FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



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FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



STORY OF FORESTS AND FORESTRY 





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L ORESTS AND FORESTRY. The use of 

 the word forest to describe a heavily wooded 

 tract of land is so common that it seems 

 strange to think that it did not always have 

 that meaning. In earlier years in England 

 a forest did not necessarily have any trees 

 it was just a stretch of land of any sort, pasture 

 land or even village land, which was set apart 

 for hunting, and usually belonged to the king. 



Kinds of Forests. The name forest is from 

 the Latin joris, meaning out-of-doors, and once 

 upon a time, in far bygone ages, the name 

 would have been very suitable, for all out-of- 

 doors was almost literally covered with trees. 

 There were bleak mountain tops, it is true, 

 and also far polar regions where the climate 

 was too cold to allow any vegetation to grow, 

 but all between was forest land. Each zone, 

 then, must have had its own particular kind 

 of trees, and to-day, in the forests which re- 

 main, the same differences of type are noticed. 

 Soil and climate are the great factors in 

 determining not only whether land shall be 

 grassland or forest, but in determining what 

 kind of forests shall grow in certain localities. 

 And of climate conditions moisture is by far 

 the most important. Given a sufficient rain- 

 fall, no matter how this may be distributed 

 throughout the year, a forest will grow; and 

 only in regions of very heavy rainfall are such 

 dense, luxuriant forests as those of the Amazon 

 country possible. 



Of the various kinds of forests, there are 

 three which are most important to people in 

 temperate zones. In the cooler regions are 

 to be found those huge groves of cone-bearers, 

 which the scientist calls conifers the pines, 

 spruces, firs and hemlocks which are so dom- 

 inant a feature of the Northern United States 

 and Canada. Growing among them, and light- 

 ing up in the autumn with their marvelous 

 tints the gloom of the evergreen shade, are 

 frequently to be found beech, birch and maple 

 trees in profusion. 



In the warmer temperate regions flourish the 

 familiar "woods" of oak, maple, beech, chest- 

 nut and other hardwood trees, nowhere to be 

 found in more typical form than in the East- 

 ern United States and Southern Canada. 

 These are all deciduous trees that is, they shed 

 their leaves at the approach of winter; for 

 only in their naked, leafless state can the trees 

 present to the dry winter winds an evaporation 

 surface sufficiently small to enable them to live. 



The third type of temperate-region forest 

 is not so widespread as these two, but is found 

 in abundance in coastal regions. It, too, is 

 made up of evergreen trees, but its evergreens 

 have not the narrow, needle-like leaves of the 

 cone-bearers. Some of the forests of Califor- 

 nia, with their madronas and strawberry trees, 

 illustrate this type. 



Where Forests Grow To-day. Of its original 

 forest growth every continent still possesses 

 large tracts, and almost every country in the 

 world has some forest never touched by the 

 hand of man. The heaviest forests are found 

 in South America, along the Amazon, where 

 the jungle with its undergrowth and its climb- 

 ing, intertwining vines is so dense that passage 

 through it is impossible. Africa has a forest 

 area almost as rich, but nothing like these two 

 areas exists in any of the more thoroughly 

 explored continents. Of the countries of 

 Europe and North America, Canada has the 

 largest forest area over 600,000,000 acres; but 

 Sweden, with 50,000,000 acres, has the largest 

 proportion of its surface under trees forty- 

 eight per cent. The United States ha's 550,- 

 000,000 acres of forest land, or about twenty- 

 five per cent of its total area. Great Britain, 

 with 3,000,000 acres of woodland, has the 

 smallest proportionate amount of any impor- 

 tant country^-only four per cent but Switzer- 

 land has a smaller actual amount 2,000,000 

 acres. 



The Deforesting of Land. The first comers 

 to most lands have found them forested. 



