280 FOREST OUTINGS 



from the Tree of Jove. Three thousand years before Christ was born cedar, 

 cypress, and pine helped establish the maritime supremacy of an ancient 

 Mediterranean civilization to which all the world is heir and debtor. Nehe- 

 miah used timbers for city walls and gates when Jerusalem was rebuilt. 

 Here in our own land, forests sheltered, fed, and clothed the American 

 Indian. Larders of Pilgrim Fathers were often stocked with venison and wild 

 turkey. Tall masts of New England white pine helped a tiny fleet defy the 

 Mistress of the Seas. Beaver hats and mink coats founded many a for- 

 tune. And trees helped make log cabins and cradles, towns, telephone lines, 

 and transcontinental railroads. They were vital to the winning of the West, 

 and the building of a nation. 



"Out of the forests came the might of America — wealth, power, and 

 men." There is a world of truth in that statement by Jenks Cameron. Our 

 homes are a crop of the forest. So are our books, our newsprint, our furni- 

 ture. And in these modern times perfumes, plastics, naval stores, surgical 

 absorbents, fiber containers, and thousands of everyday things are forest 

 products. Farm woodlands yield fence posts, maple sugar, pulpwood, mine 

 props, fuel, and other products that exceed in value the annual crops of rye, 

 barley, and rice combined. Wages paid workers in the forests and forest 

 industries support 6 million people. Two million live on wages paid for 

 transporting and selling products of the forest. Carpenters, furniture mak- 

 ers, and other artisans of wood support 5 million more. In all, and directly 

 and indirectly, America's forests provide the necessities of life for nearly 

 one- tenth of her population. 



Besides all these values there are human values. The tempo of our 

 daily lives has speeded up. Each year we experience less of natural physical 

 activity and greater mental strain. In bustling office or crowded street we 

 long for the friendly forest. Woodland recreation fills a definite need in 

 our lives now, and we plan for it consciously. 



Trees to the People . . . Planned new plantations such as those of the 

 field windbreaks seem likely, as time goes on, to offer more and more, es- 

 pecially to dwellers in our great treeless prairie and High Plains country, 

 places of rest. 



