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ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



* * * * Though it is not pretended that we have originated or 



created a new tree, we have presented one to the world that had heretofore escaped the 

 observations and notice of the botanist. A tree of which it is said (by one who knows 

 that whereof he doth afifirm), " Every day's experience establishes me more firmly in 

 the opinion that it [the Catalpa speciosa) will prove to be one of the very best, if not 

 the very best tree in the middle American States, and with a southern limit very far 

 beyond any of our northern trees." 



********** -A-*** 



Certainly we already have many warnings that it is indeed high time for us to set 

 about doing something towards the restoration of the forests, which the necessities of 

 agriculture and the advancing wave of civilization have so rapidly diminished within a 

 century of occupation in extensive regions of our noble State. 



The clearing of the lands was a necessity for its occupation and application to 

 agriculture. In this matter every landowner must be left free to decide for himself and 

 for his own acres. No man nor set of men may let nor hinder him from destroying or 

 restoring his forests. Nor can his movements be controlled by legislative enactments, 

 as in other countries, since the policy of our republic is that of non-interference. But 

 we have also an axiom in our policy, that the best plans are ever those which conduce 

 to the greatest good to the greatest numbers of the people, and, whenever these may be 

 presented in acceptable form, it is hoped and believed that such propositions will receive 

 support. 



So great is the American statesman's confidence in the general good sense of the 

 people, and in their capacity for self-government, that all great questions may be safely 

 left to the popular tribunal. 



When new propositions happen to be presented to the people for solution, however, 

 they may sometimes need a certain amount of educational training and enlightenment to 

 prepare them for a wise decision. 



The present theme is perhaps one of that character, to our fathers and to many of 

 ourselves, who have lifted up axes upon the thick trees and prostrated those princes of 

 the forest which had for centuries reared their proud heads and reigned as monarchs of 

 all they might survey. Those of us who have laboriously cleared the land of these 

 encumbrances have triumphed in the unequal contest, and may well congratulate our- 

 selves on having released the fertile soil from its forest thralldom, to receive the vitalizing 

 sunshine, and to smile for us with productive farms and happy homes, surrounded with 

 luxuriant fields of food crops for man's use, convenience and enjoyment. 



Flushed with our triumphs over barbaric' nature, such may ask, " Why plant more 

 trees and again relegate these smiling fields to the bondage of the savagism of the 

 forest times ?" 



No ! this clearing of our fertile lands is indeed right and proper ; it will go on, 

 and it should continue for a certain period and to a certain extent. Whatever this extent 

 may be must depend upon so many circumstances connected with the physical conditions 

 of a wide extent of territory that the problem becomes difficult of solution and requires 

 for its proper consideration a knowledge of many branches of natural history. It need 

 not now be discussed ; suffice it that man's experience and observations in other regions 

 of the globe will aid us in attempting a solution. From these we learn that from one-fifth 

 to one-fourth part of any considerable stretch of country should be occupied by trees, in 

 order to produce the best results in the physical conditions necessary for the greatest 

 productiveness of the soil, and for the highest development of humanity. 



************** 



It appears that in the course of seven years the area ot the woodland in Ohio was 

 reduced from about 9,750,000 in 1870 to a little more than 5,000,000 acres in 1877. 



This shows that more than four million acres of woodland, nearly one-half of that 

 returned by the last United States census, have been destroyed in the brief period of seven 

 years ! Should these figures prove to be correct, they show a frightful destruction of 

 our woodlands, which must be followed in the future by their legitimate results of 

 altered and deteriorated climate, diminished fertility and productiveness of the soil, in 

 some places approaching barrenness, in the drying up of springs and streams, with irregu- 



