TEXAS FORESTRY LAW 



615 



160 years old, still bearing good apples. 

 A cherry tree 10 feet in circumference, 

 5 feet from the ground, branched out 

 like an oak, bearing yearly large crops 

 of fine white cherries. Tulip trees that 

 were good sized when the British 

 soldiers camped under them. Besides 

 these there are many other rare and 

 beautiful specimens of trees and shrubs. 

 But none is of more interest or more 

 worthy of a visit than Flushing's oldest 

 tree. 



A sturdy white oak stands on a 

 stretch of level land, that must have 

 appealed to the early settler as an ideal 

 claim. On this same flat, within the 

 memory of the oldest inhabitant, there 

 stood three other white oaks, all of the 

 same general outline; large low trees 

 with wide spreading branches. The 

 oldest oak is 17 feet in circumference, 5 

 feet from the ground; 18 inches above 

 the ground it is 19 feet around. Its 

 spread is 90 feet. One branch is 53 

 feet 6 inches long, while the tree is 

 only 54 feet high. Professor Asa Gray, 

 the botanist, estimated that the last 



surviving mate to the old oak, which 

 stood on Parsons Avenue until 1895, 

 was 600 years old, and this is probably 

 as old. 



It must have been a large tree prob- 

 ably two and one-half feet or more in 

 diameter when the first white man saw 

 it. When allowance is made for the 

 curf in chopping, the butt cut would be 

 two short even for a fence post. It 

 was at that time as it is today prac- 

 tically good for nothing but fire-wood 

 and that could be obtained more easily 

 than by chopping down such a tree, 

 and it is barely possible that its various 

 owners, like the present one, Mr. Ellis 

 Parker Butler, may have admired the 

 tree. 



The old monarch still stands in Mr. 

 Butler's backyard on State Street. 

 The good fortune that has been with 

 it all these years has placed it where it 

 does not interfere with electric wires 

 and sewers, and gas pipes do not inter- 

 fere with it. Barring accidents it 

 ought to live for many years to come. 



TEXAS FORESTRY LAW 



TEXAS has awakened to a realiza- 

 tion of the needs of protecting 

 its forests and the legislature 

 which recently adjourned passed 

 a state forestry bill which the Governor 

 signed. It has now become a law. 

 The bill provides for the appointment 

 of a State Board of Forestry of seven 

 members, the Governor, Commissioner 

 of the General Land Office, Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture, president of the 

 University of Texas, president of the 

 Agricultural and Mechanical College 

 of Texas, and two citizens, to be 

 chosen, so the bill expresses it "with 

 reference to their knowledge of, and 

 interest in, the planting and cultivation 

 of trees in prairie regions, the preserva- 

 tion of natural forests, the foresting of 

 denuded land, and the protection of 

 stream flow." 



The Board is to foiTnulatc plans for 

 carrying on practical forestry, and to 

 supervise all matters of forest policy. 



A state forester with a maximum 

 salary of $3,000 a year is to be appointed 

 by the Board of Directors of the Agricul- 

 tural and Mechanical College. 



The bill carried an appropriation of 

 S20,000, which was cut in half. The 

 expectation is, however, that when it is 

 seen from practical work just how 

 important to the State is a forestry 

 law, succeeding legislatures will pro- 

 vide ample revenue for the department. 



The new law permits the Governor to 

 accept for the State gifts of land for 

 forest reserves and provides for pur- 

 chases of similar lands; it also permits 

 cooperation with the Government under 

 the so-called Weeks law in the protec- 

 tion of the forests from fire. 



The American Forestry Association 

 did what it could to arouse sentiment 

 throughout the State in favor of the pass- 

 age of a forestry bill. A State Forestry 

 Association was formed and did active 

 work for it and the broadminded lumber- 



