The Care of Trees 145 



a region where there are forests often carry water enough 

 to furnish power for mills and power houses or even for 

 navigation throughout the entire year. 



The United States Government has a Forest Service 

 which seeks to prevent forest fires and wasteful lumber- 

 ing on government lands. ,Most of the national forest 

 reserves are in mountainous districts. Some of them 

 afford pasture for large herds of cattle or sheep, others 

 are useful as game preserves. The cutting of trees 

 that are ready to be harvested is permitted, but under 

 such restrictions as to prevent the forest from being 

 destroyed. The promising young trees in a forest are 

 saved, and in time they will furnish a supply of good 

 lumber. 



In the prairie region of the West many trees have been 

 planted by railroad companies and private owners in 

 order to supply material for ties, posts, telephone poles, 

 and other uses, and setting out rough lands in trees is 

 becoming an increasingly common practice in the older 

 states. Several universities now have flourishing schools 

 of forestry, where young men are trained in the scientific 

 management of forests, and some states and cities own 

 forests and are employing foresters to manage them so 

 that they may be used continuously to meet the needs 

 of the people. 



" The city of Zurich in Switzerland has owned a forest 

 for one thousand years. It has been so carefully 

 regulated that it has furnished a definite amount of 

 timber each year for six hundred years and is today in 

 better condition than ever before. The Metropolitan 

 Park System of Boston is the best illustration in this 



