Forest Covering'Providrd by Nature to Regulate Pun--off (Page 657) 



obstacle in the way of settlement, and 

 the prime object was to get rid of them 

 in the quickest and cheapest manner. 



They had no friends or protectors, 

 and, besides the destruction from clear- 

 ing, lumbering, and accidental burning, 

 they were deliberately fired to improve 

 the range for the settler's stock, to give 

 the children and hogs a better chance 

 to gather the chestnuts and acorns, to 

 kill off the snakes, and, if there ap- 

 peared no better reason, they were fired 

 just for the fun of seeing them burn, 

 658 



The early lumbering operations con- 

 sisted in running over the country and 

 taking only the best timber wherever 

 it would pay for manufacture and trans- 

 portation, and the forests were so ex- 

 tensive that the lumbermen, by ever 

 seeking new fields for exploitation, 

 could get the pick of the standing tim- 

 ber almost for the cutting. 



Only the best timber in the best trees 

 was taken ; the rest of the forest was 

 not considered worth preserving, and 

 so what was cut and not taken was left 



