Page:Boy scouts in the White Mountains; the story of a long hike (IA boyscoutsinwhite00eato).pdf/69

 "I don't see," Lou put in, "why a paper mill couldn't buy up a great tract of woodland, and then forest it scientifically, taking out the big trees every year, and planting little ones. I shouldn't think it would cost any more than it would to haul lumber to the mills from all over creation."

"It wouldn't, Lou," said Mr. Rogers, "but we in America haven't learned yet to do things that way. Our big mills and business concerns are all too careless and selfish and wasteful. And the public is paying the penalty. Look at that"

They had come around a bend in the road, close to the north shoulder of the mountain now, and could see how all the upper slopes had been stripped down to bare soil by the lumbermen.

"That soil will probably dry out, landslides or fires will come, and it may be a thousand years before the mountain is forested again," Mr. Rogers exclaimed. "It's a perfect outrage!"

The party presently came into a crossroad, running east and west. It was a bit more traveled than the one they were on. They turned down it to the left, and reached a curious settlement, or rather the remains of a settlement. There were several rough, unpainted board houses, a timber dam across a small river, and everywhere on the ground lay old sawdust, beginning to rot down, with bushes growing up through it.