486 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



often dwelt upon. I am occasionly called into court as an expert, to testify 

 as to the value of a tree broken down by a careless teamster; a row of trees 

 taken into the highway in a newly laid out road; an apple tree in full bear- 

 ing whose value has been destroyed by somebody's misrepresentation of 

 its variety; and I am astonished offtimes at the figures the result of careful 

 calculation upon known values. But the fact always stands out plainly to 

 my view, that the value does not depend so much upon what has been put 

 into it as to what can be taken out of it. The Rural New Yorker, in a 

 recent issue published answers from experts, giving their estimate of value 

 upon bearing fruit trees. While there was a great variation in the replies, 

 it seemed to me at first that the prices were placed very high; dut when I 

 thought of trees in my own neighborhood, the income from which I knew, 

 trees that had been well planted and well cared for, I was satisfied that 

 these estimates were not exaggerated. 



There is a value we do not often consider that can be placed upon the 

 trees that embellish our homesteads. What would you take for the 

 hickory that stands in the pasture, a tree that has stood the perils of 

 storms for a generation. The tree of all trees under which the cattle have 

 gathered during the hot days of summer for shade and rest; the tree that 

 is cherished by every boy in the neighborhood who had gathered fruit 

 from its branches to add to the delights of the winter evenings. 



And now that you recollect that great burr oak that stands near the 

 corner of the faiTn; it was an old tree when you were a boy, it had been a 

 feature of your landscape through all the years of your growth from child- 

 hood to youth, from youth to manhood and from manhood to old age. 

 What would you take for it? How hard up would you have to be to 

 accept an offer? You think it almost wicked to consider a money value in 

 connection with it, but it has an economical value in dollars and cents. 



And those two maples that stand on either side of the gateway to your 

 home, trees that you planted there in early days, that you have watched 

 in their rapid growth, and enjoyed there all the year, trees that have so 

 often welcomed you when you have returned from other scenes, and are 

 responsible for the suggestion in your own heart, that there in "No 

 place like home." Will you set a value upon them? Will you tell me 

 what you think they are worth? 



And there is the elm that stands by the well. It came up there a chance 

 seedling when you were a little boy. Your father said " George, it is 

 strange that this seed should come up here; let's save it and see what will 

 come of it." You watched it, you protected it, you fought for its life, it 

 has grown to comely proportions, you feel that it is not only a part of 

 the home premises, but a part of your very self. What will you take for 

 it? These things are hard to estimate, and still there is a value that 

 would be recognized in the courts, it would be admitted in matters of 

 arbitration, it would be accepted as an added value to the premises. 



I have an elm standing at the very corner of our home farm. In wood it 

 is probably worth $5, possibly, for some manufacturing purpose it could be 

 increased to $10; and still I know that it has a value not less than $1,000 to 

 the five acres of land upon which it is the most characteristic feature. The 

 row of maples that my father and I planted along the front of the farm, 

 when I was a lad of thirteen years, is worth for timber, possibly, $50. If 

 they were dug up and removed to the premises of wealthy people at a 

 large expense, for immediate ornamental effects they might bring me $300. 

 Possibly if I should go into the manufacture of maple sugar, I could make 



