50 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



the forest for a great part of his living, yet spends most of his 

 time just outside its borders. 



Until a very few years ago we had no definite idea of the 

 extent or composition of the world's forests. Until rather re- 

 cently it was not important that we should have this knowl- 

 edge for the forests of the Amazon, or of north Russia were so 

 remote from the crowded places where man most needed wood 

 that it made little difference whether those far away portions 

 of the globe were forested, or as treeless as the Sahara. But 

 times change. Each hour that we are able to cut from the 

 schedule of train and steamer, each penny that we can save in 

 freight charges, bring us nearer the rest of the world and make 

 the products of other countries more important. Today no civ- 

 ilized nation is independent of other countries. There is a con- 

 stant interchange of products throughout the world and the 

 amount of timber in the forests of Russia or South America 

 has now a part to play in the world's economy. For in these 

 days of cheap transportation, timber is being shipped across 

 the earth and already the treeless countries are tapping the for- 

 est wealth of lands thousands of miles distant. 



Although the forests like all other living things have been 

 constantly changing they have changed most rapidly since 

 man made his appearance in the world. Man has been the big 

 disturbing factor in modifying the face of the earth. In pre- 

 historic times the forest undoubtedly covered a greater part of 

 the globe than now. For his crops man has cleared away much 

 of the earth's surface. He has burned over large areas that he 

 may have grass for his flocks and herds. In some regions he 

 has completely annihilated the forest. In Great Britain ninety- 

 five percent of her original great forests is gone. In the still 



