32 THE PIvANT WORLD 



Kentucky Oaks. 



By Sadie F. Price. 



[This article, which is probably the last oue written by Miss Price before her death 

 a few months ago, was kindly sent to us by her sister. The drawings are also the 

 work of Miss Price, and as most of the species enumerated occur throughout the South- 

 eastern States, we believe that the article will be of much interest to those who wish 

 to learn to recognize the oaks. — Ed.] 



Though Kentucky can boast of no historic trees, as the Concord and 

 Hartford elms ; the Danbury elm under which Washington danced ; or 

 the one at Middletown under whose shade Dickens wrote a chapter of 

 "Edwin Drood," and where a banquet was spread for the illustrious 

 Commercial Traveller for the house of Human Interest Brothers ' ' ; and 

 though it has few so large as the ones that Dr. Holmes so loved and 

 wrote so charmingly about ; and none in age equal to the oaks of Eng- 

 land under whose branches the Druids worshipped, or the yews that are 

 still flourishing at the age of 1,000 years, yet Kentuckians should be 

 proud of their trees. 



The destruction of the forests still goes on, however, with great waste 

 and with no thought of to-morrow. All who are interested in trees are 

 earnestly watching the progress of the ' ' selection ' ' system at the Bilt- 

 more forests. " Two things have at least been proved by the work that 

 has been done at the forest. These are that large trees, surrounded by 

 a dense growth of smaller ones, may be felled and removed with com- 

 paratively very unimportant injury to the young crop, and that the 

 additional cost of the necessary care, beyond that of ordinary destructive 

 lumbering, is so small as to be out of all proportion to the result. This 

 will be of inestimable value to owners of wood lands." 



The Forestry Division of the Agricultural Department, Washington, 

 publishes a report on Forestry, telling farmers how they may manage their 

 trees to advantage. This may be had for the asking. 



In towns there seems to be less appreciation of the tree. If errors 

 are made in the grading, the two or three hundred-year old oak or elm 

 that adorns the pavement is laid low with as little compunction as the 

 farmer would mow a field of ' ' white top ' ' ; and in towns that boast the 

 electric light and the steam roller the trees are mutilated with as little hesi- 

 tation. The roller's path is marked by fire, and leaves a track of burned 

 boughs along its course. The engineer pauses in the shade, not heeding 

 or caring that the steam is killing the green boughs above his head. To 

 know the trees, to have a "speaking acquaintance" with each variety, 

 is to admire them the more and to feel a wish to save them from needless 

 destruction. 



