I30 



ARBORK Ll.ri'KE 



Letter From Vice-President Bowditch. 



TUK rLAXTINi; OF TREES. 



Every warm advocate of tree planting: 

 should Ix^ a ix^rsistent enthusiast, other- 

 wise many a g^ood opix-)rt unity is lost 

 throus-li failure to push lumie conviction. 



A hearer may be interested, but un- 

 less this interest is aroused to positive 

 action there is no t.:;cnnination. We sou- 

 good seed, yet if soil and weather condi- 

 tions are adverse, failure results. But if 

 the seed is sound it may remain dormant 

 a loner time, yet finally ])ro(Iucc a bounti- 

 ful crop. 



It is an excellent work to plant trees 

 on your own account, but it is a much 

 more delicate and difficult atYair to per- 

 suade others to do so. A frequent pre- 

 sentation of new. interesting facts will, 

 however, gradually overcome public in- 

 difference, and after that the ball rolls 

 easily on comparatively level ground. 



A stereopticon lecture and talk on trees 

 was given last summer in a nearby town ; 

 the audience appeared interested, but in 

 no way resjxjusive. and it seemed like an 

 evening wasted, liut six months later a 

 listener at that lecture turned up at an- 

 other meeting held in Boston, and told me 

 privately that his interest had become 

 very much aroused on the whole subject. 

 He is now an enthusiast ; yet, had there 

 been no further o])iK)rtunity for him to 

 ally himself to the movement, very likely 

 his interest would have died within him. 

 This, in other words, is why it is so desir- 

 able to keep an established office always 

 open, ready to receive all comers and to 

 j)romote general forestry work. 



Again, just as it takes time to grow a 

 large tree, so does it also take time to 

 plant in the minds f>f any community a 

 love for trees, and thus usuallv it is the 



man of middle age who is first attracted, 

 and it is the very old men who lio the 

 most, after all. 



It reinspiriis the man or woman of 

 sixty, who is already dropping behind in 

 the everyday race, to realize that he or 

 she is still only on the threshold of this 

 knowledge and enjoyment. 



Children and grandchildren drift away 

 in distance and in thought, but trees. 

 young and old. that have been and are 

 still being planted In- or through us, con- 

 stantly aftord fresh delight and increas- 

 ing satisfaction. There is no better 

 Icgacv to leave to i^osterity and there are 

 no l)ettcr com])anions for our declining 

 years than these living children of the 

 forest and roadside that owe their very 

 existence to our endeavor. 



But how should we take part in this 

 programme? First organize a State For- 

 estry Association. Then persuade your 

 state to pass a Tree JJ'anieii Lai^' to pro- 

 tect roadside trees. 



Xext, have a State Forest JVarden, to 

 act as general adviser and promoter. 



Finally have a State Xiirsery for free 

 distribution of such native forest tree 

 seedlings as seem best adai>ted to forest 

 culture. 



Two or three active, tireless men or 

 women can easily inaugurate such a 

 movement, and if you aim to secure these 

 things you w ill surely get them, because 

 each year shows an increasing ix)wer in 

 this (iirection, which will in time sweep 

 over the whole country, impelled by the 

 irresistible forces of a wise commercial- 

 ism and general well being. 



JaMKS 1 i. BoWlJITCII. 



I'.oston, -Mass.. December. 1902. 



