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ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



perhaps were planted by your own hands. Strange as it may be, however, it seems 

 nevertheless true, that old men, those who cannot expect to see nor to reap the fruits of 

 their labors in forestry, are the most energetic tree-planters, rather than those just 

 entering upon life with a bright future opening up to them decades of prospective enjoy- 

 ment, and with a reasonable expectation of life even comparable to the term necessary 

 for the development of a useful tree. Old men are proverbially the tree-planters every- 

 where. 



In regard to their periods of development, there is a great diversity among trees ; 

 some have a brief rotation. The coppice growths in European forestry are often utilized 

 in periods of ten or fifteen years ; in our own country, too, we have many trees of short 

 rotation, and some of the most useful and most profitable trees are of this character. 



The Black locust may be harvested after it has grown from twenty to thirty years. 



The Caialpa speciosa in the same period will make good cross-ties and fence posts. 



The Ailanthus very soon attains a useful size, and for certain purposes has been 

 very highly commended, both in this country and in Europe. Prof. C. S. Sargent is 

 advising its extensive plantation, and some years ago it was spoken of as the most 

 promising tree for the arid plains of the Southwest. 



The forests of Scotch pine in Germany are allowed sixty years to reach their useful 

 size for fuel and for timbers. 



The Birch there reaches its maturity in about half a century. 



The Willojv used for charcoal needed in the manufacture of gunpowder may be cut 

 after growing twenty years or even less. 



Chestnut, in its second growth, is most profitably cut every twenty or twenty-five 

 years. 



The beautiful wood of the wild cherry soon reaches a profitable size for many 

 purposes, though for saw-logs and lumber the trees should be larger. 



Many individual trees, planted by the pioneers upon the broad plains of Nebraska, 

 within the few years the white men have occupied the so-called "American Desert," 

 have already attained to useful size and will yield each a cord of firewood to cheer their 

 owners. While the census reports represent the extent of woodlands in Ohio as cover- 

 ing about one-third of its total area, which is a full ratio for lands situated like ours, we 

 are not informed as to its condition. The skillful forester, however, cannot fail to 

 observe that these tracts are very far from being in a condition to yield the best results, 

 either economically or in their influence upon the climate and water-courses of the 

 adjacent regions, and he finds them much less satisfactory in regard to their own 

 improvement and perpetuation by succession. 



Nearly all our woodlands have been culled severely, robbed of their most valuable 

 products and species ; they are rarely in a condition for natural reproduction. In many 

 cases they have been carefully cleared up, aye, cleaned up, by the removal of their 

 undergrowth, both of bushes and of young forest trees, and they are even deprived of 

 nature's own favorite carpeting, composed of the fallen spray, the leaves, the logs, with 

 the mosses and lichens that feed upon these decaying tissues. All these make up an 

 admirai)le mulching material that prevents evaporation, and which receives and retains 

 the fallen rain, that quietly sinks into the mellow soil beneath, but which, when falling 

 upon the bared surface of cleared lands, quickly escapes in rushing and destructive 

 torrents. Some very neat and would-be careful and economical farmers, after thus 

 cleaning up their woodlands, attempt to render them profitable by laying them down to 

 grass, and then use the woods as pasture fields ; very beautiful they are considered by 

 the poet, but not by the forester, who sees in all this but the garnished tomb of the trees. 



Yes, my friends, the time has indeed arrived when we, as a people possessing a full 

 share of common sense, ought to realize the absolute necessity for devoting a portion of 

 our energies and intelligence to the conservation and care of our sylvan treasures, and 

 this will be followed by planting anew the waste tracts, and untillable hill-sides and 

 corners, or rocky ledges, with suitable trees. 



We should plant forest trees for ornament to the landscape. 



We should plant them for shelter to our crops, our cattle and ourselves. 



Trees should be planted to guard against the failure of the water supply of the 

 countvv. 



