image38Scene below an irrigation reservoir near Richfield, Idaho, showing a field irrigated by means of canals and ditches.
Scene below an irrigation reservoir near Richfield, Idaho, showing a field irrigated by means of canals and ditches.
We can, then, hold orconservethe water, first, by leaving the steeper slopes covered with vegetation; second, by keeping the soil loose; and, third, by building reservoirs to hold the floods. We can make use of the conserved waterby carrying it in pipes or ditches to those regions where it is needed. We can get rid of too much water by draining the swamps, and building dikes to protect lowlands from river floods.
Let us now learn something of the different uses of water. Every one of our homes has its water supply. In the city the water comes through pipes from some distant reservoir. In the country the homes are so far apart that it is difficult to supply them in this way. The water in the streams is often not suitable for drinking, and if there are no springs near by it has to be obtained by some other means. Nearly everywhere in the earth under our feet water can be found by digging or boring a well. Sometimes we have to go only a few feet, at other times many hundreds of feet. This water in the earth, orground water, is of very great importance. It enables us to build our homes where we wish. Spring water is that which finds its way to the surface through some tiny crack or fissure in the rocks. How delicious is the pure, cold water that comes out of the shady hollow in the hills! You can form in your minds a picture of the rain falling on some distant mountain, of its soaking into the ground and finally reaching the little crevices in the rocks. Along these crevices it may have crept for days and perhaps years until at last it found an outlet in some spring.
The great river flows by so quietly that we often forget in how many ways it is serving us. It serves not only those upon its banks but those who live hundreds of miles away and who, perhaps, have never seen it. It was the first and easiest means of travel used by our forefathers before there were any roads or railroads through the wilderness.It now aids in carrying on trade between different regions. If large and deep enough, it permits boats from all parts of the world to reach the very heart of our country.
Canals might be called artificial rivers. They serve an important purpose in nearly level countries where Nature has placed no navigable river. Although canal boats usually move slowly, yet they can carry goods cheaper than railroads can. The Erie Canal, in connection with the Great Lakes and the Hudson River, makes it possible for us to go all the way by water from the heart of the continent to New York City. The Erie Canal has helped make New York City the greatest city in our country. The canal across the Isthmus of Panama saves ships a journey of many thousand miles around South America.
Rivers serve us in yet another way by affording water for irrigation. A great river like the Colorado flows through regions of many different climates. Some rivers become so small in the summer that it is necessary to build great reservoirs at their headwaters in order to insure a supply when the crops need it. But in the case of the Colorado this is not necessary. The headwaters of this river are among lofty mountains, where the melting snows and summer showers make the waters of the river higher in the early summer than at any other season of the year. Thus its great delta, the Colorado Desert, has become the home of many thousands of people.
Another use which we make of rivers is by putting the water to turning mill wheels. If you will turn to your geographies, you will find that nearly all the great manufacturing cities of our country have grown up around rapids or waterfalls, where some river tumbles over a ledge of rocks.
Once we had to build our mills close to the rivers to use the water power, but this is no longer necessary. Now we build electric-power plants by the rivers and carry electric energy more than a hundred miles to any place where we wish to use it. Electricity made from the distant mountain waterfall will do any kind of work for us wherever we carry it. Thus we see that the river works for us in more than one way. After it has created power for our factories, it can be turned on to the thirsty fields, where it will serve us equally well.
image39Great Western Power Company of CaliforniaElectric-power plant on north fork of the Feather River, California, for generating electricity which is carried to distant places.
Great Western Power Company of California
Electric-power plant on north fork of the Feather River, California, for generating electricity which is carried to distant places.
We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of our wants that we could not possibly do without them. We can no more spare the trees than Nature can. She needs them in her work of protecting the soil on the steep slopes and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the springs alive. She needs them to form nesting places for the birds, and she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter and a home.
It would be strange if we did not love the trees; for they are not only useful, but add so much to the beauty of our homes. Our early ancestors may at times have made their homes in the trees, as some of the wild people do now. They certainly lived among the trees, for the myth stories that they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them.
We feel pity for the people who live in treeless deserts. The few articles of wood which they possess have to be brought a long distance at great cost. The Eskimos of the frozen North are more helpless than the desert people, for before the coming of explorers they had no communication with forested regions. They were not wholly without wood, however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed pieces upon their shores.
