CHAPTER 5 

 FORESTS OF THE WORLD 



Forests are important in the life of every nation because of their influ- 

 ence on the water supply, on agriculture, and on the general welfare. 



RAPHAEL ZON. 



EXCEPT for the Polar regions, we know less about the tim- 

 bered portions of our world than any other. Perhaps one rea- 

 son for this is the fact that when early man began migrating 

 over the face of the earth, he kept to the coasts and the water- 

 ways, leaving the interiors of the dark, trackless forests severely 

 alone. Then too, the superstitions of early man, and of many 

 primitive tribes today cause him to avoid the forests. Priests 

 and medicine men still tell fearsome tales that picture the for- 

 ests as the abiding places of monsters and evil spirits. The 

 Black Hills, the only forested portion of South Dakota was 

 once looked on by the Indians as haunted ground and only vis- 

 ited in search of food. 



Perhaps, a little of this heritage comes down to us, for at 

 first, most of us feel a certain misgiving when we go into the 

 deep forest. We talk in lower tones; we are not quite at ease. 

 But the open places within the forest have always been hos- 

 pitable to man. They hold grass for his flocks and sunlight for 

 his crops. Man is not essentially a forest dweller, but rather a 

 creature of the open lands near the forest. He is dependent on 



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