Forest Conservation.—To-day a new method of lumbering is being introduced. People have begun to realize that if there were no per manent forest reserves we should be put to great stress to find a sub stitute for wood. Our condition would be like that of China, where the density of population and the dryness of the climate in spring and fall cause the country to have almost no forests. Wood is there so scarce that many people have difficulty in getting enough for doors, floors and furniture for their houses, and the coffins for themselves which they buy years before they die. So scarce is wood that the houses themselves are generally made of adobe, stone, or brick.
In spite of this danger we are still cutting the trees recklessly. Nevertheless the good example of European countries, such as France and Sweden, is beginning to be adopted under the leadership of the United States Forest Service. The Forest Service believes that the great forests ought not to enrich a few individuals, but should benefit everyone. To accomplish this they must be owned by the government, but there must be the freest opportunity for everyone to buy timber at reasonable terms. Accordingly large tracts of rugged land in all parts of the country (see Fig. 36) have been set aside by the national or State governments as forest reserves. Their total area in 1918 was nearly 200,000,000 acres, or more than the area of all the Atlantic States from Virginia northward, including Pennsylvania. In these tracts everything is planned so that bad trees are eliminated, good ones are planted, and the land is covered with trees of the right sort to maintain a steady supply of lumber. Anyone who chooses may buy. standing timber provided he cuts only the larger trees, and fells them so that they do not damage the smaller ones. He must also dispose of the branches and useless tops so that there is no risk of devastating fires.
In addition to all this, the Forest Service maintains a corps of for est rangers and fire wardens. High on a mountain top a warden often lives all summer miles from the nearest neighbor. Every day at certain hours he goes to points of vantage and searches with his field glass for signs of smoke. If he sees signs of a forest fire he telephones to the foresters down in the valley, and a gang of fire fighters at once starts to put out the blaze. An aeroplane patrol ill some places also aids in discovering fires.
Why Civilization is More Backward among Mountains than in Plains.—(1) Scarcity of Good Artisans.—A progressive community
must contain not only farmers, lumbermen, and laborers, but skillful artisans, manufacturers, and professional people. Among the mountains this is almost impossible. Take the case of the most necessary kind of artisan, a carpenter. In the plains he usually does nothing but carpenter work, and hence is highly skillful. Among the mountains, however, there are so few people, they are so scattered, and the scarcity of good soil keeps them so poor, that little money is spent for new houses or improvements. Hence the carpenter can find work only a small part of the time. If he is really skillful and ambitious the chances are that he will move away to the lowlands where there is plenty of work. If he is less skillful or has little energy, he stays in the mountains and perhaps devotes part of his time to running a farm. Thus he excels neither as farmer nor carpenter. Since he is not a particularly good workman and his neighbors are poor, they employ him only a few days when they are building a house or barn, and do most of the work themselves. This teaches the mountaineers to try all sorts of -work, but it results in many poor cabins and shacks.
Blacksmiths, masons, mechanics, plumbers, and other artisans find it still harder to get work among the mountains, and hence are scarcer than carpenters. Therefore the mountaineer has to do almost everything for himself, but because he must do so many things he rarely learns to do any of them unusually well—"Jack of all trades and master of none." It is the things that are done unusually well— better than ever before—that cause the progress of civilization.
(2) Enforced Idleness.—During the winter when there is little farm work, the mountaineers are often idle. At such times the low lander can often find work not far away in factories, but this is diffi cult for the mountaineer. He must stay at home to take care of the animals, clear the snow, break out the roads, get firewood, and the like. If he were surrounded by neighbors as closely as is the farmer in the rich lowland it would be much easier to hire a neighbor to help with the chores while the farmer went away and earned money else where. Sometimes this is possible, but if the nearest neighbor is a mile or two away and the roads are heavy with snow it may be a dangerous thing to leave wife and children alone. Therefore the mountain farmer stays at home in the winter and does nothing except his routine chores.