uable that it is used only for such purposes
as window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no care of
these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed them to be cut
and wasted in the most reckless fashion.

If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would find hundreds
and even thousands of these mighty trees lying on the ground rotting.
This is the work of the shake or shingle maker. He has been as
thoughtless in his cutting of these giants which have been hundreds of
years growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs up
and ripens its seed in one season. The shingle maker must have material
which splits well. He hunts for the straightest and cleanest trees. At
most he does not use over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does
not split to suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to
rot.

[Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is
wasted.]

The waste of the lumberman is not so great, but it is enough to open our
eyes to one of the reasons for the rapid disappearance of our forests.
On the average only about one third of the wood of every tree cut is
actually used. The rest is lost in the logging operations and during the
various processes through which it passes before it reaches our hands.

In addition to the waste of the trees actually cut, there is the loss of
the young trees due to careless logging. Too often the lumbermen do not
care in what condition the logs leave the forest. They want only the
trees now fit for lumber, and they want to get them in the easiest way
possible.

Instead of going through the forest and picking out only the ripe or
mature trees and leaving the rest for a later cutting, the lumbermen
usually take everything that has any present worth. Trees that are less
valuable for lumber, such as the firs, are used for skidways and
bridges, and when no longer needed for these purposes are left on the
ground. No care is taken to see that the great trees fall with the least
possible damage to the young growth. Upon the preservation of the young
trees, which almost everywhere occupy the open spaces between the large
ones, rests our hope of a future forest.

When the work of lumbering in any particular region is finished, the
sight is such as must make Nature weep, for it almost brings tears to
our eyes. The young trees are broken and crushed to the ground, branches
an