CHAPTER II 

 THE VALUE OF FORESTS 



" When I go to the woods, it is like going among old and treas- 

 ured friends, and with riper acquaintance the trees come to take on, 

 curiously, a kind of personality, so that I am much fonder of some 

 trees than of others, and instinctively seek out the companionship of 

 certain trees in certain moods, as one will his friends." 



DAVID GRAVSON. 



WHEN considering the value of the forest to man, one 

 naturally thinks first of those things about him which are 

 made of wood. This does not mean that we fail to recognize 

 that our wooded tracts have other values, but simply that 

 these are the things we are apt to think of first. We know 

 that our houses, our furniture, our machinery, our vehicles, 

 and many other things are at least partly wooden. In a 

 more or less hazy way we admit that to have a supply of 

 wood we must have forests. Most people stop thinking 

 there. They have nothing with which to think. The mind 

 which is the organ of thought may not fail them, but 

 knowledge, which furnishes the material for thought, is 

 lacking. Anyway, why should we worry? Have not the 

 politician and the immigration agent assured us time and 

 again that our forest resources are inexhaustible? There 

 is clearly, if this be true, little need to inquire exactly the 

 value of what the forest furnishes us, so long as we are sure 

 its products will always be forthcoming. 



Of late we have not felt so secure. A general rise of 



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