But since the
daily consumption is even greater than this, it is obvious that the
work of replanting must be undertaken systematically if it is to keep
pace, even approximately, with the destruction. In France and Germany,
where the forests are national property, forestry has been elevated
to the status of an exact science; but the timber lands of those
countries are small indeed compared with those in the United States.
A Church Built from a Single Tree.--A redwood tree furnished all the
timber for the Baptist church in Santa Rosa, one of the largest church
edifices in the country. The interior of the building is finished in
wood, there being no plastered walls. Sixty thousand shingles were
made from the tree after enough was taken for the church. Another
redwood tree, cut near Murphy's Mill, about ten years ago, furnished
shingles that required the constant labor of two industrious men for
two years before the tree was used up.
Trees That Sink.--Of the more than four hundred species of trees
found in the United States there are said to be sixteen species whose
perfectly dry wood will sink in water. The heaviest of these is the
black ironwood of southern Florida, which is more than thirty per
cent. heavier than water. Of the others, the best known are the lignum
vitae and mangrove; another is a small oak found in the mountains
of western Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona, and westward to
Colorado, at an elevation of 5,000 to 10,000 feet.
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