From the time when the earliest man found a club a better weapon than his bare fists, wood has been used for an ever-increasing number of purposes. Wood fires kept the early people warm. Wood was used in making their bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to make their rude homes.
The inner bark of the cedar and birch was used by the Indians in weaving baskets and mats. From the inner bark of the birch tree they made canoes that were so light that they could be carried from one stream to another. Where there were no birch trees, great cedars were cut or burned down and made into canoes, for traveling by water was much easier than over rocky ground or through dense forests. Some tribes of Indians learned to split the cedar logs into rude boards which they used in making their houses. The Indians also learned to boil down the sweet sap of the maple until it turned to sugar.
The eating of nuts and fruits furnished by certain kinds of trees came as natural to early men as it does to the other animals. They shared with the birds the wild fruits, and divided with the squirrels the many kinds of nuts. So highly do the Italians still value the wild chestnut that this tree, almost alone of all the forest trees that once covered their country, has been saved.
The most important uses of trees in our country are for lumber, for fuel, and for the edible fruits and nuts which they bear. There are several purposes to which logs are put without being sawed into lumber, such as for telegraph poles and for piling for the support of great buildings and for wharves. Long ago nearly all our houses were made of logs. There was then an abundance of clear, straight trees but very few sawmills. It was easy to cut the logs, peel and notch them at the ends, and then lay them up in a house of just the size that was wanted. From the logs that split easily rough boards and shingles were made, as well as chairs and tables. Blocks of wood were set in the openings cut for windows, because of the scarcity of glass.
image40H. W. FairbanksA giant sugar pine in a National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
H. W. Fairbanks
A giant sugar pine in a National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Our forefathers had all the wood they wanted just for the cutting, and so they warmed their houses by means of fireplaces large enough to hold great logs. They made of wood every tool and household convenience for which this substance could be used. Indeed, they had more wood than they wanted. Trees covered so much of the land that the ground could not be cultivated until they had been cut away. Now we wish that we had the oak, hickory, black walnut, and other kinds of trees, that the pioneers of our country burned in order to get them out of the way, for they have become very valuable.
Now, partly because wood is becoming scarce, and partly because our large buildings must be made very strong and safe from fire, we are using other materials for them. Stone, brick, and concrete, when tied together with iron beams, are more suitable material for great buildings. Our land now contains so many people, and so many new homes are needed every year, that the lumber required for houses alone is almost more than we can believe.
The forests are now disappearing so fast that unless we use wood more carefully we may have to give up our attractive wooden homes and cheery fireplaces and live in houses of stone or concrete. In many parts of the world people have so completely destroyed the forests that they have not only to make their homes of mud bricks or stone, but have little wood left for fuel and other purposes.
We cannot mention all the purposes to which wood is put in our homes and in our industries. It would take a whole page in this book merely to make a list of them. What we ought to remember, however, is that it is not so much the amount of wood that we actuallyuseas it is thewood that iswastedthat is likely to bring us to want. Two thirds of the wood of the trees cut throughout our country is wasted in its manufacture into lumber and other objects. Besides this, as much wood is burned every year in needless forest fires as is cut by the lumberman. The waste of trees that are cut merely for their bark which is used in tanning leather is a wrong for which Nature will sometime call us to account.
In Switzerland, where the forests are given the care that we bestow upon a garden, not a particle of wood is allowed to go to waste. The branches are all picked up and saved. Even the sawdust is made use of in the manufacture of wood alcohol, which has an important use as fuel.
There are many kinds of trees the sap of which has great value. If care is used in tapping the trees, they are not greatly injured and will live for years. Sap of the maple affords delicious maple sugar. The sticky sap of the coniferous trees is obtained by making a cut in the bark. Canada balsam, thus obtained, is a clear liquid from a fir tree of the same name. It is the finest of all the turpentines and is used for many purposes in the arts. Enormous quantities of turpentine are obtained from the yellow pines. The pine forests of the Southern states supply nearly all our turpentine. From this by a process of distillation is obtained resin and spirits of turpentine.
The rubber tree found in the tropical forests has become one of the most necessary of trees. Rubber made from the sap of this tree is now used for many purposes for which we have been able to find no other material.
image41Arthur D. Little, Inc., "The Little Journal"When this beautiful long-leaf pine tree is cut we manage to save only about one third of it. From the wasted two thirds of this and other pine trees we could obtain many thousand tons of paper, great quantities of resin, and other products.
