Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-08-29
hlislellanp.
Forests.


Certain subtle philosophers of antiquity were
sorey troubled by the fear that lofty trees,
without any apparent check to their growth |
might finally reach up into heaven and like the
daring men of Babel, disturb the peace of the
gods. The philosophers of our day suffer |
from another apprehension /; they foresee an
exhaustion of wood, and already call the use |
We make of wood as an unwarranted prodigal- |
iy They point to the little axe in the settlers
hand that has slain more giants than all the |
heroes of earth, and to the Eres that level
whole hosts of noble trees in night They /
raise their warning voice from year to year
more earnestly, and we think it IS high time
We should listen and look to the future. .4pres
m0i Ie deluge are words that may fall from the |
lips of drunken m march, but they are IN
worthy OF great nation like ours.
IL is true, nature still greets Us, spring after
spring, with her joyous, healthy green. The
birds are still singing merrlly in the tree-tops,
the breeze still plays in the rustliDg leaves, and
the soft soughing of evergreen forests fills US
with dreamy delight. But there are countries
abroaI and regions in our own lands, where
woods are unknown, where birds build their
nests in the furze, sad where whole nations
have never heard the glorious anthem that
storm plays 10 the thousand chords OF noble
forest. And yet 1t was not so always. We
can read the proof OF it in the great book that
Earth itself We raise the cover that decks
is surface, slightly, and we see at a glance.
that where now vast steppes spread out as far
as the eve can reach, there rose once stately
woods; trunks Of gigantic proportions are
lying PROSTATE in the snow, buried under thick
layers OF Ioam and sand. The generations of
fOrefathers once saw these trees ising
their lofty branches to the clouds, and they
found, in their day, grateful shelter under their
wide spread domes. And as search deper
still, We come upon vast masses Of coae,
the well preserved bodies of forests, whose
rustling and heaving never listened to by
human ear, and whose till trunks never
threatened by the hand of man, for when they
sprang up, grew, and died, man not yet.
Fearful tempests and horrible commissions
of whose fury and fierce fatality We probably
have no couce eption, laid those hoary rs of
antiquity low to the ground and hid their
stricken bodies under thick layers of debris.
Then came peace once more, end new giants
arose and new forests covered the land. But
now their enemy also appeared Man entered
upon the scene, and claimed room for himself
for the golden grain that gave him strength,
and the vine that gladdened his heart. He be-
gan the great struggle for his existence IN the
fulhliment of the of his Mixer, that he
should labor in the sweat of his brow-a curse
that was at once turned into a blessing. He
armed himself with iron and with fire, he wag-
trees that seemed to keep him from the bosom
OF his mother earth. He in his right.
The eternal law of necessity JUSTIFIED him III
destroying the noblest productions of Nature.
But how long wss he thus authorized to de-
troy without ever bIilding up again Where
is the limit beyond which he must not proceed!
This is the great question which appeals, in the
utility of forests, TO our mind, and in the duty
Of caring for posterlty, to our conscience.
There heyOnd all doubt. numerous chill
dren of nature, which rgidly oppose all civ
zation, and which their victorious adversary
man, removes slowly but lrresstibly- Ihe
monsters of antiquity, types of these antago-
nIstIc productions, have vanished through the
gency Of fabulous heroes. Beasts OF prey,
venomous serpenls, crocodiles, and like weed
of the animal kingdom even now disap
pearing before the and the pow. Ever
whole races of men, no longer helpful in fur
thering the great ends of humanity, are extin
guished by the relentless march OF the arm,
of civilization, and our own continent has seer
how Divine Providence has seemed to deere,
the destruction of the red race il not the black
Does this law apply to forests ?
As TO the material of wood, 1t seems a
II art had found substitutes for it in most cases
and is still finding such for others. We built
ships, and even houses. no longer OF wood, bl
of iron. Roofs covered with tin or slet
instead of shingles. Furniture and utensils c
every kind, once made of wood, now iron
The wooden frames of our bedsteads, tn
earthen pot and even the quill of the COOS
have all given way to metal. On this score
therefore, We might readily bid farewell to Gu
forests. For those qualities which really mad
wood valuable and dear to us-i,s elasticity, it
freshness, the beauty of its natural color, per
haps the odor, will hardly be appreciate
by our descendants, as they are by 1t
true the tree stands nearer TO man than metz
or stone; it grows like him, it blossoms,
becomes old and dies ike man. But the worl
that is to come after will value these sent
mental relations little think of th
thousand illusions cherished by our forefathers
medieval house with It's quaint carvings, il
odd gables, pointed turrets and overhangln
stories, is the delight of the antiquarian an
the pet of the painter. But We told tha
houses not built to give beautiful outline
to the one and interesting studies to the othe
but for practicable purposes, and we eree
obedently square boxes without light and shac
ow, but prodgiousy we'll provided with hes
and water and ventilation. Straight lines an
blank surfaces may as well be built of stOn
and wood is less and less required for buildin
purposes.
As human ingenuity has found various sui
stitutes for the use OF wood as timber, SO IA
ture herself has supplied US in these days
our need with new and almost inexhaustib
supplies of fuel, to take the place of woo
just when apprehension began to fill the mine
even of the thought!ess, and dire prediction
Were made Of the impending scarcity of VOC
for fuel, the mercy of God led to the discover
OF immense coal fields In various parts of ii
gicbe. Here an ai-wise Providence had f
Thousands and tens of thousands of years store
away an immense provision of compact az
invaluable fuel and thus these stores whie
are hkeiy to provide all the Wanta of hundred