108 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



not any risk about it; interest on the investment comes Very soon, and 

 the profits must become enormous. While men jump at lottery 

 tickets, railways, mines ancj. other enterprises, it needs only that some 

 parties set a conspicuous example. There are hundreds of young men 

 who have capital to invest. I am told that the heads of great houses 

 in Europe, on the birth of a youDger son or daughter, plant a 20 or 40 

 acre tract in good timber. By the time twenty-one years have elapsed 

 this has grown to be a fortune and is the dower of the child. Land is 

 yet very cheap here, and States pay a premium of two or three dollars 

 per acre per year to timber growers. In five years the thinnings will 

 be a paying crop, and finally a fortune. A company formed to culti- 

 vate in timber, for say 25 years, a certain number of acres per member, 

 could not but realize in time enormously, besides a yearly revenue 

 after a few years. But a thousand of such companies could not overdo 

 the business. Nothing so useful as this has been undertaken on a large 

 scale. Kansas has been having an arbor day for twenty years, so has 

 Nebraska; but all they have done can be consumed now in about 

 twelve days, even had the trees grown for forty years. Only let a few 

 companies be formed, let the press discuss the subject, and the thing 

 will become fashionable. The probability is that in twenty years from 

 this time every acre of good timber will be worth five hundred dollars 

 for the timber alone. It will not cost over thirty dollars to purchase 

 and plant and care for an acre in timber the first three years, in some 

 parts of the country. 



La Grange, Mo., May 20, 1885. 



N. 



Z. A. Goodman^ Secretary/, Westpori, Mo. : 



Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your card informing me of my be- 

 ing a member of the ornithology committee and asking a report for 

 the June meeting. As the meeting comes at a time when I am busy 

 with berries, I shall not likely be able to meet with you, but wish all 

 possible success to the efibrts and a pleasant, meeting generally. 



I am unable to make a report, or to write on the subject of ornithol- 

 ogy that will stand a criticism scientifically, but can only speak of the 

 birds from my own observations. 



With the first approach of spring comes the blue bird and the robin, 

 and as the season advances the numerous bird families are with us, 

 all, like the human family, hunting and working for something to eat 

 and to tuild homes and provide for their little ones. I invite nearly 

 all the birds by protecting them ; offer them free shelter and homes in 

 my trees and shrubs, and encourage them by gentle and kind treat- 



