IVinfcr Meeting. - 239' 



CITY FORESTRY. 

 (By L. A. Goodman, Kansas City, ^lo.) 



■V\"ho plows a field or trains a flower. 

 Or plants a tree is more than all. 



Kind hearts are the gardens, 



Kind thoughts are the roots, 

 Kind words are the blossoms, 



Kind deeds are the fruits. 



He who plants a tree. 



Plants a hope, 

 Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree, 

 What the glories of thy boughs shall be? 



A quarter of a century ago it would have been easy to have settled 

 this matter in many parts of the city and especially so on these rocky 

 hills and deep ravines. All these hills and valleys were covered with 

 some of the most beautiful forests known to this western land. The 

 elms and oaks, in a dozen varieties, the Vv^alnut, and hickory as fruit 

 producers, the linden and willows giving honey to the wild bees, the 

 maples hard, soft, sugar, and white, growing beautifully everywhere, 

 the sycamore, ash, wild cherry, cottonwood, hackberry, coffee bean, the 

 thorn and crab apple with their beautiful flowers and delightful, 

 pungent fruit, the box elder, and in some places the tulip tree. All 

 these magnificent trees interspersed with an endless variety of shrubs 

 and vines and plants and wild flowers would have made it easy for one to 

 settle this matter of City Forestry with the greatest of satisfaction. 



It does seem a pity that these western Americans have so little 

 regard for the trees in • and about our large cities. Beyond this, 

 it is still more deplorable to see how quick our city fathers have been 

 to destroy every tree that stood anywhere near a street or side walk 

 no matter if it be a forest tree planted by nature and grown for hun- 

 dreds of years, or if it be one planted by the owner of the lot and cared 

 for until it becomes like one of the family, if it only stands one foot 

 in the way of a street or sidewalk, out it must come. So I plead Avith 

 you to use all your influence and power and authority to pre- 

 vent the further destruction of these few grand and noble trees of the 

 forest, or those trees that have been planted by the hand of the tree 

 lover. We must keep in mind the fact that we have the same right 

 to prevent cruelty to trees as we have cruelty to animals. 



Woodman, spare that tree, 



Touch not a single bough ; 

 In youth it sheltered me 



And I'll protect it now." 



