COMMmnCATIONS. 197 



the fences, furniture, and thousand utensils, and machines of 

 every kind, the principal materials for which are taken directly 

 from the forests, we should be reduced to a condition of destitu- 

 tion and barbarism. 



Trees, besides being useful, are ornamental — they enter large- 

 ly into the material of the landscape gardener. Desolate indeed 

 would be our dwellings were their environs entirely treeless. 

 They are associated with our early recollections — they become 

 in a great degree companions of our lives ; and we unconsciously 

 form strong attachments for such as grow near our homes — thus 

 increasing our love of home, and improving our hearts. 



It therefore becomes a duty to study these noble specimens of 

 vegetable growth ; we should know what trees we already have 

 in Wisconsin, and what kinds it would be advisable to intro- 

 duce. Every farmer at least should be familiar with the trees 

 that grow in his woods ; and know enough of botany and veg- 

 etable physiology to be able to preserve them from harm or in- 

 jury. He should study to keep up a supply that shall always 

 be equal to the demand — as the intelligent farmer strives to sup- 

 ply annually to the soil (by manures or otherwise), the exhaust- 

 ed elements, so he should provide for an annual growth of wood 

 that shall be at least equal to the amount consumed. 



We propose in the following pages to give so much of the bo- 

 tanical characters of the sixty trees indigenous to our State, as 

 will enable any one by the aid of the illustrations to distinguish 

 them with certainty ; and also such general information in regard 

 to their several uses, as will tend to call attention to the impor- 

 tance of the subject. A large volume would be required to con- 

 tain all that could be desired in regard to these trees. 



Though we have at present in almost every part of Wisconsin 

 an abundant supply of wood for all our present purposes, the 

 time is not far distant when, owing to the increase of population, 

 and the increased demands from the neighboring States of Illi- 

 nois, Iowa, and Minnesota, a scarcity will begin to be felt. This 

 scarcity may be considered as already begun in several of the 

 counties along our southern border, where there was originally 

 much prairie and open land. In these counties, the annual fires 