Arthur D. Little, Inc., "The Little Journal"
When this beautiful long-leaf pine tree is cut we manage to save only about one third of it. From the wasted two thirds of this and other pine trees we could obtain many thousand tons of paper, great quantities of resin, and other products.
We sometimes forget how valuable trees are for various substances used in medicine. Our lives may depend onhaving such medicines within reach. Quinine made from the bark of the cinchona tree is perhaps the most important. Camphor gum is furnished by another tropical tree. The acacia supplies gum arabic. The poison, strychna, comes from a nut tree. The eucalyptus, birch, and other trees too numerous to name, supply various other medicinal products.
While we are trying to find other substances to replace wood as far as is possible, so as to keep the forests from being used up, we are requiring more and more for the manufacture of paper. The spruce forests are fast disappearing in pulp mills, from which the blocks of wood emerge as sheets of paper. Perhaps after a time we shall find something to take the place of wood in the manufacture of paper.
The one use to which we put the trees, which does not destroy or injure them in the slightest, is growing them for their fruit and nuts. We take great care of such trees, selecting the best varieties and cultivating, trimming, and spraying them in order to keep them healthy and strong. The better the care that we give them, the finer and larger become their fruits.
Trees are valuable to us in so many ways and appeal so deeply to our love of the beautiful things in Nature that we should all be interested in them. If we give the trees a chance, they will do their share toward making our lives comfortable and happy.
Our forefathers who came across the water to America found forests stretching away from the water's edge into an unknown wilderness. The settlements spread very slowly into the pathless woods, for there lurked danger from the Indians and wild animals. The Allegheny Mountains also held the settlers back for a long time.
The pioneers found the country, as far as the Ohio River and beyond, still forest covered; but by and by openings orprairiesbegan to appear. By the time they had crossed the Great River the forests had been left behind, except for fringes of trees upon the lowlands along the streams.
From this point westward the open prairies stretched away to the horizon. Antelope, deer, and buffalo were often seen feeding on the rich grasses. The adventurous pioneers pushed on across the fertile prairies, coming at last to a drier and higher region which we have called theGreat Plains. On these plains the Rocky Mountains came in sight. These mountains gradually became higher as the travelers approached, until they rose before them like a mighty wall. Here they again met vast forests, which covered all the higher slopes.
Beyond the Rocky Mountains they crossed a broad land of deserts where little rain fell. The vegetation was so scanty and springs so far apart that many of their horses and cattle died. The dreary and barren deserts were followed by another lofty range of mountains. Entering these mountains, the pioneers came upon the most magnificent forest that had yet been seen upon our continent. After traveling for some days over rugged mountains, they at last emerged from the forests upon the Great Valley of California.
image42A forest of great trees in the Sierras, near the Yosemite Valley.
A forest of great trees in the Sierras, near the Yosemite Valley.
Scattered over portions of the valley were oak trees, giving it the appearance of a park. When the valley had been passed the pioneers climbed the last mountain range, and from this range looked down upon the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Here they found forests again, some of the trees being of enormous size. Thus we see that the eastern part of the continent was nearly all forested, but that in the West the forests grew chiefly on the mountains, because there is not enough rainfall upon the plains and in the valleys.
The trees that make up most of the forests of our country are of two very different kinds. There is one kind that has narrow or needle-like leaves which they keep through the winter. These we commonly callnarrow-leavedtrees orconifers. The most important of the narrow-leaved trees are the pines, firs, spruces, and hemlock. Such trees form the forests of the greater part of the highlands of the northern and northeastern parts of our country. The pines also find a congenial home upon the lowlands of the Southern states. Trees of the second kind have broad leaves, and usually their wood is rather hard. Hence we call thembroad-leavedorhardwoodtrees. Since most of these trees drop their leaves in winter, we often speak of them asdeciduoustrees. By far the larger part of the lands of the Eastern states that are now cultivated were found by the first settlers to be covered with hardwood trees. We are familiar with many of the hardwoods through their use in furniture and various household utensils and farm implements.The most important varieties are the walnut, hickory, chestnut, beech, maple, ash, oak, elm, locust, and linden.
There are not many broad-leaved trees in the forests of the West. The children of the West miss all the nut trees that the boys and girls of the East enjoy. But to make up for this lack there are some in the West that are not found in the East. The sugar pine, the piñon pine, and the digger pine afford delicious nuts which once formed an important article of food for the Indians. In the West the broad-leaved trees do not form dense forests. They are scattered among the pines on the lower mountain slopes, in the valleys, and along the streams. The most important of these trees are oaks of many kinds, soft maple, alder, cottonwood, sycamore, and laurel.
