How the Forests Are Wasted 



115 



nished lumber enough for a house. Sugar pine has now 

 become so valuable that it is used only for such purposes as 

 window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no 

 care of these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed 

 them to be cut and wasted in the most reckless fashion. 

 If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would 

 find hundreds and even thousands of these mighty trees 

 lying on the ground rotting. This is the work of the shake 

 or shingle maker. He has been as thoughtless in his cut- 

 ting of these giants which have been hundreds of years 

 growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs 

 up and ripens its seed in one season. The shingle maker 

 must have material which sphts well. He hunts for the 

 straightest and cleanest trees. At most he does not use 

 over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does not spUt to 

 suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to rot. 



//. W . Fairbanks 



In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is wasted. 



