2 



INTRODUCTION. 



have spent many millions of dollars in restoring tlieir forests: 

 others have lost territory that they can never regain. History 

 has shown us that the countries which protect and utilize their 

 forests become powerful and influential and prosperous: that 

 those which destroy them become weak and degenerate. 



The need of preserving the forests of this country was not 

 apparent to many persons 200 years ago. The j^ionger settlers 

 of our Eastern states built their homes in what thev considered 

 an almost boundless wilderness. Trees were regarded by them, 

 naturally, as obstacles in the way of improvement, for they 

 were removed with great labor and could not be sold or given 

 away. The openings first made were insignificant in compari- 

 son with the vast woodlands which surrounded them. But this 

 was not long the case. As the population increased and settle- 

 ments were extended from year to year, the small cornfields 

 were widened into extensive farms ; fires began to take their 

 toll from the forests in the region of settlements : and the occu- 

 pation of lumbering began. In the course of time the various 

 agents of destruction, workiiig together, produced a serious con- 

 dition in the forests. The condition was not readily observed 

 becaus^^e the people had not been trained to expect trouble from 

 such a source. The conception that the forest was boundless and 

 inexhaustible had been transmitted from one generation to an- 

 other until it had become fixed in the minds of the inhabitants 

 as a firm belief. With this inherited handicap, therefore, the 

 present generations were slow in believing even what reason 

 taught them was true. When the Government and the states 

 took up the work of forest conservation it was not approved 

 by all classes of people. The reform, necessary for protection 

 involved a complete change from practices which had been fol- 

 lowed during a long period of years in which habits had been 

 formed and customs established. These had to be overcome. It 

 became necessary to agitate the question and to carry on a cam- 

 paign of education. The new measures proposed were taken 

 up and published and repeated by the press and from the 

 platform until they became familiar to all concerned and often 

 until the reformers themselves were looked upon as over- 

 zealous fanatics. Men were appealed to through every channel 

 of approach : — some through their business capacity, others 



