260 



WOOD AND FOREST. 



the woods to plant on new and richer land. The forest was also full 

 of enemies to the settler, both animals and IndianSj and was a 

 dreaded field for fire. So there grew up a feeling of hate and feai 

 for the forest. 



More than that the forest seemed exhaustless. The clearings were 

 at first only specks in the woods, and even when they were pushed 

 farther and farther back from the seacoast, there was plenty of 

 timber beyond. 



The idea that the area of this forest could ever be diminished by human 

 hands to any appreciable extent so that people would become afraid of not 

 having woodland enough to supply them with the needed lumber, would have 

 seemed an utter absurdity to the backwoodsman. * * * Thus the legend 

 arose of the inexhaustible supply of lumber in American forests, a legend 

 which only within the last twenty years has given place to juster notions. 

 (Bruncken, p. 57.) 



This tradition of abundant supply and the feeling of hostility to 

 the forest lasted long after the reasons for them had disappeared. 

 When we remember that every farm in the eastern United States, is 

 made from reclaimed forest land and that for decades lumber was 



Fig. 112. Redwood Forest Turned Into Pasture. California. 

 U. S. Forest Service. 



always within reach up the livers, down which it was floated, it is 

 not strange that reckless and extravagant methods of cutting and 

 using it prevailed. 



Following the settler came the lumberman, who continued the 

 same method of laying waste the forest land. The lumber market 

 grew slowly at first, but later developed by leaps and bounds, until 

 now the output is enormous. 



