168 USES OF FORESTS AND OTHER 



order to make thefti reasonably habitable during 

 the blizzards and to shelter the stock. 



The character of the forests varies greatly in 

 different parts of the world. The noblest woods 

 of the earth are probably those of North America. 

 The district of the Appalachians from Northern 

 New York to Alabama, though much harmed by 

 the woodsman's axe and more by fires, still presents 

 the finest areas of broad-leaved trees in the world. 

 Individual members of related kinds in other coun- 

 tries may be nobler specimens of growth, but 

 nowhere else are the -woods so continuous and 

 so luxuriant over a wide-spread surface. In the 

 western parts of the continent, near the Pacific 

 coast, the narrow-leaved coniferous trees take on 

 a lofty growth. The great Sequoias or Eedwoods 

 of California are probably to be ranked as the 

 noblest plants in the world, being only approached 

 in size by some of the great trees of Australia, 

 which do not, however, attain the same majesty 

 as those of the Pacific coast. 



Where trees grow in the close-set order of the 

 forest they attain a greater height than in the 

 open ground. For great forests have been devel- 

 oped in the endeavor of each tree to overtop its 

 neighbors and obtain a measure of the sunshine, 