The dense forests of the Western mountains consist almost wholly of narrow-leaved trees. Among them are the pines and firs of different kinds, spruce, cedar, redwood, and "big trees." The redwoods and "big trees" are both known as sequoias; they grow to an immense size upon the mountains of California. The coniferous forests of which these trees form a part are among the most wonderful and interesting ones on the earth.
If you will take a forest map of our country and place it beside a rainfall map, you will quickly discover why the forests are found where they are. You will see that the forests are found where there is more than thirty inches of rain each year, except in the far North, where it is very cold. You can say, then, that the climate is the chief thing that determines where the forests shall grow.
image43George J. YoungMountain hemlocks, which John Muir considered the most beautiful of all conifers.
George J. Young
Mountain hemlocks, which John Muir considered the most beautiful of all conifers.
If the climate is warm and the rainfall heavy, the forestvegetation is so dense and rank that you can hardly travel through it. Such forests are found in the tropical parts of the country. Where little rain falls there is scanty vegetation, as upon the deserts of the Southwest. But where it is very cold, even if there is much snow or rain, you will find no trees.
We must not forget that there is another thing that affects the growth of trees, and that is the soil. Pines like a sandy soil, while most other trees do not. Certain cedars and cypresses like swampy places where no other trees will grow. Many beautiful meadows and prairies have no trees, because the soil is not well drained.
It is very easy to understand why trees cannot grow where it is dry, but how shall we learn of the effect of cold upon them? Shall we have to take a journey of thousands of miles into the far North, until we finally come to the land called theBarren Landsortundras, where the trees become stunted and at last disappear—a land where they cannot longer fight against the cold and live?
Fortunately such a long journey is not necessary. All we have to do is to climb a great mountain range, like the Sierra Nevadas, to pass through all the different climates which we would experience on a long journey to the arctic regions.
It is only a few miles from the hot San Joaquin Valley, at the base of the Sierras, where it is so dry that irrigation is necessary, to the summit of the range, where the winter climate is as cold as it is in the arctic regions.
image44George J. YoungEast Vidette, King's River Country, California, showing how, as we approach the summit of the mountains, the trees become smaller.
George J. Young
East Vidette, King's River Country, California, showing how, as we approach the summit of the mountains, the trees become smaller.
In going up the mountains we first come to the foothills, where there is a little more rain than in the valley. Here we find oak trees growing. Farther up there is still morerain and we come to the pines. Soon we reach the most wonderful coniferous forest in all the world. Here not only is there a great variety of trees, but because of the favorable climate they grow to a great size. As we approach the summit of the mountains the trees become smaller, and at an elevation of about two miles they shrink to the size of little bushes and finally disappear. They can no longer stand the fierce winds and cold storms of this arctic region.
We have learned now that the trees do not grow haphazard over our country, but that the rain, the temperature, and the soil determine where they can live.
Within the heart of the forest the trees will come again if we cut them down, but upon its borders, where the air is drier, it is more difficult for them to spring up anew. If we cut them down carelessly and allow fires to burn over the surface, and the water to wash away the soil, they may never come back.
It is important, then, that we understand why trees grow in some places and not in others, in order that we may know how to take care of them.
Every living thing is engaged in a struggle for air to breathe and for something to eat. Those that make their homes on the land also have to struggle for water. The stronger rob the weaker; for, among all of them except man, might always makes right. Men are learning that unselfishness is the better way, although they do not always practice it.
In this struggle the animals have an advantage over the plants, for if food fails in one place they can move to another. Among the animals also the mother tries to protect her children; and, in the case of some,—the wolf, for example,—a number will hunt together for the common good.
It is quite different with the plants. They must grow where the seeds take root. If there is little sunlight or water or the soil is poor, they must make the best of what they have.
The plants have to struggle not only with such enemies as insects, winds, fire, and browsing animals, but with each other, for every tree is the real or possible enemy of every other tree. Brother seeds sprouting under the same parent maple struggle with each other for the food and moisture in the soil and for the best place in the sunlight. The one that gets the most of these will grow the faster and choke some of its weaker brothers.
image45Edward S. CurtisTrees that struggle with cold and storm.
Edward S. Curtis
Trees that struggle with cold and storm.
