CHAPTER XXV 



PRODUCTS OF THE FOREST AND WOOD LOT 



"If thou art worn and hard beset 

 With sorrows that thou wouldst forget, 

 If thou would read a lesson that will keep 

 Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, 

 , Go to the woods and hills! No tears 

 Dim the sweet look that nature wears." 



H. W. LONGFELLOW. 



IT is natural for us to think of lumber, railroad ties, telegraph 

 and telephone poles, fence posts and fuel as among the chief forest 

 products. The early pioneers in forested districts have considered 

 the greatest forest product as being the rich soil which is left after 

 the forest is cleared away. The rich black soil, or leaf mold, formed 

 from the decay of forest leaves, twigs, branches and trunks for 

 ages past, was the great source of wealth left to the pioneer when he 

 destroyed the forest. This soil was so valuable and so greatly appre- 

 ciated by settlers that it was several centuries before the prairie 

 areas outside the timber belts were settled and used for farming. 

 There are many other articles used by man obtained from forest 

 trees. A suggestive list is given by Prof. Jackson in United States 

 Farmers' Bulletin 468, as follows: 



"Food products, such as the nuts and fruits of forest trees; 

 maple sugar and syrup. 



"Medicinal products, such as quinine from cinchona, salicin 

 from willow bark, oil of sassafras from sassafras bark, etc. 



"Small household articles, as matches, toothpicks, clothes- 

 pins, pencils, penholders, tool handles, wooden baskets, shoe pegs, 

 and wooden dishes. 



' ' Oils, such as eucalyptus oil, beechnut oil, olive oil, etc. 

 "The products of wood distillation, as wood alcohol, acetates, 

 wood tar, and common potash from wood ashes. 



"Naval stores and their related products, such as turpentine, 

 rosin, creosote, and pitch. 



"Miscellaneous products, such as cork, tannic acid, charcoal, 

 spruce gum, lamp-black, excelsior, etc." 



The Value of Wood. It is difficult for us to realize the 



immense value of wood because it is so easily accessible. The early 



settlers of America thought of the forest as an enemy to their 



progress. The wood had to be cleared from the land and burned 



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