WEST PERSIA THE WOOD-FAMINE COUNTRY 



585 



A TILLER OF THE SOIL PAUSES TO PERMIT THE MAKING OF 

 A PICTURE OF A TYPICAL PERSIAN PLOUGH. 



Uut in the country the trunks of the willows are some- 

 times hollowed out and used as chutes to guide the lit- 

 tle streams down to the paddles of the water wheels 

 which grind the flour for the region. The water wheels 

 are of wood also. The snow shovels used to clear off 

 the roofs with, and the shovels and forks used in handl- 

 ing the grain upon the threshing floor are of wood. The 

 ploughs and harrows, and the machine used to thresh 

 out the grain being dragged about over the threshing 

 floor by oxen or horses, a small boy being used as a 

 weight ^these are other minor ways in which wood is 

 used. Then in the shops and in the bazaar the shutters 

 which are folded and locked up every night are of pop- 

 lar lumber, as are the frameworks supporting them. 



The conditions of life in West Persia stated in this 

 article are not the conditions of fifty years ago. They 

 are as they exist today, in 1922. To an American it 

 seems as if these people must have been lost in the 

 ignorance and backwardness of the men of the stone 

 age until early in this century. But when our ancestors 

 were running about in skins with stone hatchets and 

 spears, Darius, the Persian, was the Great King of the 

 then known world, and the Persian civilization was 

 "the" thing, and the Persian people of that time had 

 excellent reasons to expect that the world would al- 

 ways see Persia and Persian civilization at the head of 

 it. The United .States has existed now for less than 

 150 years. During that time we have taken the example 

 of Persia in regard to the treatment of our forest re- 

 sources for the most part, and are using them up now 

 just as rapidly as we can do so, regardless of every- 

 thing but the immediate present and the immediate 

 profit. Three thousand years from today no, three 

 hundred years from now what will be the judgment 



of our children's children and of that generation? To- 

 day America is a great and rich and powerful nation. 

 So were the countries of Assyria, Babylonia and Per- 

 sia in their prime. And today they do not exist at all 

 or are "backward" in every way. It is important for 

 us to consider these things if we truly love our coun- 

 try. And what we do now with our forests has a tre- 

 mendous effect on what America will be in the days 

 to come. 



HOW BIG IS A BIG TREE? 



Park Naturalist Ansel F. Hall, of Yosemite Na- 

 tional Park, has prepared this section of a giant se- 

 quoia, which was felled by a storm in 1919, to show 

 visitors how huge and how old Yosemite's trees are. 

 This tree was comparatively small only 14 feet in 



diameter at the base and nine feet at a point sixty 

 feet above the base, where this section was cut ; Yose- 

 mite has one tree that is 29.6 feet in diameter and many 

 that are more than 20 feet. This tree also was com- 

 paratively young, only 996 years old, as compared to 

 4,000 years, the estimated age of Grizzly Giant, largest 

 tree in Yosemite. 



The chalk rings on the tree indicate the years in 

 which important historical events took place Battle 

 of Hastings, Discovery of America, Declaration of 

 Independence, etc. The space between the Natural- 

 ist's forefinger and thumb measures the span of a long 

 human life to compare with the span of this tree's 

 life. 