In yonder grove of pines there are trees of all ages and sizes. The older ones have much the advantage and take a part of the food and sunlight that the smaller ones require.How the little ones stretch up and grow tall and slender in their attempt to get the sunlight! But in spite of all their efforts some of them must die.
Some kinds of trees grow faster than others. Where a number are springing up together, the slow-growing ones will stand less chance of ever becoming great trees. In this way the yellow pine sometimes chokes out the cedar, and the fir gets the advantage of the sugar pine.
The bright, warm sun is the enemy of the tree that loves the shady hillsides. The swamp is the enemy of the tree that must have loose, dry soil. The cold is the enemy of the tree that is used to a hot climate. Is it not strange that what is good for one tree is an enemy of another?
Many kinds of trees have their own particular insect enemies which attack them and no others. Some of these insects live upon the leaves, others eat the sapwood under the bark, while a few attack the roots. Certain insects burrow in and eat the heartwood. Although this does not always kill the tree, it weakens it and makes the wood unfit for use. The cedar and the hickory are among the trees injured in this manner.
The foliage of the broad-leaved trees is the delight of many insects. They sometimes eat the leaves so closely that the tree is killed; for the trees breathe through their leaves and can no more do without them than they can without their roots.
The gypsy moth, which did no great harm in its European home, was brought to this country and accidentally set free. It at once began to attack the leaves of the elm, that beautiful tree of the old New England villages. Now it is destroying other trees and, notwithstanding the fight whichwe have made against it, we have not yet been able to exterminate it.
image46American Forestry AssociationInsects are destroying the trees of this forest.
American Forestry Association
Insects are destroying the trees of this forest.
The chestnut tree, which every Eastern child loves for its nuts, is now being destroyed by a fungus which may kill every one of these trees in the country.
The white-pine blister, also brought over from Europe, is now threatening all the white pines and the related trees of our country. This disease has already such a start in the East that we may not be able to stop it.
The dainty mistletoe, about which there are so many pretty Christmas legends, is a deadly enemy of many trees. The seed of this fungus is carried, by the birds or by the wind, from one tree to another. When it sprouts, tiny roots go down through the bark to the sap, on which it feeds until the tree is killed.
image47Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.A dwarf white pine which has found a foothold in the rocks on a mountain top.
Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.
A dwarf white pine which has found a foothold in the rocks on a mountain top.
All our fruit trees have their deadly enemies which causea loss of many millions of dollars every year. Among the worst of these is the San José scale, which was carelessly brought into the country from China.
The pear blight has destroyed whole orchards of pear trees in the Western states. The citrus canker is now threatening the orange orchards of the Southern states.
For years we have been searching over the world for new and better varieties of fruit trees. With the shipments of such trees we have brought some of the worst of the diseases that we have just mentioned. We should have all foreign trees most carefully inspected before admitting them to the country. We should also be very careful about shipping fruit or other trees from one part of our country to another. Diseases are often carried in this way into places which otherwise they could not reach.
Field mice, gophers, and rabbits eat the bark of young fruit trees and kill those which are not carefully protected. In some parts of our country the apple and peach tree borers are a serious menace to young orchards. Grasshoppers occasionally come in dense swarms and eat the leaves from every tree or plant in their path.
The valuable sugar pine of the Western mountains is not seeding itself as rapidly as it should, and we fear it will become extinct. The beautiful silver-gray squirrel loves the nuts of this pine, and it is said that he eats so many that few are left to sprout and make new trees. For this reason some people would like to make it lawful to kill all the gray squirrels that one wished. This would be too bad, for we do not believe the gray squirrel is the cause of the trouble. It is more likely that the lack of young sugar pines is due partly to its struggle in the forest with more rapidly growing trees and partly to the less frequent occurrence of forest fires to burn off the humus on the ground. We know that the seeds of certain trees find difficulty in sending their roots down through the humus to the soil beneath.
image48H. W. FairbanksAn avalanche has passed through this forest.
H. W. Fairbanks
An avalanche has passed through this forest.
The narrow-leaved or cone-bearing trees, which are the main source of our lumber, also have other enemies. The most destructive of these are the little pine beetles which lay their eggs in the bark of the yellow pine, sugar pine, and tamarack pine. From these eggs there hatch worms which burrow under the bark until they cut off the flow of the sap. This kills the trees. The trees that are young and strong are sometimes able to pour out enough sap into the wounds to drown the insects, but many thousands of trees in the Western mountains are destroyed every year by these insects.
