[ganesha]

The percentage of land used for agriculture also affects forest cover. In 1880, 50 percent of the Northeastern U.S. was farmland. Now it is 20 percent farmland. By contrast the midwest is 80 percent farmland. When the farms were abandoned the trees grew back. In some places native American indians set fires to that there would be more grazing land for the animals which they hunted. The oil industry did replace burning trees, and coal, and whale oil but trees still are a major construction material.

[James Lewis]

When the farms were abandoned the trees grew back.

There is very little "abandoned" land today. And, it depends on what we mean by "agriculture." Tree farming is a major industry in our country. Even the publicly owned parks and forests are managed to produced wood products. When tree farming, private and public, is added to traditional farming, I'd expect to see something near 90 percent of the land in the Eastern US in agriculture. Even the mountains are managed for tree production. But even still, I'd have a hard time accepting the idea that we have more "trees" today than when the Pilgrims landed. I've seen the stumps left from the harvest of virgin trees in Souther Swamps. We can only imagine what a forest of 175 foot tall yellow pines stretching from Texas to Virginia was like. The number of trees may be greater today. But, can we compare the 40 to 60 foot typically harvested tree of today to the giants of that time. I don't think so.