SAVE TIIE FORESTS. 153 



question of its practicability. And, inasmuch us the process must necessarily 

 be almost entirely a voluntary one, the question first arises — how can the requi- 

 site knowledge and interest in the subject, among those directly iuterested, be 

 secured, and how can adequate motives be supplied to induce the requisite 

 action? 



Men are imitative beings, and it will doubtless prove to be the case in this, as 

 in other things, that when a few thinking, practical men shall be induced to 

 undertake this problem and shall display its results in their own cases, the mass 

 of the people will not be slow to take the cue from them, and move forward in 

 a similar direction. The recent impetus to roadside tree planting, growing out 

 of a simple suggestion in the proclamation of Gov. Bagley, so timed as to touch 

 a vulnerable point in the consciousness of our people, is an illustration of the 

 ease with which people may be moved in such a matter, under a favorable con- 

 currence of circumstances. 



Some years since, under the stimulus of such facts as have been herein ad- 

 duced, the Legislature of this State published a report upon this subject, and 

 at the same time so amended the highway law of the State as to provide for the 

 allowance of labor applied in the planting of roadside trees in the payment of 

 highway taxes. Much good in this direction has doubtless resulted from this 

 enactment. For the encouragement of the planting of belts of trees, and for 

 the preservation of such belts, on lands to be cleared, as wind-breaks, in the 

 manner proposed, we suggest that the Legislature be memorialized in favor of 

 the enactment of a law exempting from taxation lands so occupied, under 

 proper restrictions and stipulations. My reason for the conviction that a law 

 of this character might be rendered more or less operative, is, that the average 

 man has no more sensitive nerve in his entire system, than that connected with 

 his pocket, and that a call from the tax-gatherer, no matter for how slight a 

 sum, is sure to produce a stricture in that region. Such memorialists should 

 also urge upon the Legislature the importance of some deiinite, effective, and 

 permanent measures for the general dissemination of facts bearing upon this 

 subject ; and since it can by no possibility be held to be other than one of uni- 

 versal interest, and that of a permanent character, such measures should be 

 adequate to the bringing of such facts directly home to the apprehension of the 

 masses of our people, as well as to the perpetuation of this process so long as its 

 •operation shall be found needful. 



In consideration also of the lamentable lack of information among large 

 classes of our population on the subject of varieties of timber trees, suitable for 

 such purpose, and of the best modes of management, these particulars should 

 hold a prominent place among the facts to be disseminated ; and as the most 

 natural home sources for the elaboration of such information, we suggest the 

 State Board of Agriculture, the Faculty of the Agricultural College, and the 

 State Pomological Society, and their annual volumes of transactions, as conve- 

 nient vehicles for its dissemination, at least in part. We suggest also, that the 

 State Agricultural Society, the county and other local societies, and also the 

 State Pomological Society, be each urged to offer premiums for the best and 

 most effective windbreaks, of natural growth, as well as for artificial plantations 

 for the purpose ; and they should doubtless at the same time be urged to adopt 

 similar measures for the encouragement of ornamental and protective planting 

 of trees and shrubbery, about dwellings, farm yards, and buildings, so many of 

 which are to be seen, standing stark and treeless, along the borders of our high- 

 ways. Inasmuch, also, as the location of such preserve or plantation, except 



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