FORESTRY. 183 



DESTRUCTION OF THE FOREST. What has destroyed this 

 great forest ? First of all, the settler had to clear the soil for 

 his roads and for his fields of grain and of pasture. In early 

 days of settlement two of the principal products of the farm 

 were the logs and timber from the body of the trees and the 

 ashes made from burning the top branches and small cuttings. 

 To-day the cutting of lumber is removing year by year large 

 quantities of trees, but the natural growth of young trees is 

 more than sufficient to make up for this cutting, if properly 

 carried on. The great agent of destruction to-day is fire. 

 One forest fire will sweep away or destroy in a few weeks in 

 summer or autumn far more than all the lumbermen remove. 

 The fire burns rapidly because of the inflammable material, 

 such as resin, in the evergreens. At the same time it destroys 

 the young sprouting seedlings and the seeds also, which would 

 otherwise soon start a new forest that in twenty- five or forty 

 years would replace the old forest. 



BENEFITS OF FORESTS. Of what use are the forests? In 

 the first place, they are a great protection against cold winds, 

 modifying the climate as great wind-breaks. They also hold 

 back the snows of winter, preventing spring freshets. When 

 the country is laid bare of its trees, the creeks and streams are 

 full in early spring and dry in midsummer. 



Although the trees give off enormous quantities of water 

 through their leaves, yet they hold back or store up in the 

 loose leaf mold larger amounts of water. The trees, therefore, 

 hold back the snow, and later hold back the water, and thereby 

 save the creeks from becoming dry. They also save the hills 

 from being washed bare. The loss of soil washings by the 

 creeks in spring is heavy. Every spring, therefore, should be 

 shaded by trees at its source, and every stream, no matter how 

 small, should be protected, not alone at its source in the high 

 lands, but also along its course, by at least a fringe of trees. 



