CHAPTER XVI. 

 FORESTRY. 



The forests of the United States constitute, next to its 

 agricultural lands, its greatest natural source of wealth. 

 In wood alone they yield an annual product exceeded in 

 value only by the output of our farms and mines. In the 

 order of their importance, our leading productive indus- 

 tries are. farming, mining, grazing, and lumbering; but 

 this makes no account of the vast amount of wood grown 

 and used locally for fuel, fencing, building, and other 

 purposes. Again, lumbering stands fourth in the list of 

 our manufacturing industries, being surpassed only by 

 the iron and steel, the textile, and the meat-packing indus- 

 tries. The value of the forests in promoting our national 

 welfare is much greater even than these facts indicate. 

 Wood is directly or indirectly essential to all of our indus- 

 tries. Mining requires timber for shores and props. 

 Transportation, vital to all industries, demands that our 

 forests be preserved; for trains run on wooden ties, 

 and rivers and canals are made navigable by the water 

 which forests store. ^Manufacturers and merchants re- 

 quire wood for their wares and for boxes and crates. The 

 wage earner needs it that he may be cheaply housed. 



The farmer is no less benefited by forests. He draws 

 on the forest for fencing, firewood and building materials. 

 He may add to his income by the sale of material from 

 his woodlot, which furnishes him with work at a time of 

 year when he can do little else that is profitable. In many 

 regions he may protect his family, his stock, and his crops 

 by planting forest trees as windbreaks, protecting from 

 the blizzards of winter and the hot winds of summer. 



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