ANNUAL MEETING. 195 



factor, a reducer of woodlands into plow-fields, and a pioneer of tlie rose, 

 that will make tiie wilderness redolent; but ho masquerades under one of tlie 

 colors of the horticultural cloak, and that for j)er8onal gain only. I would 

 strip it off front him. 



I never fully felt the force of Drayton's protest and imprecation, written in 

 the sixteenth century, upon tiie unreasoning destruction of forests then going 

 on in Europe, that left upon that continent its legacy of barrenness and 

 stunted vegetation, not yet exhausted, indeed, inexhaustible, as when, last 

 spring, I stepped from the cars at Dunningville and saw north, east, and west, 

 the trunks of trees gaunt and lifeless, standing countless for numbers as far as 

 the eye could reach — the desolation of the axe and fire. Instantly the words 

 blazed up in memory : 



"Our trees so hacked above the ground, 

 That where their lofty tops the neighboring countries crowned, 

 Their trunlvS like aged-folks now bare and naked stand, 

 As for revenge to heaven each held a withered hand." 



Indeed, who divines but the poet, thought I, and turning, found what justly 

 belonged there — a miserable, poverty-struck station-house and denizen. One 

 pleasant feature only met my eye — a little barefooted girl, deeply browned by 

 wind and sun, offering bunches of wintergreens, laden with their bright red 

 berries — nature's delicacy in want — for sale. I ventured to ask the proprietor 

 of a country wagon, among other things, whether the soil beyond tlie " bar- 

 rens" held its moisture well. " No," he answered, " not as well as it used 

 to — the springs and cat-holes are drying out." "Perhaps you can make your 

 gardens in them," suggested a quizzing runner standing near us. '"Y-e-s," 

 said tlie farmer slowly, "if the knobs don't blow into 'em." The scalping 

 power of the west wind over sodless, sun-burnt sand knolls was doubtless 

 known experientially to him and he answered accordingly. 



One of the most comprehensive generalizations made by Gen. Grant of his 

 observations upon his journey around the world is, that the soil of the old 

 world is worn out; and its poverty is driving the inhabitants to the new, for 

 food, and the realistic descriptions given by travelers of the appalling poverty 

 prevailing in the treeless tracts found everywhere in the old world show good 

 warrant for the increasing exodus. Would that the "withered hand" should 

 not follow them ! 



The commercial reports of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts give the price of 

 American timber in the markets of Asia and Europe, and daily record the rate 

 at which the old world is absorbing what its costly experience should teach us 

 to guard. Salutary laws are needed to control the matter and prevent cruel 

 waste; laws that will allow the cutting of timber providently and restrain all 

 improvidence. This is a national matter before us, only because we are 

 affected by the general welfare of the nation. 



In a more restricted way the horticulturists of Michigan shall throw their 

 influence in favor of forestry laws, applicable to ourselves. Laws of such pur- 

 port no doubt will find sanction in the general police law that underlies and 

 preserves society, and is always invoked in presence of immediate and threat- 

 ened danger. " Salus populi suprema lex, est." 



Indeed it is the first duty of the citizen to see that the community gets no 

 hartn from individual and fragmentary action ; or, as Cicero said on a mem- 

 orable occasion, " Videret, ne quid res publica detrimenti caperet." Thig 



