_The March of Forest Destruction._ When the London Company settled at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 it found that unlimited pine and hardwood forests confronted it on every side. Nor did these early settlers ever find a way out of this forested wilderness except by clearings made with the ax. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Cape Cod in 1620 they found similar forests stretching in all directions from their town-site. After the Atlantic seaboard became pretty well settled the home-builders began moving westward through New York, Pennsylvania, and what is now Ohio. Still nothing but unbroken, virgin forests were encountered. Westward to the Mississippi civilization advanced and still forests reigned supreme. Then the Middle West, the Rocky Mountain region, and finally the Pacific Coast regions were settled. During 140 years civilization has spread from coast to coast and of that vast wilderness of forest there is left only a remnant here and there. The giant pines that sheltered De Soto and his thousand followers on their ill-fated expedition in 1541 to the Mississippi River have long since disappeared. Along the Allegheny and Appalachian ranges the vast forests that once harbored the hostile Narragansetts and Iroquois are now but a memory. The giant oak, ash, and cypress forests of the Mississippi Valley are rapidly being decimated by the big sawmills that work night and day to outdo each other. In the north the dense and magnificent forests of white pine that greeted Father Marquette, when he planted his missionary station at Sault Ste. Marie in 1668, have been laid low. Unproductive wastes, sandy barrens, and useless underbrush now greet the eye. In fact the pine forests which covered the greater part of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota have been leveled by the woodman's ax. The army of lumbermen has moved now to the Coast to again turn virgin timberlands into unproductive wastes. Thus forest destruction has followed civilization. Statistics show very vividly how gradually one large lumbering center after another has become exhausted, often leaving behind desolation and business depression. In these large centers thriving towns sprang up only to disappear again after the removal of the forest wealth. In 1850 about 55 per cent, of the annual cut of lumber came from the New England States; even as late as 1865 New York furnished more lumber than any State in the Union. By 1890 Michigan had reached the zenith of its production and in that year the Lake States furnished 36 per cent. of the lumber cut. By 1909 the Southern States had increased their cut to over 50 per cent. of the total of the country. In 1913 the cut of the State of Washington was the largest ever recorded for that State or for any other State, even outdoing Michigan during its Golden Age. In 1915 about 20 per cent. of the cut came from the Coast but the South still furnished almost 50 per cent.