Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/168

164 only how quickly it could be cut down, and into how many boards it could be sawed and planed. That was a hard time for the forests, and we might, at last, have been a country without trees if Uncle Sam had not gone into the woods just then to save them.

He knew how the Indian felt about wanting to keep a tree. He knew how the Colonist, and all the other Americans after him, had felt about cutting a tree down and using it. He knew, too, that the Indian and the American settler were each right in a certain way. So Uncle Sam took over one hundred sixty million acres of trees and laid out our national forests and parks. He takes care of these just as a farmer takes care of a very valuable crop. Only certain trees may he cut, and new ones are being set out constantly to take the places of those that are cut down. Several thousand men help Uncle Sam in looking after these National forests. It is their duty to patrol them, watching for forest fires, and keeping the trees free from pests or disease.

Sometimes the life of one of Uncle Sam's foresters is as exciting as any adventure story a boy or girl ever read. If you go to the country in the summer where there are high wooded hills or mountains all around, you may see a tiny speck far up on the peak of one. There is no road