178 REPOJIT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



annual average of thirty inches or more of rain, or its equivalent of snow, 

 there are spaces r.ore. fitted for timber trees than for any other product, and 

 these should be kept as woodlots, producing woods of the greatest value the 

 situation for soil moisture will successfully grow. Take the land I have 

 been describing. From the level of five feet above the low-water mark of 

 the river even low meadow grasses like redtop, barnyard millet and alsike 

 clover, the native ash. balm (water poplar), and wilow will grow down to 

 within two feet of low water. The owner leaves about thirty acres in tim- 

 ber, the ash, not using one-quarter the area, being deemed quadruj^le the 

 value of the other woods combined; but any spaces from the five-foot level 

 upward, such as permanent fence lines and the like, are utilized for the pro- 

 duction of furniture woods — nut-bearing kinds, like black walnut, pecan, and 

 hickory, being preferred. In this way the very waste portions of the farm 

 can and ought to be made produce the most valuable wood and shelters for 

 domestic stock and game, also a delight to the eye of owner or passer-by. 

 This last may be deemed a far-fetched consideration, but those who have 

 traveled in a treeless land, as western Nebraska, much of Illinois and Iowa 

 were fifty years ago. and much of the main Columbia Valley was twenty 

 years ago, know how much better than "a great rock in a weary land" is the 

 little clump of fruit and shade trees with which the home-builders in a tree- 

 less country hasten to surround themselves. Wherever soil moisture suffi- 

 cient, secured from ditch or well, can be consei-ved — in which the house itself 

 is often the best agent — a few trees can be and should be grown. 



While speaking thus earnestly for tree planting in land fit for trees only, 

 and for use and beauty in other places, the writer is no believer in any cause 

 foi- a timber famine. I have given a few pi-actical illustrations that present 

 and past prices for lumber in the United States have paid no rent or profit 

 on the land on which the timber grew, and not always fair wages for cutting 

 it off and marketing. We have passed the wooden age in the United States, 

 and from the warshij) Oregon down to sidewalks of streets, steel, nickel, pla- 

 tinum, p,nd concrete cement, are better for defense, home use and health, 

 thmi wood : for many uses more economical. 



Nor am I writing as a forest faddist, i)retending to believe the tree to be 

 the mother of the fountain. My observation tells me all trees and plants are 

 consumers of water, and part with it by evaporation into the air, to float off 

 we know not where, to condense and fall as dew, rain, hail or snow; we can 

 not know on what. Nor can I believe from any information I yet possess that 

 it is necessarj^ or the best wisdom for our national government to guard our 

 forest interests against its citizens. I am in favor of expansion of national 

 power over new wild lands, but also favor the expansion of the national free- 

 dom citizenship in its organized states. The citizens of Western Oregon are 

 capable of marketing the vast timber wealth from the forest portion of our 

 state, and for twenty-five years past a state officer, authorized to permit the 

 taking of timber for buildings, fences, and fuel from the wooded lands of the 

 Blue Mountains, would have been a blessing to pioneer grain farmers of 

 Eastern Oregon, and would now. 



