OUR FORESTS, PRESENT AND FUTURE 
Because of the constantly changing standards of utilization 
and the lack of detailed knowledge of total stands regardless of 
size or present merchantability, there are no exact figures covering 
our forest resources. National inventories have not been taken, 
but estimates have been made which do give a broad picture of 
the situation, and an indication of trends. 
It is estimated that originally there were about 822 million 
acres of standing timber in the United States. To make way for 
agriculture and other land uses the original area has been reduced 
to 470 million acres,—our present area of forest land, composed 
of virgin timber, second-growth, and cut-over areas not reproduc- 
‘ng. It is significant that, despite great expansion of agriculture, 
our present forest land area comprises nearly a quarter of the total 
land area of the United States and is but slightly less than the area 
of improved farm land. It is also well distributed geographically, 
as shown by Figure 3. 
There is little likelihood that the present area of land avail- 
able for forests will be reduced in the future. In fact the tendency 
is in the opposite direction. A recent study of the poorer agricul- 
tural lands in New York state indicates that there is a maximum 
area of about six million acres in that state alone which has proved 
unprofitable for agriculture. For several decades the area of 
farm land in New England, Pennsylvania and the Lake States has 
seen decreasing. The poorer lands simply cannot compete in 
crop production with the more fertile lands. 
In 1920 the Forest Service compiled all data available bear- 
‘ng upon the distribution of our forest land. The statistics shown 
in Figure 4 are based upon these estimates. No attempt has been 
made to account for virgin timber lands which have been cut since 
then, for losses through fire, for increases through growth. or for 
other changes which have taken place. 
Despite 300 years of use we still have left two-fifths of our 
virgin timber. Most of our remaining virgin timber is in the West 
as shown by Figure 5, which is the last region opened up to lumber- 
ng. In the South nearly 20 per cent of the original virgin timber 
remains. In the Northeast, Central and Lake States, however, but 
ittle of the original timber is left. 
The stand of timber per acre is much greater in the West than 
:n any other section of the United States. Douglas fir, Sitka 
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