CHAPTER FOURTEEN 



COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES? 



We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of 

 our wants that we could not possibly do without them. We 

 can no more spare the trees than Nature can. She needs 

 them in her work of protecting the soil on the steep slopes 

 and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the 

 springs ahve. She needs them to form nesting places for 

 the birds, and she needs the dark forest so that the wild 

 creatures may find shelter and a home. 



It would be strange if we did not love the trees ; for they 

 are not only useful, but add so much to the beauty of our 

 homes. Our early ancestors may at times have made their 

 homes in the trees, as some of the wild people do now. They 

 certainly Uved among the trees, for the myth stories that 

 they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of 

 the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them. 



We feel pity for the people who live in treeless -deserts. 

 The few articles of wood which they possess have to be 

 brought a long distance at great cost, The Eskimos of 

 the frozen North are more helpless than the desert people, 

 for before the coming of explorers they had no communica- 

 tion with forested regions. They were not wholly without 

 wood, however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed 

 pieces upon their shores. 



From the time when the earliest man found a club a 

 better weapon than his bare fists, wood has been used for 

 an ever-increasing number of purposes. Wood fires kept 

 the early people warm. Wood was used in making their 

 bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to 

 make their rude homes. 



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