Our wise lumbermen are beginning to understand that it is better to cut over the forest carefully, so that by and by there will be another crop. Nature is doing all she can to keep up the supply of trees, and, if we give her half a chance, there will be timber enough both for us and for those that come after us. The forest crop is like any other crop, except that it cannot be cut every year.
Every one should understand that he has an interest in the forest. Although he may not own a foot of land, yet his prosperity depends in part on how the forests are managed.
If the forests are not taken care of, there will sometime be a wood famine. If the mountain slopes are stripped of their trees, the streams will no longer run clear and the low streams in summer will lead to a water famine, which in turn might easily cause a bread famine.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES
| He who wantonly kills a tree, All in a night of God-sent dream, He shall travel a desert waste Of pitiless glare, and never a stream, Nor a blade of grass, nor an inch of shade— All in a wilderness he has made. O, forlorn without trees! He who tenderly saves a tree, All in a night of God-sent dream, He shall list to a hermit thrush Deep in the forest by mountain stream, With friendly branches that lead and shade, All in a woodland that he has made. O, the peace of the trees! He who passionately loves a tree, Growth and power shall understand; Everywhere he shall find a friend. Listen! They greet him from every land, English Oak and the Ash and Thorn, Silvery Olive, and Cypress tall, Spreading Willow, and gnarled old Pine, Flowering branches by orchard wall— Sunshine, shadow, and sweetness of glade— All in a Paradise he has made. O, the joy of the trees! |
The Dryad's Message
Have you ever seen a forest fire? It is a terrible sight to see the flames sweep up a mountain side. They run along the ground licking up the leaves and dead branches. They leap from tree to tree, and then with a roar the sheet of flame goes to the top of a tall pine. The air is like the breath from an oven and is filled with sparks and with suffocating smoke. The birds and animals flee away in every direction.