CHAPTER IV 



RAISING TREES FROM SEED 



TTNTIL recent years, people in this coun- 

 try have wholly failed to appreciate 

 the importance of tree and forest culture. 

 Our natural forests have been abundant, tim- 

 ber and forest products have been plentiful 

 and cheap, and we have gone on oblivious to 

 our future needs, recklessly wasting or negli- 

 gently unconcerned about our timber and 

 forest resources. We have been, both indi- 

 vidually and as a people, wholly indifferent 

 to the priceless value of our woodlands and 

 forests as equalizers of temperature, or as 

 conservators of our springs, brooks and water 

 sources, or even as mere wood and lumber. 



The lumberman has cut wastefully, with no 

 other object than the price of his product in 

 the open market, and fires have everywhere 



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