88 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



to the railroads to encourage building. By 1870, 

 25,832 lumber manufacturing companies, some of 

 very large size, were in full-time operation. Lum- 

 ber interests ranked second in the bulk and value of 

 the national products. 



And the dissipation of our colossal fortune of 

 forest had only begun. 



What has happened since then the swelling of 

 destruction's tide, the concentration of enormous 

 fortunes of forest lands in the hands of a few com- 

 panies without compensation to the nation, the cli- 

 max of greed, the sobering of a few, the organiza- 

 tion of conservation and beginning of the war of re- 

 covery, the passage of saving laws when the spoils- 

 men of Congress were not looking, the upbuilding 

 thereunder, amid a din of protest, of a great admin- 

 istrative service of conservation, the constant as- 

 saults in Congress upon this service even to the pres- 

 ent time, and the recent discovery of a new tremen- 

 dous usefulness for the remaining forest that of 

 recreation will be outlined in order. 



First, for perspective's sake, let us view our 

 great forest as it was originally, 



AMERICA'S HERITAGE OF FOREST 



The forests which confronted rather formida- 

 bly the early settlers of the country were magnifi- 

 cent in the extreme. We shall first consider that in 

 the East. 



In its northern section, including the states 



