278 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REPORT ON ARBORICULTURE. 



D. C. ScoFiELD, from the Standing Committee on Arboriculture, 

 reported as follows : 



Mr. President : It is mine to report on trees and forests. This I 

 understand to be a favorite topic in your councils. From your earliest 

 history, which extends back a period of only about eight years, you have 

 had inscribed on your banner, " Timber Culture;" and, notwithstanding 

 the skepticism of some and the apathy of others, it has continued to 

 occupy the most important place in your deliberations, and has set in 

 motion forces that will bear onward the blessings of civilization and 

 Christianity through coming centuries. 



In this report I propose to take a review of your work and its results 

 to the present time. 



In the words of inspiration, though reverently, we inquire, "Watch- 

 man, what of the night?" In the name of the honorable members of 

 this Society — of the dead as well as the living — who, with animated zeal, 

 have shared in the discussions of this subject, I reply : 



As indicated by my motto-question, it was, comparatively, a night 

 of slumber on the subject of American forestry. Long, indeed, had the 

 question been asked, by the wise and prudent, "Whence is to come the 

 supply for the timber wants of the future?" "Watchman, what of the 

 night ?" but no voice responded. No organized form of action appeared, 

 nor dawn of approaching day arose. Strange as it may appear, yet nev- 

 ertheless true, that, Avithout concert of intended action, five members of 

 your convention, who met at your first annual meeting at Freeport, from 

 three different States (Indiana, Iowa and Illinois), had written essays on 

 timber planting, and these papers were read and embodied in your report, 

 or "Transactions of the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society for the 

 years 1867-8." Here the great question of a nation's timber wants and 

 necessities were discussed. You there urged your cause from the follow- 

 ing leading considerations : 



First. — From the exhaustion of timber supply: (<?), by railroads ; 

 {b), in farm fixtures; (^), in the building of cities and navies; (r/), in 

 every department of human industry employing wood material. 



Second. — (^), That pine timber, when cut away, was not followed by 

 succeeding forests of pine. (/), That the wood material for manufac- 

 turing purposes was rapidly disappearing in the United States. 



Third. — C^), That the climatic influences of forests, involving the 

 protection they afforded from destructive air currents, regulating rain-fall, 

 rendered the soil more productive and man more healthful and happy. 

 (/^), That a nation's wealth consisted largely in the abundance of its 

 timber supply, and that its future prosperity, in an important sense, was 

 suspended on the planting of forests. 



You proposed and assumed the responsibility that, as far as practica- 

 ble, you would urge this subject on every department of society, indi- 

 viduals, and associations of men organized for agricultural, horticultural 



