70 



Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 



now is the manufacture of coffins. The heavy two or three inch planks 

 for this purpose are so scarce, and the cost of transporting them by 

 coolies is so high, that they sell for $2.00 or $3.00 apiece. 



Nowhere in the world is the forest cleaned off down to the very soil 

 as it is in China. When the trees are gone, the saplings, the shrubs, 

 and even the herbage are taken. Slender poles are used to build houses ; 

 inconsiderable shrubs are turned into charcoal. In the lower mountains 

 of northeastern China, where the stripping process has reached its 

 extreme phase, there is no trace of anything worthy of the name of 



forest. In ^the grave- 

 yards and courts of 

 the temples a few aged 

 cedars have been pre- 

 served by the force of 

 public opinion, and 

 poplars and fruit trees 

 planted about dwell- 

 ings are protected as 

 private property by 

 the peasant owners. 



In the province of 

 Shantung, where de- 

 forestation is practi- 

 cally complete, fuel 

 and fodder for ' cattle 

 are literally scratched 

 from the hillsides by 

 boys who go out from 

 villages with their iron 

 rakes in autumn to 

 secure Avinter supplies. 

 Grazing animals, 



In the Sierra National Forest. The ranger's horses paT . r ,y 1 i T10 i p v prv led^e 

 are waiting for their master. Notice the boards nailed v 



on the trees high overhead. They mark the depth and Crevice, Crop the 

 of the winter snows, and show which way to go when p-rass down 



the landscape is smothered by its wintry blanket. 



to the very roots. 



A dearth of wood is not the only forlorn result of forest devastation 

 a dearth of water and the ruin of the soil follow in" its train. In 

 western China, where forest destruction is not yet complete, enough 

 vegetation covers the mountains to retard the run-off of the rains and 

 return sufficient moisture to lower levels, where it can be reached by 

 the roots of crops and where springs are numerous. But on the waste 

 hills of eastern China the rains rush off from the barren surfaces, 

 flooding the valleys, ruining the fields, and destroying towns and 



