54 



ARBORICULTURE 



possibility ior the horses, when suddenly 

 the road entered a wooded strip, and 

 immediately we were on a firm surface. 

 Had the character of the soil changed? 

 No — without the trees it would have been 

 the same. But the road was not all that 

 had been improved. I said this was a 

 wooded strip — it was succeeded by a 

 strip of cultivated land of about the 

 same width, perhaps thirty rods, and 

 then came another strip of woods and 

 another strip of meadow alternating, the 

 whole covering several hundred acres of 

 one of the finest farms in the state in 

 spite of the fact that the soil, if exposed 

 to wind and sun, as on all the neighbor- 

 ing properties, would soon become 

 worthless. The neighboring land owners 

 are too poor to set out trees, they think, 

 and were too grasping in day? long past 

 to leave the trees, but should not the 

 state see to it that such failures be not 

 repeated, and also take measures to bring 

 about the same conditions as those upon 

 the noted Miller farm above cited? 



In the region of which we are speak- 

 ing, the land after its long exposure, will 

 not grow a good crop of any regular food 

 for man or beast, but fortunately nature 

 has provided a crop which can grow on 

 just such land, and forunate too would 

 be the next generation if this land could 

 be thus planted, for spruce is a native 

 to the soil and will grow and thrive where 

 other trees and plants could not live at 

 all. and moreover in New York state, 

 with its vast paper-making industries, 

 spruce is now getting to be so scarce an 

 article as to make its value very great 

 indeed, and a planning for future crops 

 not only a wise policy for the state, 

 but even for individuals. A young man 

 could take out no better class of in- 

 surance for independence and comfort 

 for his old age than in setting out to 

 spruce, pine or catalpa, such land, which 

 can be bought by the thousands of acres 

 at the yearly tax sales. 



What is true of the land in New York 

 state is true of almost any other. For- 

 estry experiments in Kansas have proven 

 most emphatically that trees are a good 

 and paying crop even where other things 

 will not grow, perhaps I should say, es- 

 pecially where other things do not pay. 



BaKTOX Cr<UIKSH.\NK. 



The half-tones — Before the Ax, and 

 After the Ax — taken from Water and 

 Forest, San Francisco, are true to nature. 

 W'c have seen many places in California 

 and the West which these pictures would 

 illustrate. Arboriculture does not ob- 

 ject to lumbering, on the contrary, is an 

 advocate of manufactures, and of cutting 

 the trees which are ripe and ready to 

 use. but favors a more rational method 

 of clearing whereby the forests may be 

 perpetuated for all time, and made a 

 source of income to the owners of the 

 land, the nation and state. The goose 

 which lays the golden egg should not be 

 sacrificed by the ruinous policy which 

 now prevails in almost every lumber 

 camp. 



Canada is far in advance of the United 

 States in her laws for forest perpetuation. 



r)n Crown Lands Licentiates are for- 

 Iiidden to cut pine trees measuring less 

 than 12 inches in diameter, spruce trees 

 less than i i inches and other trees less 

 than 9 inches. Some inferior trees, used 

 for wood pulp only, may be cut if y 

 inches diameter, measurements made at 

 the stump. 



Evanston, 111., Oct. 14, 1902. 

 John P. Brown. 



The first number of Arboriculture 

 was exceedingly interesting. I read every 

 article. Such a magazine should dp great 



good. 



John N. Mills. 



Woollen's (Jardcn of Birds and Bot- 

 any, 



Indianapolis. Ind.. Oct. 18, 1902. 

 Mr. John P. Brown. 



My Dear Brown : — I have received the 

 second number of Arboriculture and 

 am greatly pleased with it in every re- 

 spect. It is a beautiful, interesting and 

 valuable number. If you keep up this 

 l)ace I cannot understand why your pa- 

 per will not be a great success. Most 

 assuredly you have my best wishes that 

 it will be so. I am preserving these 

 numbers for binding and for a place in 

 the Library of Woollen's Garden of 

 Birds and Botany. Very truly, 



William Watson Woollen. 



