6 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



power and irrigation. Cotton mills, which for- 

 merly used water power all the year round, now 

 must depend upon more expensive steam po^er 

 generated by coal to keep their mills running in 

 times of water shortage, while during high water 

 there is the great danger that the entire factory 

 might be swept away. 



* 



THE FIRST STEPS IN FEDERAL FOREST CONSERVATION 



Gradually the national conscience became awak- 

 ened to the need of a more rational use of our forest 

 resources. But it was not until after the Civil 

 War that the first steps were taken. As was to 

 be expected, the States in which forest destruction 

 had reached its worst stages were the first to at- 

 tempt to mend their ways, thus leading the way 

 along which the Federal Government was soon to 

 follow. 



The Upbuilding of the West. The decade fol- 

 lowing the Civil War is marked by the construc- 

 tion of some of our great trans-continental rail- 

 roads and the consequent development of the great 

 western country. In fact between 1865 and 1875 

 the railroad mileage of the United States doubled. 

 The first trans-continental railroad, the Union 



