Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/798

778 census report of our forest resources is the attempt made by Professor Sargent to give at a glance, by means of maps, the history and present condition of our woodlands throughout the country. In the census of 1870 maps had been used for the purpose of showing the distribution of our native and foreign population, the greater or less degree of illiteracy in different portions of the country, and the areas of land devoted to the cultivation of the great staples, corn, wheat, and tobacco. The vital statistics were also, to some extent, reduced to the map form, and the deaths from consumption, fevers, and some other classes of diseases were presented in the same way.

In the census report now in preparation this plan of presenting classes of facts at once through the eye by means of maps is applied to the woody covering of the country. More especially, the object has been to show the present extent of the supply of pine-timber, as being of chief importance in connection with the lumber industry of the country, and so bearing, more or less directly, upon many other interests and occupations. The hard-woods, also, where prevalent to any considerable extent, are of course denoted on the maps. Otherwise, their amount and localities are briefly described in the accompanying text of the report.

In general, one map is devoted to each State or Territory, though in the case of Vermont and New Hampshire the two are grouped together. The maps are carefully prepared, and the engraving and printing in colors are such that the eye perceives at once in what portion of any State or Territory the supply of pine is undiminished, and where and to what extent it has been cut off. It is also made apparent at once where the pine has exclusive possession of the soil, and where it grows mingled with the hard-woods.

In connection with the maps, but on a separate page, the statistics in regard to the lumber-supply are given in properly arranged tables, these with the corresponding map constituting a "Forestry Bulletin." The first of the Bulletins to be printed was that relating to the "Pine Supply of Texas," and a brief description of this will show the method pursued in all. The map of Texas is on a scale of one hundred miles to the inch. The water-courses are given with great completeness, and the county lines as far west as the one hundredth parallel. The map is so printed in colors as to show the parts of the State abounding respectively in the short-leaved or loblolly pine (Pinus tæda) mixed with the oak and other hard-woods; second, those abounding in the short-leaved or yellow pine (Pinus mitis), mixed with oak and other hardwoods, together with a little loblolly pine; third, those abounding in the long-leaved pine (Pinus Australia), and, fourth, the regions from which merchantable pine has been cut off. A glance at the map shows that Texas is poorly supplied with pine-timber, the entire State, with the exception of the few eastern counties, being uncolored, which indicates the absence of trees in any such numbers