Forests
and the many varying trees of which they are composed have, since the very
earliest days played an important part in the life of mankind. It is because of
this that men have realized their value and have taken steps to preserve them
and to prevent their wanton and useless destruction.
From the primitive days of the wigman, the
house on stilts or the African but, wood has been the basic material used for
men's housing to provide shelter from the animals. The wigwam and the African
hut were built round a frame of timber. The elaborately attractive black and
white houses of 'Merrie England' in the sixteenth century depended on wooden
frames. even today, when steel girders from the frameworld of our huge modern
buildings like those in the Raffles City in Singapore or the sky-scrapers of
New York, wood still forms an important part of the smaller modern houses. Soft
woods of all kinds are used fro frames and doors and a variety of hard woods
for furniture.
From earliest times too, wood has played a
large part in transport. A rolling tree trunk, very probably showed primitive
man the possible use of the wheel, perhaps as important a discovery as that of
fire. In the earliest days of the automobile, wood was essential in its
construction, but even before that, trishaws, carts, carriages and wagons, all
made of timber enabled man to move from place to place overland. Men were
equally dependent on wood for crossing water ad through all the staged from the
hollowed-out log and the small boat built round a wooden frame right up to the
first great sailing ships which first crossed over oceans, all means of
transport were wooden-framed and wooden-walled.
Another very important use of forests is a
modern one . This is the cutting up of logs and timber for use in the making of
paper, particularly the kind of paper on which our daily newspapers are
printed. The logs of wood, when cut, are ground up by hue machines and are
turned into wood pulp. This, then undergoes certain chemical processes and
paper is the end product. When we realize how much daily news-print the world
consumes, we can see how great is the need of timber for this purpose.
As well as producing timber, certain forests
provide important oils such as turpentine from the pine forests of North
America or palm oil from the palm forests. Olive oil is produced from the olive
tree. There are other products too. The American sugar maple provides sugar
from its sap. Flock, for mattresses is produced by the forests of huge cotton
trees in West Africa. Equally these same African forests provide the necessary
shelter under which the cocoa bean can grow.
Forests also prevent soil erosion. They
protect it from winds blowing it away and form water washing it away. Forests,
too, revitalize the soil and because of the addition of humus and vegetable matter,
it does not degenerate and become barren. They also attract rain-clouds and in
places where they have been cleared, deserts are likely to appear.
Many wild animal and small insects find
shelter under the protecting branches of forest trees. A wide variety of
climbing shrubs, flowers and creepers are also protected by them. Forests too,
whether the tropical ones of South-East-Asia; whether the sweeping miles of
north American pines or whether the softer deciduous forest of Europe provide
men with beauty. A tree, of whatever kind is a wonderful of nature.
It is because of the importance of forests
that they should be preserved. In 1919, after the first great war, the wood
shortage in Britain was very acute, because so much had been used in the war
effort. The Forestry Commission was therefore, set up. This is a body which
buys old woods and land, that is at present bare and turns them into modern
forests using the latest scientific knowledge and equipment to help in this
purpose. The modern forester grows his trees just as the farmer grows his crops
or the gardener, his vegetables. He plants and then thins them and finally,
when they are fully grown, he cuts them down for timber. He always replaces the
felled trees with young ones. In reforestation, natural trees must always be
grown. The Oak tree which is indigenous to England would not grow in Malaysia.
neither of course, do palm trees flourish intemperate climates. Countries all
over the world are caring their forests in this way, to ensure the supply of
timber which is so badly needed.
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