wood for us. Many farms in the state are bare 

 prairie. Every farmer should have a woodlot and if 

 the farm lacks one, the part of it that would be 

 most profitably planted to trees should be so used. 



Then, too, the trees themselves furnish us food 

 products. For example, we can make maple syrup 

 and sugar from the maple sap, and vinegar from 

 birch sap. From others we get nuts and small fruits 

 such as plums, grapes, high bush cranberries, rasp- 

 berries, blackberries, etc. 



One of the greatest values of forests is the effect 

 they have on the climate of the open country near 

 the region where they are located. The thick matting 

 of leaves found in forest areas prevents too rapid 

 evaporation of the water that conies from rain and 

 melting snow and thus enables this water to run off 

 gradually through springs and small rivers. Their 

 moist atmosphere and the exhalation of vapor through 

 the leaves increase the rain fall in the surrounding 

 country. Besides this the forests give us shelter from 

 heat and cold. The trees also prevent floods and 

 they hold moisture. As long as there is enough forest 

 area the rain water is stored in the forest humus and 

 is given off little by little to the open country as it 

 is needed. When the forests are cleared, the rains 

 which come in the spring, because they no longer have 

 the spongy beds of forest leaves to soak into, rush 

 down the slopes carrying the best soil and flooding 

 the valley which becomes parched and dry later on 

 when a dry season sets in. 



Forests that have been taken care of such as our 

 Itasca State Park and others serve as places for re- 



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