ARBORICULTURE 



125 



tion of Indiana will ever again be re-for- 

 ested, nor will any of the high-grade farm 

 lands of the Middle States. Still, a por- 

 tion of every farm should, as a matter of 

 economy, be planted with forest trees. 



The income derived from our exports 

 of lumber is a very attractive theme of 

 our statesmen, wdio can only see the im- 

 mediate benefits in ready cash for gov- 

 ernmental expenditures, but this income 

 from duties on lumber exports is simplv 

 the life-blood of the forests being rapidlv 

 withdrawn from the patient, and in two 

 more decades it will leave a corpse, with 

 many bitter memories of our terrible 

 extravagance and waste in the natural 

 products of the land. 



CLIMATIC CHANGES. 



In the world's recorded history, extend- 

 ing over four thousand years, every his- 

 torian of all this time informs us of for- 

 ests which once existed, and having been 

 destroyed, there resulted such changes in 

 climatic conditions that the welfare of the 

 inhabitants was seriously afifected. In 

 some instances nations have become de- 

 populated, and in others they were greatly 

 reduced in numbers and unable longer 

 to stand against their powerful enemies. 

 Thus they were subjugated and their 

 identity as a people lost. 



Look to-day at the countries which have 

 protected their forests ; see their greater 

 prosperity, their abundant manufactories, 

 world-wide commerce, and their influence 

 among the nations of the earth. Then ob- 

 serve those nations which have destroyed 

 their forests, and have become subservient 

 to their more intelligent neighbors. 



Wind, rain, temperature, storms, floods, 

 droughts — all are controlled by forests 

 through the electrical influences which 

 masses of trees exert. 



Thus agriculture is quickly afifected by 

 reason of irregularity in precipitation, for 



too much rain may be as disastrous to 

 farm industries as too little. 



And while it is essential that we should 

 have breezes for the purification of the 

 atmosphere, yet when from the absence of 

 trees these become violent storms, there ii 

 always great damage resulting. 



LABOR. 



One-fifth of our laboring population is 

 engaged in wood manufactures and the 

 industries connected with the lumbering 

 trades. 



What occupation must these five mil- 

 lion citizens engage in as they are dropped 

 from the rolls of wood manufactures and 

 kindred industries? Will part of them 

 come inio close competition with you gen- 

 tlemen a dozen years hence, or will many 

 of them be forced into poverty in the 

 great cities and become a charge upon 

 the community ? 



NAVIGATION. 



This nation is compelled to increase its 

 very great expenditure for river and har- 

 bor improvement with every recurring 

 session of Congress, and in future this 

 must be still more greatly increased, as 

 the silt, washed from a million farms, is 

 deposited in the many streams, raising 

 the bottom of rivers higher each year, 

 causing low waters for many months dur- 

 ing the rainless season and obstructing 

 navigation, while with the floods entirely 

 uncontrolled overflowing the river banks, 

 causing great destruction along its course. 



ADVANCING PRICE OF LUMBER. 



All kinds of lumber, building materials, 

 boards for manufactures, cross-ties, etc., 

 have advanced each season as the forests 

 have gradually diminished, until now they 

 are double in price what the same grades 

 were sold at a very few years ago. This 

 must continue, as zvithout the absolute 

 removal of duties on lumber and a free 

 competition with Canadian forest pro- 



