INTRODUCTION. 



THE FOEEST AND CIVILISATION. 

 " Lea forets precedent les peuples 



Les deserts les suivron " JACQUOT, 



AT the beginning of this book it has been thought fit to give a brief 

 -*- resume of the history of forests in relation to mankind ; to 

 indicate the dependence of man on the forest and the results nations 

 have suffered from the destruction of the forest in which their civili- 

 sation sprung up. 



" Under primeval conditions the greater part of the surface of the 

 earth was covered with forest, they very name savage signifies the 

 people of the wood. Man lived on the fruits of the forest, the forest 

 was his home, his sanctuary, the trees of the forest his god. The 

 arms of Rome were never able to penetrate the black depths of the 

 Hercynian forest, stretching for endless days march beyond the Ehine. 

 As conditions of life became more settled, as the population increased 

 and agriculture began to flourish, the valley lands were cleared for 

 villages and cultivation. As the demand for land grew, so more and 

 more of the forest was destroyed. Presently the valley land was 

 used up, the demand for fields, for building timber and firewood 

 increased. The herds of cattle were turned off the cultivated land to 

 graze where they might ; the forests were burnt by the carelessness 

 of man. In time and in some countries they where practically 

 destroyed. With the destruction of the forest on the mountain the 

 prosperity of the valley only too often disappeared. The above 

 sequence of events has been going on in the world from the beginning 

 of civilisation and at the present time is best exhibited in North 

 America where the vast forests which covered that country within 



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