PREFACE 
The American people are by inheritance a nation of 
forest butchers. 
Possessing a continent originally endowed with superb 
forests, unequalled in any part of the globe, the three 
hundred years which have passed since the Colonists 
landed upon the Atlantic Coast have seen the area of 
our forests diminished by 300,000,000 acres, while the 
contents have been reduced to less than half. 
To the early settlers, the forest was a continuous 
menace. Its growth covered the land needed for the 
maize fields; Indians and wild beasts of equal ferocity 
were harbored in its depths, and it is not surprising that 
our forefathers cleared off the forests ruthlessly, espe- 
cially since they believed their supply of timber endless. 
The wide-awake American eitizen of today knows 
otherwise. He has seen game like the buffalo and the ear- 
rier pigeon, considered inexhaustible, vanish before the 
relentless pursuit of the American hunter. He has seen 
the splendid stores of coal, iron, and gas enormously re- 
duced within practically a single generation. He knows, 
if he stops to think about it, that any natural resource can 
be used up, and that the end of the virgin forests is al- 
ready in sight. The trouble is that many do not stop to 
think. 
We have so long heard of the richness of our conti- 
nent, and the variety of our resources that we have con- 
sidered talk of economy beneath us. However, it is 
high time that patriotic citizens consider the question 
vil 
