FORESTRY. The planting of trees for economical purposes is denominated forestry. The destruction of forests in the marcli of civilization was long ago recognized as an injury by European governments, and remedial means have been long since employed in their reinstate ment by artificial planting. This almost all the European governments now have special officers -whose duty it is to supervise this work In the United States we have no such officers, but con gress was awakened to the importance of forestry through the representations of Horticultural Societies and, principally in the West, this resulted in the passage of laws for the protection of the public forests and, later, laws giving public lands to settlers on public lands, who planted'. and tended a fixea area for a certain number of years. States have also passed laws giving certain exemptions and perquisites to those who plant trees, and some State Boards of Agriculture, and Horticultural Societies, have .also offered liberal premiums for systematic timber, belt, grove and forest tree planting. 'This industry is yearly an increasing one in the West, and principally performed hy the farmers in prairie districts, for protective purposes. In France it is estimated that at least twenty-five per cent. of a country should be in wood land to produce the hestresults in tillage. Our estimate, for the West, is that if ten per cent. of the farms were planted to trees, as shelter helts, and small groves, the protection would be sufficient. The census returns estimate thirty-nine per cent. of the farms of the United States, excluding the Territories, as being in wood land. The esti mate of the Department of Agriculture of the United States is twenty-nine per cent., and including the entire area of the States and also the Territories, twenty-nine per cent. The illustration we give shows—the figures on the blank surface the area of the States mentioned and the figures on the black surface the area of timber. In this connection, we may add that the impetus given of late years to timber plant ing in the West, bids fair to clothe not only the States immediately east and west of the Missis sippi river with a sufficiency of timber for the best results in tillage, but more especially in the Territories beyond; but there is yet a wide field to be filled in providing future timber for eco nomical purposes in the arts and manufactures. The showing, as given on page 369 would place the United States below Norway, Sweden Russia, Gerraany, and above all other European States, in the proportion of forests. In relation to these
countries the German writer, Reutzsh, gives the following figures.
In some of the States the farm lands comprise nearly the entire area, exclusive of lakes and streams; in others, those more recently settled, and also some of the original thirteen, the unoc cupied or wild lands constitute a considerable proportion of the whole area. Thus Maine has 5,835,058 acres in farms, while her area includes 22:400,000 acres of land and water. In the table following, an estirnate of the forest area, outside of that belonging to farms, is added to the total acreage of farra woodlands, to make the esti mated total area in forest. In estimating the pro portion in woodland, the water surface on lakes and streams, the prairie, the ledges and other wastes incapable of producing trees, must be taken into consideration. After canvassing the facts affecting this proportion in the several States of the area eXclusive of farms, one-half was assumed to be in forest in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan , Florida ; six-tenths were taken for Arkansas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Louisiana; seven-tenths for North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee; one-third was taken for Massa chusetts, New York, and New Jersey ; one-fourth for Texas and Oregon ; one-sixth for Wisconsin and Minnesota; one-eighth for Iowa; one-tenth for Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois ; one-twelfth for California ; one-twen tieth for Kansas, Nebraska and Nevada. The pro portion assumed respectively for the Territories is : Washington, thirty-three per cent. ; Montana, sixteen; Idaho, fifteen; Utah, ten; Wyoming and Indian, eight; New Mexico and Arizona, sik Dakota, three. The result of adding this outside forest to that of the farm lands is given in the following table, which shows the percentage of forest area of States and Territories (second col umn) in comparison with the census percentage, which includes only the official count of farms: A recently enacted law of the United States, for the encouragement of timber growing, con tains provisions as follows: 1. Tbe privilege of entry under thia act is confined to persona who are heads of families, or over twenty-one years of age, and who are citizens of the United Statea, or who have declared their intentiun to become auch.