14 OUR DEPENDENCE ON FORESTS. 



Government made up their mind tliat it was to be done ; 

 they educated the people up to the idea of doing it, and 

 so they got it done. What is there, then, to hinder us in 

 this country from accomplishing something of the same 

 nature, but in the opposite direction ? Are we prepared 

 to admit that the Germans can accomplish more than we 

 can ? Possessing the finest timber-raising climate in 

 Europe, are we to accept as an eternally fixed necessity 

 our present position of having the smallest forest area in 

 Europe, and no forest system at all ? 



CHAPTER III. 



OUR DEPENDENCE ON FORESTS. 



THERE is scarcely a sphere or occupation in life in which 

 wood does not play an important part. Look round the 

 house and think what it would be if all that is derived 

 from the forest were removed practically devoid of 

 furniture, floorless, and roofless. The worker in metals 

 without the use of wood would be as helpless as the 

 carpenter whose whole work is with timber; the miner, 

 tradespeople, the lawyer, clerk, and warehouseman would 

 be in a similar position. Without wood, tramway-cars and 

 railway - carriages would be intolerably uncomfortable, 

 books and newspapers would be high-priced luxuries, 

 and games like cricket, golf, and hockey would have to be 

 given up. Then there are the military needs : timber for 

 soldiers' huts, for the trenches, for temporary railways, 

 for dug-outs, for rifle-stocks; charcoal for trench fires; 

 and distilled products of wood for munitions. 



Our dependence on forests is no less evident when 

 we consider their effect on the atmosphere. Every child 

 knows that the atmosphere we breathe is composed mainly 



