CHAPTER IX 
FOREST TREES AND PRODUCTS OF THE TROPICS 
“Of the wheels of public service that turn under the Indian 
Government there is none more important than the Department 
of Woods and Forests.” —Aipling. 
How little we really know of the vast resources 
of the tropics. The woods of the Amazon Basin 
have an almost priceless value. ‘‘ Nowhere in the 
“is there finer timber, either 
world,” says Agassiz, 
for solid construction or for works of ornament; and 
yet it is scarcely used even for the local buildings.” 
Probably one-half of the whole land surface of the 
earth is between the tropics, and fully one-half of this 
has hardly been explored. The very richness and 
luxuriance of the tropical forest has hindered its de- 
velopment. Civilization, in spite of the cold, or 
rather with the help of cold and fire, could use 
to better advantage, in the beginning, the great 
coniferous forests and the grain and _ grass-yield- 
ing plains. The conquest of the tropics is the 
work of the future. The trade between east and 
west is between countries of practically the same 
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