Discussion on the Address of President Earle. 45 



valuable to us. Califoraia has the largest forest trees in the world. 

 The grandest and noblest trees on earth are the redwoods along the 

 Sierra Nevadas, which are now being ruthlessly destroyed, and I 

 trust this body will send to Washington resolutions urging that 

 action be taken to stop the wasting, that these grand old woods may 

 be saved for our grandchildren. 



Prof. Husmann, of California — I regard the preservation of our 

 forests as a naatter of the greatest importance, and legislative enact- 

 ments for that purpose as a dire necessity. I was surprised at the 

 remarks of my friend from Oregon. It may be that in a few places 

 there are. too many trees, but all along our coasts can be seen the 

 desolation wrought by the destruction of the trees. I regard the 

 redwood as providential to this climate. We need it in grape-grow- 

 ing to furnish stakes for our young vines. It is one of the best of 

 building woods and one of the least perishable, and it has great 

 powers of reproduction. Whenever a tree is cut down suckers im- 

 mediately spring up from the roots, and in twenty or thirty years 

 furnish good strong wood for all purposes. This noble wood 

 should be saved; it should not be cut down for fuel, and the roots 

 should not be dug up. The root of the tree, having a most beauti- 

 ful color and grain, when polished is very valuable, and so the very 

 roots are being destroyed. But the greatest destruction is from fires 

 left by careless hunters on the mountain-side. 



Secretary Pagan, of Indiana — From the remarks of Dr. Plum- 

 mer, I infer that the farmers of Oregon are now passing through 

 that period of forest-vandalism, if I may use the expression, so re- 

 cently existing in many portions of the east, where arguments for 

 the destruction of forests had numerous advocates. " We were 

 early taught," said Rev. Mr. Webster, of Ohio, before this Society 

 at a recent meeting, "to destroy the noble forests. My father, in 

 my earliest recollection, on this Western Reserve, used to say : 

 ' There are three arguments for keeping a good fire: to get rid of 

 the trees, that we may keep warm, and that we may have more 

 ashes to sell.' When the first church, of which I now have the 

 honor to be pastor, was being erected, many of the subscriptions 

 were marked, 'to be paid in ashes.' Ashes were better than grain, 

 and were a ' legal tender' in the payment of the pastor's salary." 



