166 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



forests of spruce, pine, maple, walnut, and other godgiven 

 natural resources in the form of timber land, but they 

 heeded not and went forth with ax and saw and laid 

 low the sapling and mighty cedar until mountains be- 

 came sandhills and the valleys desert lands without 

 springs of water." Thus will run the 

 new version of the fall of man to be 

 read by future generations with 

 meanings of grief and despondency. 

 And it might be added that when 

 those who dwelled upon the earth 

 went forth to eat of the tree of 

 knowledge, lo, the lumbermen had 

 been before them, and the tree with 

 its branches had been cut and sawed 

 into commercial lumber at so much 

 a foot, or made into blank sheets of 

 paper to wait generations for worthy 

 inscriptions by people devoid of 

 wisdom and original thoughts. 



Any day notice may appear in the 

 headlines of some good old conserva- 

 tive newspaper you and I might 

 mention circulating among New 

 England descendants, with the fol- 

 lowing horrible announcement: 



"Due to the shortage of lumber, 

 shares are now on sale in the latest incorporated timber 

 company preparing to cut and saw into usable and practi- 

 cable lengths the large forest of family trees rooted in 

 the old hulk of the Mayflower. A large part of the newly 

 acquired lumber lias already been contracted for by furni- 

 ture firms 

 for the pur- 

 pose of re- 

 pairing sev- 

 eral ship- 

 loads of cra- 

 dles, chairs, 

 beds teads, 

 etc., which 

 'came over' 

 in the May- 

 flower." 



Picture the 

 cons terna- 

 t ion and 

 panic that 

 would be 

 cau sed by 

 such an an- 

 nouncement, 

 and imagine 

 the number 

 of societies 

 which would 

 immediately 

 spring up for 

 the conser- 



UNKNOWINGLY, THE NEWSBOY CRIES 

 THE STORY OF THE DEPARTED TREES 



vation and preservation of American forests. The tor- 

 est with its mystery and its beauty, its cool shade, its 

 murmuring of innumerable leaves has always been the 

 abode of idealism; and when men think of getting back 

 to innocence, and elemental purity, it is to the forest 

 they go. The tired business man as 

 [he heat of summer approaches finds 

 himself breaking loose and fishing 

 the cold streams, or clambering to 

 the top of some noble wood-covered 

 mountain there to breathe new life 

 and to prepare for another winter of 

 monotonous grind. 



What would childhood be like 

 without the forest Think back to 

 your own boyhood or girlhood and 

 try to picture your youthful years 

 without Little Red Riding 'Mood, 

 the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, 

 Hop 'o My Thumb, Peter Pan, and 

 a host of others including the Babes 

 in the Woods, Sleeping Beauty, etc. 

 Let us strike all trees and woods 

 from literature until the public has 

 a proper realization of what the tall 

 timber means to civilization. 



If it is more effective to appeal to 

 the practical than to the sentimental, we have not far 

 to go. Walk down Fifth Avenue, New York City, on 

 a frosty morning and take note of what you see. There 

 will meet your eye a veritable circus procession of the 

 creatures of the wood. The otter, rabbit, fox, wolf, 



bear, coon, 

 squirrel, 

 mink, sable, 

 beaver, leop- 

 ard, and a 

 host of smal- 

 ler creatures, 

 a 1 1 uncon- 

 scious so 

 far as their 

 wearers are 

 con cerned. 

 that not one 

 w o u 1 d be 

 there were it 

 not for the 

 forest home 

 where they 

 live in den 

 and dingle. 



Fur -bear- 

 ing animals 

 will surely 

 d i s a p pear 

 with the 

 wholes ale 

 d e s traction 



