Lumbering and Forest Products
135
NITED STATES
"TREGIONS
NESTERN FORES'I 5
«3 PACIFIC COAST FORES
E7773 ROCKY MOUNTAIN FORES
N FORE®"™
"HERN FOREL
NTRAL HARDWOO.
OUTHERN FOREST
"enDIrAl FOREST
Fig. 107. Only about two fifths of the standing timber of the United States is now found in the
eastern section ; and only one twenty-fifth of this supply is in the forests northeast of the Ohio.
The Rocky Mountain states have about a tenth of the total supply, and the Pacific forests have
half of it. Washington, Oregon, and California, therefore. have the reserves of lumber for the
whole country.
The forest regions of the United States. Figure 107 shows the five
forest regions of the United States. aside from Alaska. They are as
follows :
(1) The northeastern forest stretches from Maine westward to
northern Minnesota, and southwestward along the Appalachian
Mountains to northern Alabama. In Canada it broadens to include
nearly a fourth of that country.
In the United States the most common tree in this northeastern
forest was originally the white pine. But because this pine is so
light, strong, durable, and easily worked, it is wanted for nearly
everything, from houses to matches; no other wood is so generally
useful. Hence the white pine has become very scarce, and its price
is soaring higher and higher. Other trees in this forest are the
spruce and the hemlock, whose lumber, although much poorer, is
taking the place of the white pine. These trees thrive in the cold
climate of the northern United States and the Appalachian heights.
Many broad-leaved trees, such as maples, beeches, birches, and oaks,
are scattered throughout the region. The northeastern forest now
supplies less than one tenth of our wood.
(2) The central forest in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and south-
ward is sometimes called the hardwood forest. because the chief trees