8 Common Trees 



It is said that the city of Washington is the most beautiful 

 in America. Yet the fine buildings would stand out cold and 

 uninviting were it not for the fine trees that line the avenues 

 and surround the buildings, framing them into beautiful 

 pictures. 



The crowning glory of the Ohio landscape is its trees. 

 They are one with the topography in giving to our country- 

 side the appeal that it has. Destroy the trees and you have 

 destroyed the typical Ohio landscape. 



From the time of spring, when life awakens, the tiny bud 

 opens to unfold the delicate new leaf and the fruit buds its 

 bloom and perfume — through the leafy bowers of summer 

 to that delightful phenomena of autumn colors, and then 

 into bleak winter, the trees of the woods hold a charm that 

 makes men love them, and seek them for the many fine 

 impulses they inspire. 



It is in the winter when trees are unadorned that they 

 often show their most interesting character. It is then that 

 their form and habits of branching, bud formation, and the 

 delicate variation in color of bark on trunk and branch stand 

 out to best effect. To those who love the woods in winter, 

 trees seem almost human in their individuality. There is a 

 friendliness and a comradeship about trees on a bleak winter 

 day. Perhaps it is the sheltering trunks, or the softly-spoken 

 words of the wind through the branches. But it is there 

 for you to discover and to admire. Anyway, the boy or 

 girl who makes excursions into the deep woods in winter 

 will soon learn to like them even better than in summer. 

 Then, too, there is the delight of knowing trees in their 

 winter condition. At that season they must be identified by 

 their buds, bark, and general habit of growth. I hope every 

 Ohio boy and girl will have the opportunity and inclination 

 to know the trees and the wild woods intimately in winter, 

 and at least learn the names of the common ones at that 

 season. 



Finally, for the sake of their service to our State, let every 

 Ohio boy and girl resolve to do all in his or her power to 

 prevent needless injury or destruction to trees or forests. 



The virgin forests of Ohio have long since passed. Only 

 a few small detached remnants remain to bespeak the glory 

 of what was once the original landscape. We must now 

 commence to rehabilitate our depleted woodlands by protect- 

 ing that which we have from the agencies of destruction and 

 by planting trees on lands whose primary use is for growing 

 forests. 



To our fathers the tree was a cumberer of the ground. To 

 our children it will be one of the most valued of assets. 

 Upon us who live in the present generation devolves the dif- 

 ficult task of breaking away from traditional habits of 

 thought and action and adapting ourselves to new and radical 

 different conceptions. 



