CHAPTER VIII 



THE GROWTH OF THE FORESTRY IDEA 

 Our forests of the New World were so abun- 

 dant when the early settlers landed on the Atlan- 

 tic Coast that it was almost impossible to find 

 enough cleared land in one tract to make a 40-acre 

 farm. These thick, dense timberlands extended 

 westward to the prairie country. It was but 

 natural, therefore, that the forest should be con- 

 sidered by these pioneers as an obstacle and 

 viewed as an enemy. Farms and settlements had 

 to be hewed out of the timberlands, and the for- 

 ests seemed inexhaustible. 



Experts say that the original, virgin forests 

 of the United States covered approximately 

 822,000,000 acres. They are now shrunk to one- 

 sixth of that area. At one time they were the 

 richest forests in the world. Today there are 

 millions of acres which contain neither timber 

 nor young growth. Considerable can be restored 

 if the essential measures are started on a national 

 scale. Such measures would insure an ade- 

 quate lumber supply for all time to come. 



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