ade of it add to your cost of
living and allow you less money for other things.

Let us suppose for a moment that you have no use for wood in any form.
Will this take away all interest that you may have in the forests? In
any event you are dependent upon the fertility of your fields for the
food that you require. Now, if there is a lumber company stripping the
mountains at the head of the river upon which your home is situated, and
as a result of clearing the timber from the slopes the floods become
worse, your garden is buried beneath gravel and sand, and your orchard
washed away, will you not think it _does_ make a difference to you in
what way the forests are treated?

The timbered lands which the government is holding and caring for are
known as National Forests. About two thirds of the forests yet remaining
in the West are included in them. These lands are mostly mountainous and
not suited to agriculture.

In the East the government has no lands except those which it buys.
Because of the great damage which is being done to the streams and
valleys of the Appalachian Mountains by careless lumbering, a great
tract of land is being acquired by purchase. This is called the
Appalachian Forest. The timber in this region will be carefully cut and
those areas from which it has been stripped will be replanted.

In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, with Mt. Washington as the
center, is a remnant of a once beautiful forest, which has been acquired
by the government. This is known as the White Mountain Forest. It will
be enlarged as the years pass and carefully guarded. It will serve for
all time as a beautiful pleasure and camping ground.

It is not the government's plan that the National Forests shall remain
unused, but they are to be used wisely, so as to be of the greatest
permanent good to the greatest number of people. The men who have been
placed in charge of these lands are called "forest rangers," and their
duties are of many kinds.

The rangers supervise the sale and cutting of the mature or ripe trees
as they are needed for lumber, mining timbers, or posts. They see that
the waste parts of the cut trees are piled so as to lessen the danger
from chance fires.

During the long summers the forests become as dry as tinder and the loss
from fire amounts to millions of dollars every year. It is the chief
duty of the rangers at this time to patrol the roads and trails leading
through the forests and keep a sharp