Winter Meeting. 183 



for this, the young growth would, in a few years, take the place of 

 the trees cut down; but this fire is often so fierce when it gains 

 headway that not only do the trees fall victim to it, but even the 

 forest floor is burned over, thus causing the drying up of the springs 

 or often most disastrous floods. Not only is there a tree famine 

 imminent, but the land itself in many places has become a dessert — 

 every vestige of vegetation gone, covered with sand or trodden 

 down by flocks and herds of grazing sheep and cattle until it be- 

 comes a prey to every rill of water which passes over its surface. 

 To overcome this evil, there is much of reforestration going on in 

 different states, where they are planting trees for fuel and wind- 

 breaks, and, also, many valuable varieties of trees for the benefit 

 of future generations. In time many bare places will be covered, 

 many bleak hillsides clothed with a green verdure, many barren 

 wastes with blooms, with a wealth of color and beauty, which will 

 cause men and women to seek communion with nature, in her visi- 

 ble forms, for a voice of gladness, a smile of happiness and a heal- 

 ing sympathy which the poet Bryant found when the woods of New 

 England were in the height of their beauty. What a benefactor a 

 tree planter is ! Future generations rise up and call him blessed, 

 as they rest under the shades of trees or enjoy the blessings that 

 come to the land through the nu?nberless uses to which these trees 

 may be put. 



On the other hand, if the earth is allowed to become bare of its 

 beauty of trees, the poetry, romance and song, which are so inti- 

 mately connected with the woods, will die; while a hard commer- 

 cialism controls and destroys, with no thought of the morrow, the 

 trees, which cannot be replaced by centuries of growth. 



A proverb says, "What you would have appear in the nation's 

 life, you must introduce into the public schools." As one of the 

 great needs now to the nation's better life is to inculcate and foster 

 a love for trees and bird life, there should be observed in all schools 

 Arbor Day for its educational value, and, to give to the child a 

 higher appreciation of nature and nature's laws, there should be 

 tree planting, with song and sentiment. From this there will 

 come a demand for the preservation and perpetuation of all tree life. 

 Forests will multiply, through the pathways of which these scholars 

 will advance to heroic lives of honor and usefulness. 



Early in the history of Woman's Clubs tree-planting for decor- 

 ative purposes and forest preservation received attention. In 1902, 

 in the city of Los Angeles, a Standing Committee on Forestry was 

 organized by the Grand Federation of Woman's Clubs. The chair- 



