HOME GEOGRAPHY 201 The older trees of the forest partly decayed, and the winter storms threw them to the ground. Each year some of the nuts in the pine cones escaped the eyes of the watchful squirrels. Some of these nuts became covered in the earth and sprouted, soon forming baby pines. The little pines slowly grew up and took the places of the older trees.
At last some men found the forest. The trees suited them and they sent other men with saws and axes to cut the trees down. After being cut down they were sawed into logs. the snow came oxen were hitched to great sleds, and the logs were hauled to the bank of the nearest river.
In the spring, when the snow melted and the river rose, the logs were rolled into the water. Away they went in great numbers, almost hiding the river. The logs floated down the river for miles and at last stopped at a big dam before a sawmill.
Then one by one the logs were pulled out of the water and run into the mill. How interesting the machinery is! It picks up each log as easily as you would a little stick. Very soon the buzzing saws have changed the rough logs to smooth, clean boards.
Railroads are now built into the forests and the logs are hauled out on the cars. The sawmills are placed where the lumber can be shipped to market easily. They are sometimes upon a bay by the
ocean. Sometimes they are upon a river if the river is large enough for boats to come up to the mill.
How do you suppose the lumber is shipped to market from the sawmills high up in the mountains? The lumbermen build what is called a flume. This is a V-shaped trough made of planks. The flume is extended around the mountain sides and along the canons for many miles. It is made to slope enough so that the water will run through it swiftly. When everything is ready water is turned into the flume. The lumber is thrown into the water, and away it is carried, mile after mile, until it reaches the end of the flume. There it is placed upon boats or cars.
We ought to be careful of our beautiful forests. They have been many years in growing. They shelter the birds and the animals. They protect the soil from drying out.
It takes so many, many years for a little pine to become a great tree, that if we are not careful of the forests they will soon be gone. We should guard our forests well, and set out young trees as fast as we cut the old ones down.