196 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



have been depleted in the past. All this prosperity in regions novr nearly 

 abandoned means happier homes and better citizens. This local effect reminds 

 me of the advisability in some cases of establishing town forests like the com- 

 munal forests of Europe which are of such great assistance to the small vil- 

 lages and the peasants who live in them. What could be a finer monument for 

 a wealthy man to leave to his native town than a forest tract of five thousand 

 acres to be managed under state control, the income to be used for town 

 purposes ? 



WOODNOTES 

 II. 



As sunbeams stream through liberal space, 

 And nothing jostle or displace, 

 So waved the pine-tree through my thought. 

 And fanned the dreams it never brought. 



"Whether is better, the gift or the donor? 



Come to me," 



Quoth the pine-tree, 



"I am the giver of honor. 



My garden is in the cloven rock, 



And my manure the snow; 



And drifting sand-heaps feed my stock, 



In summer's scorching glow. 



He is great who can live by me. 



The rough and bearded forester 



Is better than the lord; 



God fills the scrip and canister. 



Sin piles the loaded board. 



The lord is the peasant that was. 



The peasant the lord that shall be; 



The lord is hay, the peasant grass. 



One dry. and one the living tree. 



Who liveth by the ragged pine 



Pounded a heroic line; 



Who liveth in the palace hall 



Waneth fast and spendeth all. 



He goes to my savage haunts. 



With his chariot and his care; 



My twilight realm he disenchants. 



And finds his prison there. 



— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