Wind and lightning are both enemies of the forests.Hundreds of forest fires are set every summer by thunder storms, but the rangers usually discover such fires soon enough to put them out before they have done much harm.
The pasturing of forests by stock does great injury, because of the browsing and trampling underfoot of the young trees. Sheep and goats are the worst of all the animals and should be kept out of those forests where the surface particularly needs protection and where the young trees require all the encouragement that Nature can give them in order to make a successful start in life.
We have learned something about the many enemies of the trees, but the worst one has not yet been mentioned. Can you guess what it is? This terrible enemy is man,—not savage man or Indian, but civilized man. Although man has more need for forest trees than has any other animal, he is at the same time more ruthless in his treatment of them. Man destroys more trees every year, as a result of fires which he sets and of his wasteful methods of lumbering, than all the other enemies of the trees put together.
The forest area of the world is constantly growing smaller, and we must soon learn to treat the trees with more care or they may, like many of the wild creatures, nearly disappear from parts of the earth where they are most needed.
O forest home in which the songbirds dwell!The squirrel and the stag shall miss the spellOf thy cool depths when summer's sun assails,Nor more find shelter in thy shadowed vales.
All will be silent; echo will be dead;A field will lie where shifting shadows fledAcross the ground. The mattock and the plowWill take the place of Pan and Satyr now.The timid deer, the spotted fawns at play,From thy retreats will all be driven away.
Farewell, old forest; sacred crowns, farewell!Revered in letters and in art as well;Thy place becomes the scorn of every one,Doomed now to burn beneath the summer sun.All cry out insults as they pass thee by,Upon the men who caused thee thus to die!
Farewell, old oaks that once were wont to crownOur deeds of valor and of great renown!O trees of Jupiter, Dordona's grove,How ingrate man repays thy treasure troveThat first gave food that humankind might eat,And furnished shelter from the storm and heat.
Pierre de Ronsard,translated byBristow Adams;American Forestry, XVI. 244
When our grandfathers came to America they found the country so covered with forests that they had to cut and burn the trees in order to obtain the ground on which to raise their crops. The Eastern states could not have been settled without clearing the land, and we cannot blame the pioneers for doing under those circumstances that which today would be very wrong.
image49H. W. FairbanksThe farmer wastes the trees by girdling them and then allowing them to rot.
H. W. Fairbanks
The farmer wastes the trees by girdling them and then allowing them to rot.
There is now enough land so that it is no longer necessary to destroy the trees in order to raise our food supplies. The forests constitute one of the great natural resources of our country and men should not be allowed to waste them for private gain.
Although the need for more land has long passed, the habit of reckless tree cutting still continues. There are now parts of the East where none of the primeval forest remains and very little of the second growth. Firewood is expensive and many a farmer has to buy coal, who, if he and his ancestors had been careful, might have a woodlot to supply not only fuel, but lumber for his buildings.
Many of the lands once cleared were found not suited to farming and have been left to grow up to brush. If the farmer were wise he would replant some of these lands with such trees as spruce, hickory, walnut, or maple. Although his ancestors toiled early and late to get thesetrees out of the way, a few acres of them now would be a fortune.
There are parts of our country, particularly in the South and West, where the settlers are still cutting the trees to get them out of their way. In distant mountain valleys where there is no market for lumber, men are chopping down the great pines. They would make fine lumber, for they are tall and straight, but instead of being put to some useful end their fate is the bonfire. It makes no difference to these men that they are wasting what it has taken Nature hundreds of years to produce nor that in other parts of the country timber is scarce and expensive.
In Germany and Switzerland the forest resources are carefully looked after. As fast as the grown trees are cut from a field, young trees are planted in their places. The keeping of a certain part of the land in forest is held to be of advantage to all the people. For this reason men are not allowed to cut trees upon their own land without permission from the forest officer.
Many years ago, when lumbering became an important industry and the mills began to turn out immense quantities of boards and beams of every sort needed by the growing population of our new country, it was believed that the supply would never be used up. Only the best and clearest logs were sawed into lumber, and a large part of each tree was left on the ground to rot or to feed the first fire that occurred. Now lumber is scarce and expensive; and the poorer grades also are in much demand.
Have you ever seen the giant sugar pines on the slopes of the Western mountains? Next to the sequoias they are the largest of our American trees. A single tree has furnished lumber enough for a house. Sugar pine has now become so valuable that it is used only for such purposes as window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no care of these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed them to be cut and wasted in the most reckless fashion.
