148 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ing his endeavor, Mr. Mann says : "An 

 inborn love for plant life, especially in 

 its highest forms, shrubbery and trees, 

 induced me to attempt to make a collec- 

 tion of native timber and ornamental 

 trees. Like many another 'small 

 farmer.' I could not afford to buy them 

 at fancy prices, so 1 thought out a plan 

 of procuring the seeds and planting 

 them. Such seeds as I had I could 

 chanofe with other tree fanciers for 

 some sort that I wanted from other 

 ]:)arts of the country, and so not merely 

 supply my own wants but grow enougli 

 to spare to any one who should care 

 to adorn school grounds, roadsides, and 

 home grounds. 



"I hoped and believed that the surest 

 way to draw the attention of the peo- 

 l)le to this most useful branch of nature 

 study would be by planting trees that 

 would show by comparison and contrast 

 the marvelously rich and varied assort- 

 ment of our beautiful indigenous trees 

 which have never yet been fully ap- 

 preciated, but have always been wasted 

 and destroyed. I wanted to make some 

 attempt, however small, to save some 

 of the great quantities of forest-tree 

 seeds that annually go to waste un- 

 noticed throughout the land, which, for 

 climatic as well as for economic rea- 

 sons should be saved and planted to 

 provide the millions of seedling trees 

 needed to reforest the lean, bare, rocky 

 and untillable hillsides and mountains 

 of Pennsylvania and other states. For 

 the great work of the national and 

 the state forest service must be sup- 



plemented by the individual efforts of 

 every public-spirited landholder. 



"I would especially like to get the 

 teachers and pupils of the public schools 

 interested in this cause — to help them 

 all to admire, study, protect, love and 

 to some extent propagate our most 

 useful and beautiful trees in connec- 

 tion with the school-garden movement, 

 beginning by collecting and planting 

 such seeds as they could find at home 

 and on the way to school. 



"The underlying motive of my work 

 has not been for pecuniarv gain, but nev- 

 ertheless I believe it will always pay well 

 to produce trees whose age and ante- 

 cedents are known. 



"In many parts of the central West 

 the noble hardwoods are in danger of 

 extermination. Of some of the more 

 rare and valuable sorts, like the shingle, 

 the overcup. the Spanish and the chin- 

 quapin oak, the elms, hickories, and. 

 pecans, there are not enough left to jier- 

 petuate the species. And it is high 

 time to take heed lest the more common 

 varieties suffer a like fate." 



Though Mr. Mann centers his efforts 

 upon the raising of oaks, he is likewise 

 growing specimens of almost all native 

 trees of North America. Indeed, his 

 love for trees is so predominant that 

 the ancient farmhouse wherein he lives 

 is almost concealed from view on all 

 sides by trees. This house was built 

 in 1754 by John Mann, one of the 

 Scotch-Irish settlers of Pennsylvania, 

 and the property has been in the posses- 

 sion of the Mann family uninterrupt- 

 edly for 160 years. 



