"
The old hunter struck a match and put a light to his pipe.
"More forest destruction," said the boy mischievously, "I should think,
Rifle-Eye, you'd be ashamed to waste wood by burning it up in the form
of matches."
"Go on talkin'," said Rifle-Eye, "you like tellin' me these things you
picked up at the Ranger School. Can you tell how much timber is used, or
how many matches are lighted an' thrown away?"
"Three million matches a minute, every minute of the twenty-four hours,"
said Wilbur immediately. "That is," he added after a moment's
calculation, "nearly four and a half billion a day. And then only the
very best portion of the finest wood can be used, and, as I hear, the
big match factories turn out huge quantities of other stuff, like doors
and window sashes, in order to use up the wood which is not of the very
finest quality, such as is needed for matches."
"How do they saw 'em so thin, I wonder?" interposed the Ranger.
"Some of it is sawed both ways," the boy replied. "Some logs are boiled
and then revolved on a lathe which makes a continuous shaving the
thickness of a match, and a lot of matches are paper-pulp, which is
really wood after all. There's no saying, Rifle-Eye," he continued,
laughing, "how many good trees have been cut down to make a light for
your pipe."
The old hunter puffed hard, as the pipe was not well lighted.
"Well," he said, "I guess I'll let the Forest Guards handle it.
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