If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would find hundreds and even thousands of these mighty trees lying on the ground rotting. This is the work of the shake or shingle maker. He has been as thoughtless in his cutting of these giants which have been hundreds of years growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs up and ripens its seed in one season. The shingle maker must have material which splits well. He hunts for the straightest and cleanest trees. At most he does not use over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does not split to suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to rot.
image50H. W. FairbanksIn turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is wasted.
H. W. Fairbanks
In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is wasted.
The waste of the lumberman is not so great, but it is enough to open our eyes to one of the reasons for the rapid disappearance of our forests. On the average only about one third of the wood of every tree cut is actually used. The rest is lost in the logging operations and during the various processes through which it passes before it reaches our hands.
In addition to the waste of the trees actually cut, there is the loss of the young trees due to careless logging. Too often the lumbermen do not care in what condition the logs leave the forest. They want only the trees now fit for lumber, and they want to get them in the easiest way possible.
Instead of going through the forest and picking out only the ripe or mature trees and leaving the rest for a later cutting, the lumbermen usually take everything that has any present worth. Trees that are less valuable for lumber, such as the firs, are used for skidways and bridges, and when no longer needed for these purposes are left on the ground. No care is taken to see that the great trees fall with the least possible damage to the young growth. Upon the preservation of the young trees, which almost everywhere occupy the open spaces between the large ones, rests our hope of a future forest.
When the work of lumbering in any particular region is finished, the sight is such as must make Nature weep, for it almost brings tears to our eyes. The young trees are broken and crushed to the ground, branches and fragments of the trunks lie scattered about, while above the ruin rise those trees not considered worth cutting. The once beautiful and majestic forest is now ready for fire. Somepasser-by may drop a lighted match or cigarette, and you can easily form a picture in your mind of what happens.
image51H. W. FairbanksThe shake maker wastes the larger part of a great sugar pine that has been a thousand years in growing.
H. W. Fairbanks
The shake maker wastes the larger part of a great sugar pine that has been a thousand years in growing.
In the countries of Europe lumbermen are very careful; not a particle of the cut tree goes to waste. The logs are sawed without removing what we call "slabs." The sawdust is saved and used in the manufacture of wood alcohol. If we saved all the present waste in the logging and milling of our pines, we could make all the turpentine needed in our country. If we saved what is now wasted of the poplar and spruce, we should have material enough to make all the paper we use.
There are still large and valuable forests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range, and the Coast Ranges.These regions were settled later than the Eastern states, and parts of them are yet remote from markets.
Our wise lumbermen are beginning to understand that it is better to cut over the forest carefully, so that by and by there will be another crop. Nature is doing all she can to keep up the supply of trees, and, if we give her half a chance, there will be timber enough both for us and for those that come after us. The forest crop is like any other crop, except that it cannot be cut every year.
Every one should understand that he has an interest in the forest. Although he may not own a foot of land, yet his prosperity depends in part on how the forests are managed.
If the forests are not taken care of, there will sometime be a wood famine. If the mountain slopes are stripped of their trees, the streams will no longer run clear and the low streams in summer will lead to a water famine, which in turn might easily cause a bread famine.
He who wantonly kills a tree,All in a night of God-sent dream,He shall travel a desert wasteOf pitiless glare, and never a stream,Nor a blade of grass, nor an inch of shade—All in a wilderness he has made.O, forlorn without trees!
He who tenderly saves a tree,All in a night of God-sent dream,He shall list to a hermit thrushDeep in the forest by mountain stream,With friendly branches that lead and shade,All in a woodland that he has made.O, the peace of the trees!
He who passionately loves a tree,Growth and power shall understand;Everywhere he shall find a friend.Listen! They greet him from every land,English Oak and the Ash and Thorn,Silvery Olive, and Cypress tall,Spreading Willow, and gnarled old Pine,Flowering branches by orchard wall—Sunshine, shadow, and sweetness of glade—All in a Paradise he has made.O, the joy of the trees!
The Dryad's Message
Have you ever seen a forest fire? It is a terrible sight to see the flames sweep up a mountain side. They run along the ground licking up the leaves and dead branches. They leap from tree to tree, and then with a roar the sheet of flame goes to the top of a tall pine. The air is like the breath from an oven and is filled with sparks and withsuffocating smoke. The birds and animals flee away in every direction.