130 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Charles Wilde : Is it best, in planting forest trees, to have the- 

 ground entirely clear, or to leave the seedlings under the shade of larger 

 trees, or even the small growth usual in wood lots? 



Dr. Beal: This is a question about which there are two opinions; but 

 in Europe it is the practice to clean the land off entirely, in " blocks," and 

 let the new growth all come up together. 



Mr. L. B. Rice, as a measure to encourage forestry, would have the 

 state exempt from taxation all fenced wood lots, as well as afford some 

 other aid to tree-planting, and make better arrangements as to highway 

 planting. 



Mr. C. W. Garfield: My father always loved trees, and gave me a deed 

 to forty acres covered with young oaks. I cut timber from it carefully, 

 made a winding roadway through the tract, and it was the one spot 

 which I most enjoyed visiting. But the D., L. & N. railway was built 

 through it diagonally, and this, with the fires they set, made such ruin- 

 that I sold the whole, and have planted seven other acres. I began at 

 the bottom, in this work, and the trees have done well. I hope to estab- 

 lish the wild flowers among the trees. My father once opened a high- 

 way and left many of the trees, but the next pathmaster cut them all 

 out; and not only this, but he went up and down a small stream which 

 crossed this road, and cut all the bushes along its course, for which 

 action there was not the least occasion nor excuse. A man on the 

 Grand ville road left trees in groups along it, and the effect was very 

 beautiful, but the next owner of the place cut them all out except those 

 which stood regularly sixty feet apart. He cut the trees into fence posts,, 

 which still lie where he threw them, the whole making the highway 

 unsightly instead of the thing of beauty it was. I know of a little valley 

 in some waste land which was filled with shrubbery and young white 

 pines. Some one went there and cut them all down, although there wa& 

 no need whatever for so doing. They ought all to have been left. Such 

 people should die younger. Strips of woods along highways afford a 

 pleasing contrast to the fields, and, where it can as well be done, the wood 

 lots should be located near the roads, where they will afford pleasure to 

 those passing by. No organization in the state has done so much as has 

 the State Horticultural society for the advancement of forestry; for the 

 state cut off the small appropriation given the forestry commission, and 

 now there is left no organization but this to advance this noble and 

 necessary work. 



Dr. Beal advocated the planting of the hazel, hawthorn, laburnum, 

 and other such shrubs, along the highways, with here and there a grape, 

 making thickets and clumps of shrubbery to alternate with the maples. 



