FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 207 



1. For ornjiiiiental purposes and shade. 



2. For shelter and screens from wind. 



3. For the i)roduction of timber. 



I have thus divided the subject according to the different degrees of atten- 

 tion which each branch of tree culture has hitherto received. I have placed 

 the cultivation of trees for shade and ornamental purposes first in order, not 

 because it is the most important use to which trees can be put, but because the 

 most numerous efforts in the direction of tree planting have always been made 

 for purposes of ornamenting grounds or streets, and for shade; and it is this 

 branch of the subject with wliich we are most familiar. So generally has the 

 advantage of shade and ornamental trees been recognized by the people, that 

 we see all over our State, cities and villages whose chief beauty consists in the 

 magnificent growth of trees and shrubbery which adorn their streets and the 

 grounds about their private residences. Considerable progress, too, has been 

 made in the country in planting trees along the highways and around farm 

 houses ; but it is to be regretted that more attention has not been paid by our 

 farming population to the preservation of the trees which once grew in such 

 profusion, or to planting them anew for shade and ornament. It will be \\n- 

 necessary for me to dwell at any length upon the great advantage and the 

 many delights of thick masses of shade trees surrounding our houses, or bor- 

 dering the streets and highways of town and country. You, whose farm-houses 

 are embowered in trees whose grateful shade tempers the fierceness of the sum- 

 mer sun, and invites the tired laborer to his nooning of cool, refreshing rest, 

 can well appreciate the benefits of this kind of tree culture, without any 

 attempt on my part to picture it to you. These benefits should also be appre- 

 ciated, if they are not, by the dwellers in tliose homes, too frequently seen 

 throughout the country, Avhich stand bare and unrelieved by any clustering 

 trees or shrubs ; where no shade wards off the blistering rays of the sun in 

 summer, and no masses of evergreen foliage protect from the biting Avinds of 

 fall and winter. 



Next to planting trees for shade and ornamental purposes, more has been 

 said and written, and more work has been done, in relation to the cultivation 

 of belts of timber for purposes of screens and shelter for fields and orchards, 

 than for any otlier purpose. The removal of the forests which has been car- 

 ried on so vigorously and relentlessly in this country for purposes of clearing 

 the ground for cultivation, and to supply the demand for lumber, lias been 

 found to entail a curse upon the country thus denuded of its timber in the 

 shape of sweeping winds and tornadoes, to which the open stretclies of plain 

 have given free play; and whicli have exercised a blighting intluence upon the 

 crops of fruit and grain. 



The planting of trees for tlie renewal of the forests which have been cleared 

 away, and the production of timber for mechanical uses and for fuel, is by no 

 means the least important branch of arboriculture, thougli it has received less 

 attention in the past than tree-planting for shelter and for shade. Its impor- 

 tance, however, is becoming more and more apparent as the vast forests which 

 were once the glory and pride of this country are year by year melting away 

 beneath the stroke of the woodman's ax. In this paper, which must of neces- 

 sity be brief, I desire to dwell particularly upon the last two branches of the 

 subject to which I have alluded. These are the culture of trees for shelter, 

 and tlie culture of trees for timber. It may seem like carrying coals to New- 

 castle to advocate the cultivation of trees and the preservation of forests before 



