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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



AS THE COLONISTS FOUND IT VIRGIN WHITE PINE 

 AND HEMLOCK 



nating a certain section of the almost continuous war 

 which cruelly oppressed the people for several centuries. 

 A war of kings, into which the people were thrown 

 without voice of protest or knowledge of cause or object. 

 War had been so completely the occupation of the nations 

 for so many years that economic, social and moral struc- 

 tures had fallen into utter ruin. 



Property was so closely concentrated in the hands 

 of a few, and the tyranny of that few was so absolute, 

 that mere life for the peasant had become a matter of 

 painful uncertainty and at best a possession of doubtful 

 value. To him all of the necessities of life were rare 

 luxuries and none more rare than the products of the 

 forest. In that once heavily timbered country the rem- 

 nant of the once vast forests had become a taboo hunt- 

 ing ground for the pampered noble, an accursed place 

 where men were incontinently hung to the nearest trees 

 for the snaring of a rabbit and where women froze to 

 death in the midst of the wood, that his Grace's roebuck 

 might not be disturbed. 



Restrictions met burgher and peasant alike at every 

 turn. May-poles were forbidden;, all baking had to be 

 done in common ovens, and the people of one town 

 might not have their bread baked in another unless they 



brought their wood with them ; people were buried in 

 canvas bags to save the wood of a coffin ; a green bush 

 hung in front of an inn the immemorial symbol to ad- 

 vertise the sale of liquid refreshment was no longer 

 permissible ; the manufacture of charcoal and potash 

 was narrowly restricted or stopped altogether. To have 

 what little wood one could not get along without was to 

 be rich. 



Such, in brief, were the unbearable conditions of an 

 intolerant and bigoted Europe at the time that a few 

 courageous but desperate spirits threw their little all 

 recklessly out upon an uncharted sea in the forlorn 

 hope of finding relief from persecution and the where- 

 withal to live in the little known country of America. 



The first thing that these same wood-starved people 

 saw when the cry of land sent a thrill of hope through 

 the little band of well-nigh despairing voyagers, was the 

 rim of a mighty forest, of such a forest as they had 

 never visualized in their wildest dreams or their loftiest 

 flights of imagination. Unbroken it met their gaze as 

 far as the eye could reach. And no matter where they 

 chose to land it was always the same ; whether it was the 

 French in Canada, the English at Plymouth, Jamestown 

 or Philadelphia, the Dutch at New Amsterdam or the 



TO THE COLONIST THE FOREST OFFERED A HOME- 

 BUT HE HAD FIRST TO SUBDUE IT BY CUTTING 



