280 AGRICULTURE 



Tree Products. Orchard and nut-bearing trees are valued for 

 their fruits. The sap of some trees furnishes useful products the 

 maple yields sugar; the pine supplies tar, pitch, and turpentine; 

 the camphor produces gum. Millions of trees are cut every year 

 to supply pulp for paper making. Tens and hundreds of millions 

 are cut to furnish wood for fuel and timber for building purposes, 

 from a matchbox to a house. 



Lumbering. Lumbering, or cutting trees for market, ranks 

 fourth among the great industries of the United States. It oc- 

 cupies many men in the eastern states and along the Gulf Coast. 

 It is the chief industry in the Northwest, in the states of Washing- 

 ton, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, where there are original forests 

 of fir, spruce, hemlock, and cedar. From sunrise to sunset the year 

 round, ax and saw are busy, harvesting the great crop which it 

 has taken centuries to grow. 



Indirect Benefits of Trees. Suppose we could do without the 



product of trees fruits, nuts, 

 resins, gums, material for fuel 

 and building. We might use iron 

 and steel for fences and ships; 

 cement and stone for building 

 purposes ; coal, oil, gas, and elec- 

 tricity for fuel. Still we should 

 be unable to do without trees. 

 Their indirect benefits are greater 



than their direct ones. Forests, 

 AN OAK TREE, GROWING IN THE OPEN 



which are trees in masses, regu- 

 late the water supply, temper the extremes of heat and cold, and 

 break the force of wind and storm. 



Effect on Water Supply. You have learned how important to 

 agriculture is the supply of water. Now let us see how this is 



