ARBORICULTURE 



a monthly magazine. 



Published in the Interest of the 

 International Society of Arboriculture. 



Subscription, $2.00 per anntim. 



.ToHN P. liRowN, Editor, 1639 Michigan Avenue. 



Volume 1. 



CHICAGO, DECEMBER, 1902. 



Number 4. 



Improvement of New England Forests. 



ADDRESS OF JOHN P. BROWN^ AT WORCESTER, MASS., NOV. I9, I902. 



F^ OREST conditions in much of 

 "^ New England differ from those 

 of any other portion of the coun- 

 try and require a different treatment 

 from what would be prescribed for other 

 locations. 



An older settled community than that 

 to westward ; the orijjinal forests long 

 since removed ; fields cultivated for more 

 than a century and abandoned as being 

 no longer profitable, they have grown 

 up with trees having the resemblance of 

 woodlands, yet not fulfilling the require- 

 ments of a forest ; how can they be im- 

 proved ? 



Does any citizen of Massachusetts pre- 

 sume that upon the landing of the pil- 

 grims the groves which met their gaze 

 were such as we see all over the state 

 to-day ? 



Far froiu it. A dense forest of stately 

 trees existed and demanded all the ener- 

 gies and strength of those sturdy pio- 

 neers to subdue in order that these lands 

 might be prepared for cultivation. 



The original forests having been des- 

 troyed, subsequent and recent growths 

 were confined to such species as there 

 happened to be seed deposited through 

 the simplest possible agencies. 



The Almighty planted the forests, but 

 various agencies are employed to insure 



their continuance, and these, to a large 

 extent, have much the appearance of 

 chance. 



Man looks upon the forest with an eye 

 to his personal profit, the lumberman to 

 the density of the stand and size of the 

 logs they will make. The dairyman, on 

 the contrary, prefers an open wood 

 where the grass may grow for pasturing 

 his herds. The farmer desires trees 

 upon such lands as he cannot till, to sup- 

 ply his winter's fuel. 



And so, while man would have the for- 

 est to suit the peculiar wants of each in- 

 dividual, nature has her own plans and 

 endeavors to cover up every bare spot 

 on the earth with some kind of verdure, 

 strewing the seeds in great variety, every 

 forest dift'ering from every other forest. 



Il^pon the coast of the Pacific, in the 

 northern part of California, on a narrow 

 strip, ten to twenty miles wide and 200 

 miles long, nature planted the redwood, 

 yet not another tree of its kind existed 

 elsewhere upon the globe. 



A little lower down the coast on a 

 promontory covering forty acres, she 

 planted a group of Monterey cypress, and 

 if others were planted they are not now 

 is existence. 



Far up in the Sierras, eighty centuries 

 ago, she planted the giant Sequoias. 



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