LUMBERING IN AMERICA 83 



America that it reached its most gigantic proportions ; 

 for nowhere else in the world, if we except Canada, 

 will it be possible to witness lumbering on the scale 

 American lumberers operated during the latter half 

 of the past century. The lumbering itself cleared 

 immense areas of virgin forest off the country-side, 

 but the results of the methods employed did even 

 more. All promising young growth of no commercial 

 value was destroyed during the fellings, and all the 

 parts of the trees of no use commercially were left 

 on the lumbered areas (which latter subsequently 

 became covered with a worthless scrub), to breed 

 out insect pests, especially bark beetles ; and the 

 attacks of these latter on healthy areas of forest, 

 which they killed out, have been on a scale truly 

 American in fact, on a scale commensurate with 

 that on which the lumberer was working. I have 

 alluded elsewhere to our present danger in this 

 respect from exactly the same cause. By the side 

 of the American one our case is microscopic. But 

 we have now even more to lose, because it is our 

 all, than had America in the heyday of the great 

 lumbering business when her forests were cut out 

 with a recklessness which she is now bitterly rueing ; 

 and must continue to do so for many a long day to 

 come. 



Fires, often starting in the lumbered areas, also 

 played almost as much havoc as the lumbering. 

 Probably very nearly as large an area of these 

 magnificent primeval American forests were 'burnt 

 out in some parts as fell beneath the axe of the 

 lumberer. In one way and another, by the axe, fire, 



