162 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



people. Our only resort, therefore, is to welfare of country. Of the 

 utility of forests we are slow to learn, rfnd the once fertile but now 

 barren countries of the Old World speak to us in vain. Our own 

 Eastern States are bearinj"; testimony in favor of forest planting 

 which ma}' awaken more attention. 



In the first settlement of these states thinking men were con- 

 triving how to get rid of the surplus timber. The axe and the fire 

 were in requisition at that time. Thinking men are now more 

 anxiously inquiring how we may arrest this destruction and devasta- 

 tion. 



Tn the Prairie States tree planting has been fostered from the 

 beginning of settlements. As we cannot hope for aid from the state 

 or national treasury we propose that farmers be induced to help 

 themselves. 



A country so beautiful by nature, so prolific in all the essentials 

 of human necessities, as is our own beautiful State of Illinois, is. per- 

 haps, not found in the wide range of the great republic. 



Mr. President, can we do our State any greater service, in a ma- 

 terial way. than to commend and foster the, planting of fruit, orna- 

 mental and forest trees? Let tree planting become a part of our 

 farm literature: let it become a subject of conversation in our fam- 

 ily and social circles — a subject of debate in literary societies; let it 

 permeate all ranks and conditions of men till it becomes a blessed 

 contagion. 



Every one will, in all probability, have his favorite variety for 

 planting; whatever it may be let it be indigenous. Treat all foreign- 

 ers (exotics) with due respect and courtesy, but stick to your known 

 friends. 



I would like to call attention to a few names without the con- 

 sent of the owners. There is one J. W. Fell, whom some of you 

 may remember, one Samuel Edwards, and one Robert Douglas, more 

 worthy of being remembered than he of the Grampian Hills, and 

 many others. These men have erected their own monuments in the 

 shape of spiral firs and beauteous groves. Let us emulate their 

 worthy example. 



It may not be generally known that we have a statute in Illi- 

 nois ( thanks to that grand old farmer, Willard C. Flagg ) granting 

 every land owner the ])rivilege of using six feet of land on our road 

 sides for ornamental tree planting. If every farmer will avail him- 

 self of this privilege our rural districts would soon vie with our cities, 

 towns, and villages in ornamentation. These may and should be of 

 some useful varieties, so that when decay, misfortune, or age shall 

 come upon them they may be made to minister to the wants of man. 



Our national legislature may aid us a little, and now, as the 

 speaker of the House of Representatives is not bound hand and foot 

 with that vicious web, the tariff, may we not reasonably hope that 

 the tax on lumber from Canada will be removed? 



