466 United States. 



valued at say 25 million dollars per annum. But the 

 indirect damage to forest and soil, changing the com- 

 position, baring the soil,and exposing it to erosion and 

 washing, turning fertile lands into wastes, and brooks 

 and rivers into torrents, is incalcuable. 



There is no doubt that at the present rate of con- 

 sumption the bulk of the virgin supplies will be used up 

 in a measurable time, which will force a reduction in 

 the use of wood materials; a more or less severe 

 timber famine is bound to appear, indeed, has be- 

 gun to make its appearance; and all recuperative 

 measures will not suffice to stave it off, although they 

 may shorten the time of its duration. 



2. Early Forest History. 



The early colonizers, settling on the Atlantic Coast 

 soon after the discoveries of Columbus, did not, as is 

 usually believed, find an untouched virgin forest. The 

 aboriginal Indians had, before then, hewn out their 

 corn fields, and had supplied themselves with fuel 

 wood and material for their utensils; and fires, acci- 

 dental, intentional, or caused by lightning, had, no 

 doubt, also made inroads here and there. The white 

 man, to be sure, is a more lavish wood consumer; his 

 farms increased more rapidly, his buildings and his 

 fireplaces consumed more forest growth, and careless- 

 ness with fire was, as it is still, his besetting sin. More- 

 over, a trade in timber with the Old World developed, 

 in which only the best and largest-sized material 

 figured. Wastefulness was bred in him by the sight 

 of plenty, and the hard work of clearing his farm acres 

 incited a natural enmity to the encumbering forest. 



