TRANSACTIONS OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 



321 



time, however, is just as the buds are bursting. They can be moved short 

 distances, even if grown six inches, by taking pains to move a ball of earth 

 with them. 



The President said he had known evergeens killed in about two 

 minutes' exposure to hot, dry wind and hot sun. He warned planters 

 against any exposure of roots out of ground except in a wet or damp 

 time, as it is impossible to soak up or dissolve the gum produced by the 

 thickened, resinous sap. 



D. C. ScoFiELD said that farmers should heed the advice of nursery- 

 men when buying evergreens and not trust to their own supposed good 

 sense in this matter. 



D. C. ScoFiELD presented the following report: 



TIMBER PLANTING FOR ECONOMIC USES. 



BY D. C. SCOFIELD, ELGIN. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



It is not expected that I should enter into a detailed discussion of all 

 the varieties of timber that are used in the thousand and one economies 

 of human industry and human want, much less to repeat the story or 

 sound the alarm of future want of wood material which is inevitable in 

 the near future. Not that there has not already been inaugurated stu- 

 pendous schemes of Timber cultivation and forestry since the advent of, 

 and emanating from the influence of, the Northern Illinois Horticultural 

 Society, which began its work at Mount Carroll and at Freeport twelve 

 years ago. Within eight years from that time more than eighty millions 

 of trees were planted in one State alone (Iowa). Nearly all the Western 

 and some of the Eastern States have enacted laws extending State patron- 

 age to all who would enter upon the planting of forests. 



The General Government passed a law known as "The Timber Act," 

 giving a quarter section of land to any and every settler on her domain 

 who would plant ten acres of timber. Under these influences there have 

 been already planted of young forest trees more than five hundred mill- 

 ions. Although the East and the West are in some degree awake and 

 actively engaged in the work, yet the work began too late to save the 

 country from terrible want for a considerable period intervening, of 

 necessity, between the extinction of the present wood-supply and the 

 maturing of the young forests. 



Great as the planting of timber has been, yet the work has but com- 

 paratively begun. The present amount of accessible timber in the country 

 cannot supply the necessities and wood-want of the inhabitants of these 

 United States, independent of foreign timber, fifteen years. These are 

 demonstrable facts, shown by actual statistics. It is therefore a matter 

 of stern necessity that the most active measures are set in operation to 

 supply the wants of immediate coming generations. 



