STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 49 



awaken in the minds of the great masses of our people a just appreciation 

 of the urgent necessity of this work, very much might be accomplished 

 by individual effort. 



It is said that the wife of Thomas Hamilton, the Earl of Had- 

 dington, who possessed fine horticultural tastes, planted with her own 

 hand and succeeded in raising several ornamental clumps of trees, and 

 finally persuaded her husband to inclose and plant the Moor of Tyning- 

 ham, a waste common of about three hundred Scotch acres. The Earl 

 agreed to her making the experiment, and to the surprise of every one 

 the moor was rapidly covered wirli a thriving plantation, that received 

 the name of Binningwood. The Earl, pleased with the success, entered 

 with great eagerness into the plan of sheltering and enriching the family 

 estate by plantations of timber. He planted several other pieces of waste 

 land, inclosed and divided his cultivated fields with strii)s of wood, and 

 even made a tract along the seashore, called the "east links" — which 

 had always been regarded as a barren sand — productive of the finest firs. 

 But it is certain that, however generally we might induce individual effort, 

 we cannot avoid the threatened calamity unless Government comes 

 promptly to the rescue. 



The General Government should organize and establish a department 

 of Forest Culture, similar to that of Agriculture, and every State should 

 establish an auxiliary department, and secure a working committee in 

 every county in the State ; so that in the annual report of these depart- 

 ments this subject will receive the attention that its importance demands. 



Government, too, should exempt every acre of growing timber from 

 taxation, under certain govermental restrictions, and arrange and system- 

 atize a plan to plant and protect timber on all our streams and rivers, 

 sea coasts, mountain sides, and rough districts, and establish such regu- 

 lations of individual ownership of these "guardian forests" as shall 

 make them valuable investments. Government should also see the 

 wisdom of international action, and do her part in securing, once in a 

 certain series of years, a congress, similar to that recently assembled at 

 Vienna, to secure international agreement, and arrange international 

 work for the successful prosecution of this most important branch of 

 industry for national wealth and safety. 



If Government can be aroused to this work, and put forth her strong 

 arm for her own protection and security against threatened danger, we 

 can look forward to a bright and promising future. The best men of the 

 nation should be chosen ibr this work, and every inducement possible 

 offered to stimulate individual effort. We may then expect to see in the 

 not very distant future, millions of acres of land that is now comparatively 

 barren and unproductive, covered with beautiful groves of deciduous and 

 coniferous forest trees, leaving the richer and protected districts for the 

 cultivated field, the orchard, and the vineyard. The earth thus clothed 

 with garments of green, the great law of climatic change and the law of 

 compensation will be so completely under the control of man, that in jjlace 

 of the present sudden changes and consequent devastating storms, we 

 shall secure an equable climate, and frequent gentle showers, causing 



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