CHAPTER VIII 



UNITED STATES NATIONAL FORESTS 



/^NCE upon a time, all that is now the United 

 ^^ States, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great 

 Plains, was one vast, unbroken forest. The first 

 explorers and the first missionaries to the Indians, 

 coming, as they did, from the East, found the 

 woods, the woods, and evermore the woods. 



But the settler entering the country found this 

 forest-cover a hindrance and a trouble. It was in 

 his way in prospecting, in mining, and in farming, 

 and he used the quickest means of getting rid of 

 it — the fire. The railroads that crossed the 

 Rocky Mountains cleared their right of way by 

 fire, and let the flames spread beyond control, 

 taking no thought of the tremendous damage done 

 to the country. The forest trees had been at work 

 for a century or more, building valuable timber. 

 The forest floor beneath the trees had been gath- 

 ering little by little a quantity of plant nourish- 

 ment left in it by decaying twigs and leaves, by 

 moldering leaves and stumps. In the spongy black 

 soil was the stored richness of a thousand years. 

 All this was destroyed in a few hours. 



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