443 STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



noyed that the purchasers so cut off the timber in phiccs where they should 

 not. 



You \rill sec that tliere is too much of the egotistic iu this for publication ; 

 but I could not forego the impulse, to urge you often to say a ^vord on tliis vital 

 subject. It grieves me to sec also the present waste as well as the certain future 

 damage to our fair State ; not only cutting off our splendid pine at little profit, 

 and faster than needed, but the hard timber too. I have seen in this country 

 miles of black walnut rail fences, and that and cherry in log heaps. Thus 

 now, as in ages past, there seems a strong infatuation on this subject, and oh ! 

 may it be stayed. Joiix Ball. 



Urand Jiapids, July 2, 1S77 . 



SANITAKY USE OF TKEES. 



A correspondent of the American Architect calls attention to a phenomenon 

 which he has observed in the outtlow of waste from his own house, lie has a 

 close-built brick cesspool 8 feet iti diameter and 8 feet deep, with an overflow 

 thence for liquids into a percolating stone cesspool 10 feet by 10 feet ; both ara 

 domed over at the top, closed each with a flat stone, and covered with soiL 

 Unlike his neighbors, whose cesspools are constructed in the same manner and 

 in the same kind of soil, but who are subjected to the necessity of cleaning out. 

 both cesspools at frequent intervals, his own have been in use for four years; 

 without being opened, and have given him no inconvenience. A few months- 

 ago a deep excavation in the street near his percolating or overflow cessjiooL 

 revealed the fact that the moisture from it was all absorbed by the roots of 

 three large and very flourishing trees, a tulip and two maples, in its immediate- 

 neighborhood. ''There could be no accumulation of water,'" he says, ''where- 

 there were such channels to draw it up.'' This certainly is an important point 

 to be considered in locating the area of absorption for household waste. We- 

 do not remember to have seen elsewhere noticed this very probable sanitary 

 function of trees ; but if the theory is correct, it goes far to solve the most serious, 

 difficulty in tiie problem of drainage without common sewers. 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY NATIONAL NURSERYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Whereas, In view of tlic great importance of the future fruit interest of 

 America, and in consideration of the lamentable ignorance relating to an en- 

 liglitened system of forestry, and of the great variety of information to be 

 gathered by a proper investigation and rejwrt of the forests of Europe, 

 therefore. 



Resolved, That, in the opinion of this society, it would be eminently proper 

 for our government to take speedy action in the matter, and send a commission 

 for the purpose of presenting to our countrymen the status of European for- 

 estry, and give, in a suitable report, the results of tiie centuries of practice in 

 this important brancli of agriculture, and the data furnished by the best scien- 

 tists of those countries, in connection with the influence of forests upon the ■• 

 climatic conditions of tlic land. 



