FOREWORD 



THE agriculture, industries and commerce of the 

 United States, and disastrous forest fires, have con- 

 sumed the timber of 300,000,000 acres % out of the 

 original forests of 850,000,000 acres. Most of this tim- 

 ber has been cut and marketed, or destroyed, during 

 recent years, and the remainder is rapidly vanishing in 

 the ever-increasing demands of modern activities. As 

 a nation we are fast approaching a timber famine, and, 

 unless immediate, thorough and persistent action be 

 taken for country-wide replenishment, our successors 

 will have just and ample reason for criticism and con- 

 demnation. 



Private forestry has accomplished something. The 

 few notable instances only indicate what might be 

 achieved by a general movement. A report from the 

 Department of Agriculture, approved by Secretary 

 Wilson, May 29, 1909, gives the total area of planted 

 forest land as not exceeding 965,000 acres. Yet the total 

 area of land which would yield its greatest returns from 

 planted forest is more than 56,000,000 acres. Surely 

 here is a broad and promising field for the timely 

 proposition "The Tree Planters of America." 



The suggestion is an American idea, presented by 

 the National Business League of America for the prac- 

 tical reforestation of the United States, and for the phys- 

 ical, moral and spiritual up-lifting and usefulness of the 

 American Boy of the twentieth century and the countless 



