Why Should Trees And Forests Be Planted And 

 Protected In Minnesota. 



BY MILDRED RUNDELL, 

 Pillager, Minn. 



"Why do we have to plant and protect trees? We 

 have plenty of them." This is the remark that we 

 hear daily. But if we take a different standpoint, 

 these questions arise: "What will happen to the peo- 

 ple after our time? What will they have? Are we 

 to leave them without any of the great natural re- 

 sources by which we profited?" Of course we all 

 know that we still have an abundance of forests, but 

 the question is, how long will we have them? We 

 certainly will not have them long if we continue such 

 needless destruction as has been going on. 



There has been a steady decline of the lumber 

 industry in late years. Like the "cotton kings" of 

 the south, and the "cattle kings" of the west, Min- 

 nesota has had her "lumber kings." Too often they 

 were content to take the value from the forests, leav- 

 ing barren wastes behind for their heirs to use as 

 they saw fit. The original supply was so immense 

 that even after fifty years of such waste there still 

 remains 20 billion feet of white pine. But lumber 

 kings were not the only ones who destroyed the for- 

 ests. Individuals have laid waste hundreds of acres of 

 forests by carelessly setting camp or clearing fires 

 and leaving them unwatched. Beavers are also ene- 

 mies to the forests. By gnawing down trees with 

 which to build dams they destroy whole forests, which 

 could be used otherwise and to a better advantage. 



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