82 A PRIMER OF FORESTRY. 



and the great coast redwood, and its most important 

 timber is the fir. 



The forests of the Philippine Islands cover an area 

 of more than 40,000,000 acres. Their timbers, almost 

 wholly different from those of the United States, are 

 exceedingly valuable, both as cabinet woods and as 

 construction timber. An efficient forest service was 

 organized in 1898, and following its reorganization in 

 1902 a new and excellent forest law was passed in 1904. 

 The Philippine forest service costs but half as much 

 as the revenue received from the forests of the islands. 



The island of Porto Rico contains a national forest 

 reserve, the site of which was once covered with valu- 

 able hardwoods; but this forest has been much abused. 

 Porto Rico, like the Philippines, has many kinds of 

 wood valuable for cabinetmaking. 



THE SETTLER AND THE FOREST. 



When the early settlers from the Old World landed 

 on the Atlantic coast of North America they brought 

 with them traditions of respect for the forest created 

 by generations of forest protection at home. The 

 country to which they came was covered, for the most 

 part, with dense forests. There was so little open land 

 that ground had to be cleared for the plow. It is true 

 that the forest gave the pioneers shelter and fuel, and 

 game for food, but it was often filled with hostile 

 Indians, it hemmed them in on every side, and immense 

 labor was required to win from it the soil in which to 

 raise their necessary crops. Naturally, it seemed to 

 them an enemy rather than a friend. Their respect for 

 it dwindled and disappeared, and its place was taken by 

 hate and fear. 



