356 B. E. FERNOW 



No other country in the world has been so blessed with 

 useful tree species as the United States. While some of the 

 tropic countries excel not only in the extent of their forest 

 areas, but also in the total number of the arborescent forms, 

 they fail to produce the variety of qualities which we find in 

 our forest wealth, and especially are these countries deficient 

 in that class of timber which is most needful for a rapid de- 

 velopment of civilization, namely, construction materials. So 

 it happens that Brazil, in spite of its endless forests, imports 

 its building timber and lumber from us, and the distance to 

 Australia is not large enough to prevent us from supplying 

 those English colonies with lumber from the Pacific coast, in 

 spite of the magnificent forests of eucalyptus and other species, 

 which, good enough for some purposes, are not as serviceable 

 as our conifers. 



A combination of qualities, which offers lightest weight 

 compatible with greatest strength and stiffness, ease of work- 

 ing and the possibility of securing large quantities of long and 

 clear material, is what we look for in building timber, and this 

 combination is found in the coniferous woods, the pines, 

 spruces, firs, cedars, redwoods, hemlocks, cypress, which are 

 called "soft woods" by the lumberman, although some of 

 them are rather harder than some of those called "hard 

 woods," among which are classed all the broad leafed trees, 

 no matter whether they are soft or hard, when worked with 

 cutting instruments. In addition to their qualities, the fact 

 that these coniferous species occur gregariously makes their 

 cheap exploitation possible and adds to their value. The 

 northern temperate zones abound in this class of woods and 

 one may not improperly ascribe to this fact, in part at least, 

 the rapid progress of civilization in these regions. Without 

 such cheaply and easily transported material the develop- 

 ment of the vast prairies would have been at least much 

 slower and more difficult, if not impossible. Few of the set- 

 tlers in those forestless regions realize the debt of gratitude 

 they owe to the forest. 



Again, no other country in the temperate zone can boast 

 of such a variety, enormous development in size, and large 

 quantities of these most useful species as we command in 



