HARVESTING THE FOREST CROP 121 



east is found the fringe forest composed of oak, cotton- 

 wood, elm, sycamore, basswood, etc., which gradually 

 merges into the regular hardwood forest, composed of 

 hickory, ash, black walnut, etc., of the territory which 

 is now Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. 



The spruce and pine forests of Maine and northern 

 New York and the hard pine forests of the Southern 

 coastal plains complete the list of forest regions, 

 differing in density and kind but all valuable. 



So much for the kinds of timber that awaited the 

 ax ; a storehouse containing, it is estimated, 5,200,000,- 

 000,000 board feet, exceeding in amount any like 

 area upon any part of this globe. Since the first 

 sawmill was erected in Virginia in 1608 more than 

 half (2,700,000,000,000 board feet) of the original 

 supply has been consumed by fire and commerce com- 

 bined. 



Early Lumbering. The first sawmills erected in this 

 country were exceedingly crude; water furnished the 

 power and the daily output was from 1000 to 3000 

 board feet a day. The development of the saw- 

 mill by the American lumberman to its present per- 

 fection, with a daily maximum output of from 750,000 

 to 1,000,000 board feet, is a triumph of Yankee 

 ingenuity. The history of the lumber industry is a 

 story of a struggle against big odds and one con- 

 taining much romance and many soul-stirring epi- 

 sodes. At first only the best logs were taken by 

 the Colonial lumberman. The pine trees of New Eng- 

 land furnished many a mast for the sailing, ships of 

 the world, and those that were stamped with the broad 

 arrow were reserved for the English Navy. Maine waa 

 the center of the lumber industry of the New World 

 for a long time and the "pumpkin" pine was the great 



