Excerpt from Timber: A Comprehensive Study of Wood in All Its Aspects
"France will perish for want of wood" - thus spoke Colbert. This great Minister's words, which have been so frequently quoted, may notwithstanding find their place at the beginning of this work, when they will only serve to show of what importance the study of wood in general, of its applications, properties, and preservation can be. By speaking thus Colbert showed that he thoroughly grasped how important the employment of this precious vegetable could be to his country; he also manifested how he deplored the heedlessness of his contemporaries, as likewise the wasteful way in which they exploited the forests.
The forests were for a long time considered as vestiges of barbarity - as a sort of natural and savage richness which could be made use of according to the immediate needs of consumption, without taking thought as to the reproduction of them. There are even now countries where wood is sacrificed to the roughest usages, or where, to use an historian's expression, "Two pine-trees are hewn down to make a pair of wooden shoes," where, at any rate, forests are subject to complete destruction by the immoderate grazing of animals.
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