H. W. Fairbanks
But Nature, after a lapse of fifty years, has spread a new carpet of soil over the valley.
It will be hundreds of years before the trees are as large and valuable as those of the first forest. The "big trees" of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are found nowhere else in the world, for they are the last of their race. Some of these trees are more than 4000 years old. They stood here when our forefathers were still savages and lived in trees or caves. Much of the region where these trees are found has now been reserved as a park. If the lumberman had been allowed to get at them, they would have soon been gone forever.
George J. Young
Uncle Sam has preserved both forests and water power.
It is far more difficult to destroy completely most of the species of forest trees than it is to destroy the species of animals and birds. We can cut down the trees and in some cases they will grow again from sprouts. Many will hide away in remote places and furnish seed for new forests.
The animals as well as the plants have had a long history. They have had a harder struggle than the plants, because many of them prey upon one another. We often dig up the skeletons of strange animals unlike any now living. These must have all been killed long ago. Each species or kind of animal now living must have come off victorious in the struggle with its enemies.