IMPORTANCE OF A SUPPLY OF WOOD. 75 



this earth, such insist that trees should always be cut 

 during certain phases of the " pale orb of night," but for 

 some reason they fail to agree in this matter, some in- 

 sisting on the wane, others the new, etc. , but such super- 

 stitions have long since become obsolete among men who 

 know anything of natural history in any of its various 

 branches. 



CHAPTER XII. 

 IMPORTANCE OF A SUPPLY OF WOOD. 



No one who is at all familiar with forests and their 

 products, needs to be reminded of the importance of 

 having at hand an abundance of wood of various kinds, 

 or how much it contributes to the general welfare and 

 happiness of a nation. But there are those who have 

 not paid much attention to this subject who claim, and 

 no doubt honestly believe that the great progress made 

 of late years in the use of iron in place of wood in build- 

 ing houses, bridges, piers, ships, and other structures, 

 are but indications of what is to follow, and that in a 

 few years there will be no great demand for wood in any 

 form. 



The building of railroads, which reach almost every 

 part of the country, has aided in the distribution of 

 coal, and made this in a great measure a more convenient 

 and in many instances a cheaper fuel than wood, but in 

 building these roads a vast quantity of wood has been 

 used, and of the best kinds, not only for ties, of which 

 nearly or quite three thousand are put down per mile, 

 but on many of the roads wood is still used for fuel. 

 There is now nearly or quite one hundred thousand miles 

 of railroads in the United States, and we have only to 



