AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



from Maine to Michigan, and many are shipped across the international 

 boundary from Canada. The custom of cutting Christmas trees is 

 often condemned as a waste of resources. It has been argued that the 

 destruction in one month of 1,000,000 young trees is equivalent to the 

 destruction of 500,000,000 feet of lumber, because, if allowed to reach 

 maturity, they would yield that much lumber. That argument does 

 not take into consideration the fact that not one of the young trees in 

 ten would reach maturity if left to the course of nature. 



When Gifford Pinchot was United States forester, a protest against 

 the cutting of Christmas trees was formally laid before him. It was 

 generally believed that he would declare that the waste ought to be 

 stopped and would set his disapproval on the practice ; but he did noth- 

 ing of the sort. He declared that the forests are for the use of the 

 people and that they can serve in no better way than by supplying 

 every child in the land with a Christmas tree once a year. 



