■6 EVERGREENS. 



ing the denuded lands and many private owners see the need 

 of saving the youni; trees that there may be a perpetual lumber 

 harvest. The Government from now on will retain the timber 

 lands and have the lumbering done under their own supervision, 

 cutting out the ripe trees and saving the younger ones. 



One of the most powerful factors in this work of restoration 

 is the persistent and tremendous energy of Nature, which with 

 a. motherly forethought hastens to the rescue. 



If you visit the Rockies or the Black Hills you will notice 

 that everywhere she is following up the ax and the firebrand 

 with an alertness which is remarkable. Here is a vast tract; 

 every tree sound enough for use is cut away. A few charred 

 and marred ones are lett standing. Threaten a tree with death 

 and what does It do? It is in tremendous haste to reproduce 

 Itself. No tree believes in "race suicide." Apple trees are 

 threatened with death by root pruning and girdling and in alarm 

 at the danger of extinction they load themselves with fruit. 

 So these charred remnants of the forest are laden with seeds 

 and the seeds have wings. The strong autumn winds whirl 

 them out over the ground. They come up by the million and 

 grow like weeds. You visit one of these young forests — the 

 ground is covered with vigorous little trees from twelve to 

 twenty-four inches tall. Ten years after you go again and they 

 are twenty feet high. They are busy day and night, eager to 

 restore the waste. Nature has so arranged that some varieties 

 retain the seeds locked up in the cones with a vicelike grip, 

 and they are not released till a fire passes over, when the cones 

 are unlocked, and the seeds shoot out to take root in the ashes — 

 springing up by the million. When Nature is aided by man 

 the work of restoration is soon under way. In the East, farms 

 are often worn out and deserted. The soil is washed away, 

 and the people have gone. Then Nature moves in. The seeds 

 ■of the White Pine come merrily whirling and dancing through 

 the air, with hop, skip and jump, they take their places among 

 the chips, stones and brush and lo. in a year or two there are 

 thousands of thrifty little pines. They grow rapidly. In thirty 

 or forty years those fields have made better returns than they 

 made in the same period with all the grubbing and stone gath- 

 ering, all the sweat and toil which the owner gave to those re- 

 luctant acres. 



Tou have noticed a- peculiar kind of lumber used for shoe 

 boxes. It is harder, and the grain is coarser than the common 

 White Pine from the northern forests while there are la. great 

 many sound knots in it. This is the vigorous second growth 

 of the White Pine of New England. The logs are sawed up 

 three or four feet long. They are cut Into thin boards and then 

 are edged so as to save all the lumber possible. I think one 

 of the finest spectacles in the old Bay State is to see these 

 young and thrifty groves with their bright green foliage taking 



