CONSERVATION 719 



fire wardens, for the discovery and con- the success of the Society for Protec- 



trol of incipient fires before they become tion of New Hampshire Forests and for 



conflagrations. The beg*innings of a two years has served upon its executive 



state nursery have been privately estab- committee. Last January he accepted 



lished, by which seedling forest trees membership in the board of directors 



will be distributed at cost for experi- of the American Forestry Association, 



mental purposes to the owners of w^aste With Mr. Bass as governor, and with 



lands. It is confidently hoped that the the present favorable sentiment 



forthcoming state legislature will adopt throughout the State in favor of fores- 



both the fire stations and the nursery, try, a wide opportunity is now open for 



Mr. Bass has been keenly interested in progressive work in the State. 



CONSERVATION 



By C, S. HARRISON 

 President of the Nebraska Park and Forestry Association 



(An address delivered at the summer meeting of the Nebraska Horticultural Society) 



WHEN the Creator turned this in the background, shrubs to the front, 



great land over to us it was then the flower-sprinkled carpet of 



a region of surpassing beauty, green. 



For long millenniums He was at work. Go into the forests, the great temples 



employing the highest art and skill for of God. What massive columns upheld 



its adornment. The whole country was the dark green canopy. Look where 



landscaped on a most magnificent scale you would, in woodland, plain, and 



and with a far-reaching forethought for mountain, the ages of the past had 



the future. Everything was provided made preparations for the ages to come, 



for. It was the patient work of ages Then came the two brothers, Graft 



to spread a thin layer of soil over the and Greed, with no thought or care for 



rocks and on the hills and mountain the future, with no appreciation what- 



sides, and then fasten it there with ever of the plans of the Creator. And 



trees, shrubs, and grasses. Mighty a careless government, which to-day, 



rivers flowed to the sea, fed by thou- from its own natural resources, could 



sands of streams which sang merrily have had income enough for current 



on their way. These streams were expenses, allowed billions to be taken 



carefully protected. Forests, bushes, and destroyed. One of the most beau- 



and rank vegetation prevented the tiful sights on earth is a splendid forest, 



washing of the soil, while at the sources One of the saddest spectacles is to see 



of all these rivulets there was the most that same forest the prey of the de- 



careful planning to retain the waters, structive ax and fire— blackened stumps, 



Dead leaves, decaying trees, mosses and like the gravestones of departed grand- 



the accumulated deposits of the ages ^ur. If the lumberman had planned 



all were like vast sponges to retain the ^^^ ^l^^ "^°f ^P^^^^ ^"^^ ""^' ""^"' ^^ 



^.^ .u t- t-u *. u u could not have prepared a more com- 



waters so that the streams would have ^ ^^ ^^^ ^^j j^^j^ ^^ ^^^ 



an even flow. Mighty forests were \^^^ ^^^ j^f^ ^^^ ^^.^ to dry for the 



planted. They grew and decayed. And „^^^^ tj^^gj. ^y, jhe fires came. All 



so, as the centuries passed, the land t^at dead rubbish was ready for them. 



grew richer and richer. Not only was the dead brush burned. 



How artistically all was arranged ! but the age-long deposit of dead leaves, 



There were often delightful parks in the rotten logs, and rich mould needed to 



forests, and when the woods edged feed the soil for the coming eons ; all 



upon the prairies there were tall trees were destroyed, and a garden of Eden 



