_Permanent and Not Temporary Civilization Resulted._ Only those people who have been brought up near a large lumbering center can appreciate what it means when a town vanishes; when all that is left of a thriving town of 5,000 or more souls is empty streets, empty houses, and heaps of tin cans. In the days of the Golden Age of lumbering in Michigan many towns flourished in the midst of the forests. These towns had thrifty, busy people, with schools, churches, banks, and other conveniences. These people were engaged in exploiting the forests. The beautiful white pine forests were converted into boards at the rate of thousands of feet every day. When these magnificent forests were laid low, the lumbermen left to seek virgin timber elsewhere. They left behind them empty towns and barren lands; only a few charred stumps remained to show where the forests once stood. But this is not an incident peculiar to the Golden Age of lumbering in Michigan. Even to-day this very thing is happening. The town of Crossfork, Potter County, Pennsylvania, had a population of over 2,500 souls in 1909. When the nearby timber was exhausted, practically the whole town was abandoned. In 1913 it had a population of 50. In direct contrast to this short-sighted policy of the State of Michigan (and many others also) is the National Forest policy, which provides for a future supply of forest products as well as a present supply; which provides for work and homes and schools and churches for future generations as well as for the present; which provides for a permanent industry and not one that vanishes with the exploitation of the resources of a region as snow vanishes under the warm rays of a spring day. Lumbering even to-day is merely the removal of every vestige of timber that has any sale value. But forestry, which is practiced on the National Forests, removes only the mature trees, leaving the young growth to be cut at some future time. Lumbering has been and is to-day forest destruction; forestry is forest conservation under a system of wise use. Lumbering is followed usually by fire, and often by an entire impoverishment of the region in which it is carried on because it destroys both the mature tree and the young growth; under a system of forestry, cutting is followed by young, green forests which are protected from fire for the benefit of future generations. Such a system leaves the region and the industry in a permanent, good condition. The county under the old system receives no more taxes after its wealth is gone; but each county will receive taxes or money in lieu of taxes every year as long as the National Forests shall endure. [Illustration: Figure 7. The remains of the old boiler house. The town once had a sawmill, planning mill, lath mill, besides modern conveniences. All these are now gone after the forests have been cut. Lemiston, Montmorency County, Michigan.]