America is truly a new world. Four hundred years ago tile Indian ruled the length and breadth of the land. From tile Atlantic to the Pacific, from the frozen plains of the northland to the tropical seas, he roamed unmolested, his actions restricted only by stronger tribes with which he came in contact. The great region which he possessed contained the most varied, the most valuable and the most magnificent forests to be found in the world. The extent of the vast virgin forests in area and in volume of merchantable timber can only be approximated. The timbered portion of our country is thought to have comprised 850 million acres, and the stand upwards of 5,000 billion feet, board measure.