Vegetation

Grassland and scrub dominate the western half of the country, forest the eastern. It should, however, be noted that the richest stands of softwood timber are to be found on the well-watered Pacific Highlands. Washington, Oregon, and northern California are the leading sources of saw-mill timber in the United States. The coastal margins of Alaska, too, are mild enough to carry large coniferous trees, but much of the interior and the north, especially those parts away from the river valleys, is covered only with sparsely distributed, stunted trees or tundra. In the eastern United States the dominant trees are hardwoods, but valuable pine forests are found in the Upper Lakes region and in parts of the Gulf-Atlantic plain.

When the first Europeans entered the United States about half the present area was forest-covered. As in Canada, however, much timber has been destroyed in the east, both by cutting and by fire, and in some places it has simply been replaced by ‘cut-over’ land, i.e. by land under less valuable secondary trees. More care is now being taken of what remains of the former vast forest resources, the emphasis being placed, not as formerly upon ‘mining of trees’, but upon ‘farming’ them.

Over a quarter of the country is still under forest, which ranges from the mangroves and swamp-forests of Florida to the huge Douglass firs and redwoods of the Pacific States, and from hickory, walnut, and oak of the east-central states to the pines of Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains.

The United States is rich in the variety of its native forest trees, some of which, as the species of sequoia, are known. More than 1,000 varieties have been described.

The United States leads the world in the production of temperate hardwoods, largely used for furniture-making, and its output of softwoods, provides timber for constructional purposes and also wood-pulp for the manufacture of paper and rayon. The United States imports large quantities of softwoods, despite the presence of near-virgin forests in Alaska.

Mineral Resources

Among other capitalist countries the United States is noted for abundance and a great variety of mineral resources. Its territory possesses over 100 kinds of various minerals. In resources of coal and natural gas, tungsten and molibden, lead and phosphorus the United States holds the first place; in resources of copper, zinc and sulphur – the second; in resources of gold, silver, uranium, mercury and asbestos – the third. The USA is rich in oil, iron ore, various metallic ores. At the same time the country lacks a sufficient supply of some of the minerals required for modern industries. These must be imported into the United States. They include tin, nickel, manganese, chrome, cobalt, industrial diamonds, mica, strontium.

The total reserves of coal of the USA are equal to 1.5 trillion tonnes. The principal deposits of high-grade coals are concentrated in the eastern part of the United States, the main producing areas being in the Appalachian Plateau region.

The total reserves of oil are estimated to 5 billion tonnes. The chief oil-bearing area is in the southern part of the Interior Plains and the Gulf Coast Plain. Other principal oil deposits are to be found in the Pacific south-west (California) and the Rocky Mountains (Wyoming). Extensive oil-bearing areas have been discovered in the northern part of the Great Plains. Less important oil-fields are in the western foothills of the Appalachians. With the oil-basins are very closely connected the deposits of natural gas (8 trillion cubic metres, i.e. nearly one-third of the capitalist world resources).

The total reserves of iron ore are 11 billion tonnes. The chief beds of iron ore are concentrated in the region of Lake Superior. There are some deposits of iron ore in the south of the Appalachians, Birmingham, but the ores of this area are of a poorer quality, having lower iron content.

Huge reserves of non-ferrous metals are to be found predominantly on the territory to the west of the Mississippi River (zinc, copper, lead and others). Principal deposits of precious metals (gold, silver) and rare elements are in the Cordilleras. The main resources of uranium are in New Mexico. In the total resources of uranium the USA is after the South African Republic and Canada. The Cordilleras and Florida contain half of the phosphorus reserves of the capitalist countries. The Gulf coastal plain possesses the largest resources of sulphur in the capitalist world. The USA is self-sufficient in coal, copper, lead, phosphate, molybdenum and some other raw materials.