SUMMER MEETING AT BUTLER. lOT 



"A flock of sparrows will soon consume a sixty-acre field of wheat," 

 is otten said in Europe. They have no song, their only cry is an eld- 

 ritch screech incessant and complaining. From the rapid disappear- 

 ance of all other birds before them 1 suspect they pick out their eyes, 

 eat their eggs and young. In a few years they will be equ^l to a con- 

 stant visitation of locusts if one may judge from appearances. 



Cases of extreme deprivation have been imagined, of universal 

 wreck and ruin where silence and death reign alone. The poet begin- 

 ning his narrative: " I had a dream" he cries, then to himself whis- 

 pers — "It was not all ^ dream ;" and describing a borrow of great dark- 

 ness, he was the one to fitly describe what, beyond doubt, will result 

 when all our timber is cut off and none but these winged pests live as 

 birds save here and there perhaps a few vultures. The earth would be 

 no longer fruitful, and surely man could not live as he has lived. Our 

 race would become weak and incapable of grand, united effort, no 

 matter how energetic might be a few of the number. This weakness 

 would increase and the causes of it would increase, at least up to a 

 certain point. There is one more fact connected with this, then I am 

 done. This sparrow does not care for woods. He prefers house tops,, 

 martin boxes, eaves, and, if driven thence, betakes himself reluctantly 

 to trees closest to hand. He is by no means a forest ranger. The de- 

 creasing area of forest affects him favorably. The great misfortune 

 that is marching with swift and accelerated pace upon us, the timber 

 famine, will only extend his area, and of course exterminate all of our 

 most beautiful birds. How near is this timber dearth upon us? Some 

 who are authorities declare we destroy over twenty thousand acres of 

 timber per day, or over eight million acres per year; and in five years 

 an area equal to all Missouri were every acre densely timbered. 

 Another high authority declares we are in error about there being so 

 much timber in Canada; she has really no more than will supply her 

 own people when they come to settle her endless plain?. How soon a 

 tree can be felled ! How long it takes to grow it large enough to be 

 worth felling"! Were we all to start in at planting several acres each 

 per year, still the dearth must come ; we have waited too late. It is 

 disgusting to hear the insane simplicities uttered about this question. 

 "We will all grow timber." Pray how long does it take a tree to grow? 



" Substitutes are invented ;" yes, but new ways of destroying tim- 

 ber are discovered faster than substitutes. However one thing is cer- 

 tain — we must very soon try how to do without lumber for awhile. 

 As this timber question is connected with the birds, " the trees, home 

 of birds," says Virgil, a few suggestions are pertinent. It seems to me 

 that, as a speculation, timber growing surpasses all others. There i& 



