988 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Seed Johnny" whose name is now a household word 

 throughout the state because of the fact that this erratic 

 knight errant of the road traveled hither and yon sowing 

 the seed of tens of thousands of apple trees whose fruit 

 he was never to enjoy but which have proved a great 

 boon and a valued possession to others. That is the true 

 spirit of the planter. He thinks of the future and of the 

 enjoyment and blessing which will come to those yet 

 unborn from the seed which he sows or the tree which 

 he plants. 



Similarly the future will rise to call those blessed who 

 today are adorning our parks and avenues and the coun- 



AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR TREE 



It can be truly said that no other tree holds as high a place as the 

 American or white elra. It is the most aristocratic of all the nation's 

 shade trees; and is almost if not quite as beautiful a feature of the 

 winter as of the summer landscape. 



try's highways with handsome ornamental trees. Many 

 of these will have a utilitarian value in and of themselves; 

 but their greatest value from the economic point of view 

 is likely to be the interest which they arouse in practical 

 forestry, in conservation and in encouraging a more 

 thorough and nation-wide study in the subject of timber 

 resources. This is a matter which will become of greater 

 and greater importance with the advance of our civiliza- 

 tion and the increase of population not only in the United 

 States but in other countries. The children will be taught 

 the value of tree life because they will participate in the 

 ceremonies incident to the plantings. They will know 

 and come to appreciate more and more as they grow older 

 the purpose for which this work was done. They will 

 know it was because their fathers and their elder brothers 

 were looking to the future welfare of mankind ; and the 

 lesson will impress its deep meaning on them. 



The American Forestry Association is anxious to have 

 its members interested not only in tree planting in this 

 country but in the help which is to be extended to Great 

 Britain, France and Belgium in restoring their badly cut 

 or devastated forest areas. Percival Sheldon Ridsdale, 

 Executive Secretary of the Association, who went abroad 



early in the year to investigate the amount of damage 

 done and to ascertain what assistance might be given, 

 reports on his return that about one and one-half million 

 acres of forest land in France has either been destroyed 

 by shell, machine gun and rifle fire or by the cutting by 

 the contending armies for barrack, trench and fuel wood ; 

 that practically all of Belgium's forests having any timber 

 value had been cut down by the Germans and used or 

 shipped back to Germany ; that fully 450,000 acreas of 

 Great Britain's forests had been felled. 

 • The forest authorities of each of the countries named 

 have declared eager to have the assistance of the 

 American Forestry Association in providing them with 

 American forest tree seeds. This help is to be extended 

 and the work will be carried on this year and in 1920. 

 There are many ways in which the people of the 

 United States can have the subject of tree planting kept 

 before them. Those who have the subject at heart should 

 help in various ways to keep this topic to the fore. At 

 the present time there seems to be no better way, no 

 method that will call forth a more popular response, that 

 by making it a memorial to the soldiers. But then there 



A DESIRABLE SHADE TREE 



I'mler favorable conditions the white ash grows fairly rapidly and attains 

 a good size with a moderately broad open crown and thin foliage. It is 

 native to a wide territory throughout the tjnited States. 



are other persons and events that can be memorialized, 

 and most fittingly, in this manner. The American For- 

 estry Association has suggested that trees be planted in 

 honor of the late Colonel Roosevelt along highway to 

 be named for him and elsewhere ; and this is being done 

 in a number of instances. There are other lovers of 

 nature, men who through their written or spoken words 

 or in other ways have taught the beauty of woods and 

 trees and flowers; and to all such trees might appropri- 

 ately be planted. One such was Walt Whitman, the 



