148 THE FOREST TREE CULTURIST. 
it is in every department which contributes to our national 
progress. (Government may grant as many charters for 
public improvements as corporations may ask for—give 
away land to the landless; but take away our forest 
trees, and all these privileges would be worthless. 
We have one kind of Evergreen tree which has con- 
tributed more to the wealth and prosperity of the coun- 
try than all the gold and silver mines on the. continent 
have or ever will. | 
The White Pine has contributed much material to 
build cottages and palaces, from Maine to the Mississippi; 
scarcely a dwelling, church, or other public or private 
building to which this tree has not contributed more or 
less. It has been so plentiful, that its real value has not 
been appreciated. Great forests of pine have been robbed 
of its best trees, and the others wantonly destroyed; but 
the time has now arrived when we begin to feel that there 
is a scarcity, for where only ten years since pine lumber 
brought only ten dollars per thousand feet, it now readily 
sells from forty to sixty, with no prospect of its being any 
cheaper. This great increase in price is not owing to the 
scarcity of labor, as some tell us, although it may be par- 
tially so at present; but it is mainly owing to the difficulty 
in getting the trees from which the lumber is made. If 
the price continues to advance—and there is no reason 
why it should not—it will be but a few years before lum- 
ber will be beyond the reach of the poor, or even the 
middle classes ; and these will have to resort to the adobe 
and tile for their building materials. 
As the few become wealthy, the more costly materials ~ 
a eee 
a ne 
ve ee 
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