318 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Another forest district of vital importance to the nation's capital, con- 

 taining some grand scenery which, though separated from the main bodies by 

 the breadth of Montgomery county should be included in the purchase, borders 

 the banks of the Potomac River from the District line to a point beyond the 

 Great Falls, an area of 10,000 acres. Conditions here are distressing in the 

 extreme, as no effort has so far been made to care for it, and year by year 

 injury to the landscape is done. Surely devotion to the public welfare should 

 prompt Congress to protect this great possession. 



The value of the lands in question is comparatively small, but as the 

 pressure of population increases this will not continue, and it is not wise to 

 defer provision for its purchase. Altogether these areas cover one hundred 

 and ten thousand acres. The Forest Service should ascei-tain the merits of 

 the various districts for forest purposes and study the replanting of certain 

 parts, and a commission should plan for the maximum of beauty and utility, 

 which are lost for want of skillful and intelligent handling. 



Water courses should be improved and artificial lakes could be made 

 as beautiful as natural ones, and the attraction of the woods may be enhanced 

 by the erection of suitable buildings properly located. A structure of the 

 character of a German schloss or a small chateau to serve the traveling public 

 as an inn or automobile club would not be out of keeping. 



Here, then, at the gateway to the capital lies a splendid domain such as 

 the kings of the earth from the earliest time have taken for themselves and 

 jealously guarded as among their dearest possessions. We see it in the New 

 Forest in England with its 90,000 acres — established by the Conqueror" — in 

 Fontainebleau also ; and in that one which existed in the shadowy past within 

 the present borders of the city of Paris, of which the Louvre retains the 

 name of the king's hunting lodge of that day. 



Many other forests might be mentioned, as, for instance, that proud pos- 

 session of the city of Zurich, given to it by Charlemange himself. 



Looking, then, for a moment at the forest through the silver birches among 

 the laurels, and into the hemlocks beyond — or turning about and gazing across 

 the lake over the receding hills at sunset, you may, in spirit, visualize what 

 you have seen with the eye of the flesh and thus discern what the people may 

 do for themselves and why they should do it for their own well-being and 

 for the benefit of generations to come. 



At the southern apex of the territory indicated is the old town of Bladens- 

 burg and neighboring hamlets. Here are found historic specimens of colonial 

 architecture — the Calvert mansion, the inn at which General Washington used 

 to put up when he was planning the great city, and Parthenon Heights, a 

 quaint old house of Revolutionary days. It is here that the two main branches 

 of the Anacostia River meet, the one stream coming down from Tacoma Park, 

 near the northern corner of the District of Columbia, and the other, or North- 

 eastern Branch, emerging from the principal forest areas with which we have 

 to do. The road leaving Bladensburg crosses the Anacostia bridge and arrives 

 soon at the border of the forest and after traversing several miles of quite 

 interesting country, the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad is reached. It then 

 turns north and enters the forest again, passing through spruce, pine, oak, and 

 poplar, all of which, under present ownership, is kept thinned out as it becomes 

 of commercial value in the local market for timber, railroad ties, pulp or 

 firewood. 



Reference to the accompanying map which is made from detailed charts 

 of the forest areas of the Maryland Forest Department will show that the 

 District is approached by numerous electric and steam railways as well as 

 by county and turnpike roads. 



