FORESTRY. The planting of trees for economical purposes is denominated forestry. The destruction of forests in the march 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. Thus 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 fixed area for a certain number of years. States have also passed Jaws giving certain exemptions and perquisites to those who plant trees, and some State Boards of Agriculture, and Horticultu?al Societies, have also offered liberal preihiums for systematic timber, belt, grove and forest tree planting. i This industry is yearly an increasing one in the West, and principally performed by 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 best results in tillage. Our estimate, for the West, is that if ten per cent. of the farms were planted to trees, as shelter belts, and small groves, the protection would be sufficient. The census returns estimate thirty-nine per cent. of the firms 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 beycind; 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, Germany, 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, thoscl 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 estimate of the forest area, outside of that belonging to farms, is added to the total acreage of farm 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-tenjhs 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 Territoriea is : Washington, thirty-three per cent. ; Montana, sixteen; Idaho, fifteen; Utah, ten; Wyoming and Indian, eight; New Mexico and Arizona, six; 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 TeVritories (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. The privilege of entry under this act is confined to persons who ere heads of families, or over twenty-one yearn olage, and who are 'citizens of the United States, or who have declared their intention to becoine such.