ARBORICULTURE. 



Ill 



"So highly does the German Nation 

 esteem their woodlands, no owner may 

 remove a tree without the sanction of 

 the Forest Department, and other trees 

 must he planted in their stead to pre- 

 serve the relative proportion of wood- 

 land to farm areas. Spain has never 

 learned this lesson, and as a result of de- 

 struction of her forests that nation has 

 hecn reduced from a foremost agricul- 

 tural people to a third-class power. The 

 rich soil has heen eroded from her farms 

 and agriculture has become unprofitable. 



"Spain has also been a desjioiler of her 

 numerous colonies and of the provmces 

 which came under her rule. 



"Prescott relates that great forests oc- 

 cupied the tablelands of Mexico at the 

 time of the Cortez invasion during the 

 early part of the sixteenth century, only 

 four hundred years ago. There must 

 have been generous rains and a balmy 

 climate to promote tree growth on these 

 plains, 8,000 feet above the sea, and 

 twenty degrees from the equator. But 

 to-day there is a desert with but a few 

 cacti where Prescott's forests flourished, 

 and rainfall would be gladly welcomed in 

 the table lands of the Mexican Republic. 



"China, the oldest nation, and once the 

 richest and most advanced in letters, has 

 no forests, and is the slave of every other 

 nation on the earth. 



"The rainfall and various meteorologic 

 and electric conditions are controlled 

 largely by forests, while climatic condi- 

 tions are favorable or otherwise in pro- 

 portion to the area of a continent which 

 may be retained in woodlands. 



"Those who look back fifty to sixty 

 years will bear me out in the statement 

 that the climate of Indiana has changed 

 greatly since the middle of the last cen- 

 tury, and that the change has been caused 

 by felling the forests. 



"The Ohio River then maintained a 



depth of twelve feet in summer, permit- 

 ting an all-the-year navigation Dy largest 

 steamboats. Now it is often so low that 

 boats drawing two feet of water must be 

 substituted for those of larger size dur- 

 ing several months of the year. 



"Springs have been dried up which 

 were formerly permanent. Heavy rains 

 occur ; but the water quickly flows to the 

 streams which are swollen for a season, 

 and as quickly become dry beds. 



"I can remember well when peaches 

 and all fruits were abundant every year, 

 wherever there were trees. With the re- 

 moval of the forests, thus lessening the 

 number of birds, insects, which are de- 

 structive to farm crops and fruits, have 

 increased immoderately. 



"From*the Rocky Mountain summits 

 to the sea level delta of the Mississippi 

 is a great distance, and it would seem 

 conjectural to look to those distant moun- 

 tains for the cause of floods and disaster 

 to inundated fields, or shallow waters and 

 sand bars, obstructive to natural com- 

 merce ; yet this is the sole reason for both 

 conditions. Upon the slopes of this 

 high mountain range, where the moisture 

 is precipitated as snow, the retention of 

 the snow by forest growths may permit 

 a gradually melting and slow, steady 

 stream, while without the forest protec- 

 tion the hot sun of June melts the frozen 

 water rapidly, and all runs off quickly, 

 causiu"" floods in the delta, soon to be 

 followed by another extreme of low 

 water and indift'erent navigation. 



"The manufactures of a nation are 

 its greatest wealth. 



"Ores may be present in great profu- 

 sion, but their value lies in the labor 

 which converts them into articles pos- 

 sessing a material value. 



"But the manufactures of a country 

 are dependent upon the products of the 

 forest. The many thousands of articles 



