State Agricultural Society. 439 



northern portion of the United States, from Maine to Oregon, but now 

 large forests of the old growth east of the Eocky Mountains are rare. 

 In the old State of Maine, once so famous for her vast forests of pine 

 and great foreign lumber trade, there are to be found but few of the 

 original growth standing, and as a substitute for pine, hemlock and 

 spruce are now extensively used, and in nearly all of the older States 

 the scarcity of pine is severely felt. 



Arthur Bryant, in his new work on " Forest Trees," says: " The State 

 of New York, which not many years since exported great quantities of 

 pine lumber, now obtains a. supply for home consumption from abroad, 

 and it may be safely estimated that two thirds of the full grown timber 

 in Northern Illinois has been destroyed within the past eighteen years." 

 With the ravages of tires that have recently swept through the timbered 

 portions of our Northwestern States, and the increased demand for lum- 

 ber consequent upon the rapid increase of population, the home supply 

 for the future demands of civilization will soon be practically exhausted. 

 Large tracts of the best timbered lands of our own State within a few 

 years past have been monopolized by stock companies or speculators 

 and passed into the hands of railroad corporations as subsidies; and this 

 concentration of our great forests of timber in the hands of men who 

 have no consideration but the mighty dollar to be coined out of them, 

 must surely and speedily enhance the price of lumber. It is to be hoped 

 there will be, during the present session of the Legislature, some sys- 

 tematic plan devised which will bring about extensive and wide-spread 

 experiments in the different methods of forest tree culture, in all its 

 different branches and forms, throughout the State. There is no ques- 

 tion concerning our future prosperity as a State which will come before 

 it more important or more necessary for its immediate action and fos- 

 tering care than this. No efforts of private individuals will serve to 

 so forcibly impress upon those engaged in agricultural pursuits the 

 importance of extensively planting out forest trees as to have our 

 Legislature take some action worthy of an interest of such vast impor- 

 tance to our State. 



