For this purpose the government has taken all forests under its care. All private owners or lease holders must report their holdings and have their property listed, and in case of failure to do so the property is forfeited. The government may then expropriate, or else regulate the cutting, or, where protective functions of the forest cover require it, may forbid cutting altogether.
A forestry school is also part of the program.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Report upon Forestry, 1878-9, by Dr. F. B. Hough; contains references to the earlier history of forest development.
History of the Lumber Industry, by J. E. Defebaugh, 1906-7; is valuable as a reference to statistical matter.
Report upon Forestry Investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1877-1898, by B. E. Fernow. House Document No. 181, 55th Congress; contains amplifications of the matter contained in this chapter.
Annual and other reports issued by the Department of Agriculture, by the various State Forest Commissions, and Forestry Associations.
For latest developments, consult Conservation (American Forestry) and Forestry Quarterly.
The great and exuberant republic of the United States, vast in extent and rich in natural resources generally, excelled and still excels in extent, importance and value of her timber resources; and, having only lately begun to inaugurate rational forest policies, promises to become of all-absorbing interest to foresters.
The marvelous growth of the nation, which from three million in 1780 had attained to a population of 76 million in 1900, and, by the last Census numbered around 92 million people, has been the wonder of the world by reason of its rapid expansion; and yet the limit is far from being reached. Annually some three-quarters of a million or more immigrants from all parts of the world arrive, and there is still room and comfortable living for at least another 100 million, if the resources are properly treated.
The large land area of nearly two billion acres (over three million square miles) is undoubtedly the richest contiguous domain of such size in the world, located most favorably with reference to trade by virtue of a coast line of over 20,000 miles, and diversified in climate so as to permit the widest range of production.
While a simple mathematical relation would make the population at present about 31 to the square mile, such a statement would give an erroneous conception of economic conditions, for the distribution of the population is most uneven, a condition which must eventually diversify the application of forestry methods in different parts of the country. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined, for instance, the density of population is 428 to the square mile, exceeding that of the similar-sized State of Würtemberg in Germany, while in the neighboring State of Maine it is not 25; the Atlantic Coast States south of South Carolina, a territory slightly larger than Germany, show about half, and the Central agricultural States about one-third the density of that densely populated country; on the other hand, some of the Western States, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico have less than three to the square mile.