ARBORICULTURE 



177 



He has tested its quality thoroughly, and avers it 

 will grow in 16 years large enough for railway 

 ties, and "last twice the length of time required 

 to grow." 



Other trees, of course, claim this writer's 

 attention, and he urges the culture on an extended 

 scale of many other sorts of timber, but for daily 

 serviceableness he considers the merits of his 

 favorite should be carefully studied. 



There are many excellent photographs offered 

 as illustrations, some very interesting pictures of 

 scenery as affected by forests and the lack of them, 

 many portraits of individual trees, and numerous 

 textual illustrations of woods and seeds and barks. 

 Altogether this is an earnest and useful tract, and 

 heartily to be commended for its altruistic aims 

 and its practical advice. 



New York Sun 



July 14, 1906 



The title "Practical Arboriculture," which Mr. 

 John P. Brown gives to his book, is rather mis- 

 leading, as is the further description, "a text- 

 book" (John P. Brown, Connersville, Ind.). For- 

 estry has become a systematic science nowadays 

 and has furnished many handbooks of instruction. 

 Mr. Brown's volume consists of a great many 

 articles and addressess, exhortatory of the good 

 work of planting trees. The author, we infer, is 

 a pratical man. He describes particular trees and 

 particular problems and gives sound advice as to 

 what should be done. In each article he seems 

 brought into contact with a difficulty to be dealt 

 with and in so far his title is justifiable, but the 

 sum of the articles is one great problem for 

 which, we fancy, more general solutions would be 

 more useful. The volume has the interest that 

 attaches to men who are doing pioneer work. 



Chicago Tribune, August 7, 1906 



John P. Brown, a civil engineer of Connersville, 

 Ind., who has been interested since childhood in 

 trees and who is said to have been responsible for 

 the planting of 20,000,000 of them, has written 

 "Fractical Arboricidture'' which he publishes 

 himself at his home. In it he discusses how for- 

 ests influence climate, control the winds, prevent 

 floods, and sustain national prosperity. The book 

 is a text-book for railway engineers, manufac- 

 turers, lumbermen, and farmers. It tells them 

 how, where, and what to plant for the rapid pro- 

 duction of lumber and timber of all sorts. By 

 states and by trees he tells which is best suited 

 to the other and he gives a great deal of useful 

 information put in the most practical way. He 

 devotes a great deal of space to the catalpa, for 

 which he seems to have an unbounded admira- 

 tion. The book is illustrated with many fine 

 photographs. 



Portland, Ore., Oregonian 



August 14, 1906 



OUR DISAPPEARING FORESTS 



"Arboriculture," a journal whose name indi- 

 cates its specialty, says that the timber of the . 

 United States, fit for commercial lumber, will not 

 last, even on the most conservative estimate^ 

 more than thirty years; but that, in fact, it will 

 not last so long. Taking the estimates of careful 

 and competent persons, that there are now stand- 

 ing in the United States 1,475,000,000,000 feet of 

 lumber, and figuring that, including the consump- 

 tion of wood for pulp and paper, lumber cut for 

 export and for domestic use, telegraph poles, cross 

 ties, piling and fuel, of which much is still used 

 in many places, the timber used in mining opera- 

 tions and that destroyed by forest fires, there are 

 75,000,0(50,000 feet of timber consumed each year, 

 with an increased quantity yearly; it is evident, 

 then, says Arboriculture, "that we have not enough 

 timber standing to continue commercially for 

 more than twenty years in all the United States, 

 including the Pacific Coast forests." 



Till recently we were accustomed to think our 

 Pacific Coast forests inexhaustible. So they 

 would have been, practically, under old conditions. 

 But the enormous and constantly growing demand 

 for lumber, in these times, wholly unforeseen in 

 former years, causes reversal of all former 

 opinions and calculations. 



It is true that under climatic conditions on the 

 Pacific Coast timber grows with astonishing 

 rapidity. Our pioneers have seen great forests 

 appear, within the space of fifty or sixty years; 

 not the greatest timber, it is true, but timber fit 

 for good lumber — trees 100 feet high and two to 

 three feet in diameter. Natural reforestation is 

 rapid, where the growth is protected. More and 

 more the conservation of our forests will become 

 an economic question of highest importance. To 

 preserve the younger growths against destruction 

 by fire, to which they are specially exposed during 

 the annual dry season, is among the most signifi- 

 cant of all things necessary for conservation of 

 the interests and resources of our Pacific States. 

 In very many places our "logged-oft" lands 

 never will be fit for cultivation; but if protected 

 against fire they will repeat their growths of 

 timber; and this is about the only use to which 

 large areas of our rough lands can ever be 

 devoted. The settler must have some areas 

 which he can plow and plant, for his support; 

 but he should always take care to protect the 

 trees and promote their growth, on the parts that 

 never can be subjected to actual cultivation. 



