The Black Swans 



where nothing stood before, and hardy 

 conifers are now growing, while he 

 governs, into timber that some day 

 may be sadly needed. 



Once upon a time the upper Ohio 

 River valley was famous for its forests. 

 Here and there Indians had opened 

 little clearings where squaw-farming 

 helped forefend the hours of famine. 

 In the wide expansion of the arts of 

 agriculture that followed the great 

 wave of emigration that poured over 

 the Blue Ridge from the Old Dominion 

 after the close of the War of the 

 Revolution, the Virginia pioneers, 

 first in Kentucky and then in southern 

 Ohio, laid the axe ruthlessly to a 

 million monarchs of these ancient for- 

 ests. The soil into which for uncounted 

 generations they had sent their roots 

 was now wanted for the plow. Huge 

 heaps of logs were rolled together and 

 put to the torch; great oaks, walnuts, 

 hickories and beeches "in one red 

 burial bent." They had no value then 

 [22] 



