ever, is not
boiled down into sugar, but the boiling is stopped while it is in the
form of syrup. If you have ever eaten buckwheat cakes with real maple
syrup you will always esteem the Sugar Maple tree.

The forests perform extremely valuable services for mankind entirely
apart from the products they yield.

First, they prevent erosion, or the washing away of soil by the water
that falls as rain. After the trees have been cut away, very often,
especially upon hillsides, the most productive soil is washed away,
usually clear off of the original owner's farm, and deposited in the
flood-plains or bottoms of creeks and rivers or in river deltas--in
places where it cannot be utilized to any great extent. Thus erosion
causes a tremendous loss to farmers, and it is chiefly due to the
thoughtlessness of the American people in destroying the forests.

Second, and chiefly related to this, is the fact that the floods upon
our rivers, which every year take such heavy toll in property and in
human life, are due to the cutting away of the forests. This allows the
water from rain and melting snow to reach the streams at times faster
than it can be carried off, and so we have a flood. The forest floor,
with its undergrowth and humus, in those localities where the forests
still exist about the headwaters of our rivers, acts like a huge layer
of blotting paper which holds the water back and allows it to escape to
the streams slowly, and so floods are avoided.

Third, and related to the above, is the fact that the water supply of
our cities would be more constant if the forests had not been cut away.
In these cases the summer droughts make much greater the danger from
water-borne diseases.

[Illustration: WESTERN YELLOW PINE

A magnificent tree which furnishes valuable timber. Range: Hills and
mountains of western United States. Photograph by Albert E. Butler.]

[Illustration: ROADS THROUGH THE ASPENS

Range: Northern United States and Canada, south in the Rocky Mountains
to Mexico. Photograph by Albert E. Butler.]

It is only in recent years that the American people have begun to
realize the necessity of the conservation of our forests, and in many
sections much has been done to redeem the criminal thoughtlessness in
destroying our forests and to restore those devastated by forest fires.
Reforestation operations have accomplished a great deal, and the
organization to prevent forest fires emphasizes the old adage that "an
ou