2 |

| White Pine | 7,742 | 5,333 | 4,584 | - 40.8 |

| Hemlock | 3,421 | 3,269 | 3,537 | + 3.4 |

| Spruce | 1,448 | 1,304 | 1,645 | + 13.6 |

| Western Pine | 944 | 1,279 | 1,387 | + 46.9 |

| Cypress | 496 | 750 | 839 | + 69.3 |

| Redwood | 360 | 519 | 683 | + 83.2 |

| Cedar | 233 | 223 | 358 | + 53.7 |

| +-------+-------+-------+------------------+

| |26,040 | 27,138|29,664 | + 14 |

+--------------+-------+-------+-------+------------------+

_Hardwoods._--The hardwood supply of the country is derived almost

entirely from the eastern half of the continent, and comes from each of

the three great Eastern forest regions.

The following table shows the cut of the important species of hardwoods

for 1899 and 1906:

+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------------+

| Kind. | 1899. | 1906. | Increase (+) |

+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------------+

| Oak | 4,438,027 | 2,820,393 | - 36.5 |

| Maple | 633,466 | 882,878 | + 39.4 |

| Poplar | 1,115,242 | 693,076 | - 37.9 |

| Red gum | 285,417 | 453,678 | + 59.0 |

| Chestnut | 206,688 | 407,379 | + 97.1 |

| Basswood | 308,069 | 376,838 | + 22.3 |

| Birch | 132,601 | 370,432 | + 179.4 |

| Cottonwood | 415,124 | 263,996 | - 36.4 |

| Beech | (a) | 275,661 | |

| Elm | 456,731 | 224,795 | - 50.8 |

| Ash | 269,120 | 214,460 | - 20.8 |

| Hickory | 96,636 | 148,212 | + 53.4 |

| Tupelo | (a) | 47,882 | |

| Walnut | 38,681 | 48,174 | + 24.5 |

| Sycamore | 29,715 | (a) | |

| All other | 208,504 | 87,637 | - 58.0 |

+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------------+

| Total | 8,634,021 | 7,315,491 | - 15.3 |

+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------------+

a Not separately reported.

Oak, which in 1899 furnished over half the entire output, has fallen off

36.5%. Yellow poplar, which in 1899 was second among the hardwoods, has

fallen off 38% and now occupies third place; and elm, the great stand-by

in slack cooperage, has fallen 50.8%. On the other hand less valuable

species like maple and red gum have advanced 39 and 59% respectively.

The decrease is largely due to the fact that the hardwoods grow

naturally on the better classes of soil, and in the eastern United

States where the population has always been the densest, and as a

consequence of this, a large proportion of the original hardwood land

has been cleared up and put under cultivation. The hardwood supply of

the future must be obtained chiefly from the Appalachian region, where

the conditions are less favourable to agriculture.

In addition to the lumber cut, enormous quantities of hardwoods are used

each year for railroad ties, telephone and other poles, piles, fence

posts and fuel, and there is a great amount of waste in the course of

lumbering and manufacture.

AUTHORITIES.--Sargent, _Silva of North America_ (Boston, 1891-1897),

_Manual of Trees of North America_ (Boston, 1903); Lemmon, _Handbook

of West American Cone-Bearers_ (San Francisco, 1895); Bruncken, _North

American Forests and Forestry_ (New York, 1900); Fernow, _Economics of

Forestry_ (New York, 1902); Pinchot, _The Adirondack Spruce_ (New

York, 1898); Pinchot and Graves, _The White Pine_ (New York, 1896).

See also the various publications of the U.S. forest service,

including especially the following general works: _Forest Influences_;

_Primer of Forestry_; the _Timber Supply of the United States_; the

_Waning Hardwood Supply_; _Forest Products of the United States in

1906_; _Exports and Imports of Forest Products in 1906_; _Federal and

State Forest Laws_; _Regulations and Instructions for the Use of the

National Forests_; _The Use of the National Forests_; also part v. of

the _Nineteenth and of the Twenty-first Annual Reports of the United

States Geological Survey_, and vol. ix. of the _10th Census Report on

the Forests of North America_; and _Reports_ of the State Forestry

Commissions of New York, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan,

Ohio, &c., and of the State Geological Surveys of New Jersey, Maryland

and North Carolina. (G. P.)

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" Volume 10, Slice 6 · 第 9 / 76 题