136 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



brought forward her own forest wealth and for a time sur- 

 passed all the states in the production of lumber. Soon after, 

 Pennsylvania took the lead and contributed the cream of her 

 own forests, the growth of long centuries, to the upbuilding 

 of the eastern states. Meanwhile the country was growing 

 rapidly. Railroads were making it possible to ship great quan- 

 tities of lumber over distances before undreamed of. Mills had 

 no longer to depend on the existence of streams for transporta- 

 tion, but in their search for timber could reach back with log- 

 ging railroads into the very heart of the forests. 



By 1880 the forests of the Northeast had been bled of the 

 best of their timber and Michigan next forged to the front as 

 the foremost lumber-producing state. 



Wisconsin followed and for a time the Lake States held brief 

 lumber sovereignty and at last, when their lofty forests of 

 white and red pine had vanished, the Southern states took up 

 the burden of supplying wood to a swiftly growing nation. 

 Our whole civilization seemed to be formed on wood. It was 

 a necessity with us. Also, it was cheap and plentiful. 



No country had ever used wood to the extent that we were 

 using it. The Middle West was developing, towns were spring- 

 ing up like mushrooms, villages dotted the railroads and soon 

 grew into cities. Everyone was building and boom times spread. 

 The sawmills of the country were keeping pace with the need. 

 Mills of capacity never before known sprang into existence. 

 Day and night the song of the saw was heard. Our demand 

 for wood was more than ten times that of all France. 



We were using lumber more than the rest of the world put 

 together. We were also using lumber many times faster than 

 nature was able to replace it. On the rich pineries of the South 



