342 



ARBORICULTURE. 



FAKMEES' INSTITUTES AND 

 FOEESTEY. 



Editor Arboriculture : 



The State Agricultural College of Col- 

 orado has jDut Forestry on the program for 

 tlie Farmers' Institutes to be opened the 

 last week in August in the eastern por- 

 tion of the State. 



Think of a series of Farmers" Insti- 

 tutes midway between the base of the 

 Eocky Mountains and the State of Kansas, 

 in the very heart of the "Great American 

 I'esert!" What would Daniel Wel)ster 

 thiick of it after his talk in the Senate 

 v)f the United States, against estal)lishing 

 a Post Eoad from Independence, Mo., to 

 the Pacific coast? In Ben Pearly Poor's 

 Eeminiscences may be found what he then 

 said. What he would now say we shall 

 never know. ]iut were he to open his eyes 

 and see what is to be seen ancl know what 

 is to be known of this ''worthless area,'' 

 as he then termed it, he would stare and 

 ?.sk to 1)6 shown the lamj) of Aladdin by 

 \.h;:ch it is being transformed. 



Yes, novel as it may appear, Forestry 

 is on the program with potatoes, and Al- 

 falfa, and field peas, and sugar Ix'ets. and 

 a long list of cereals. By this program 

 trees are to be treated as are other prod- 

 ucts of the soil. And why not ? Arliori- 

 ciilture must soon be reckoned with. b\- 

 the farmer, the same as agriculture. It 

 y oidd come before Farmers' Institutes all 

 ever the country; it will — it iintsi. Tlio 

 time is near when it can not be left out. 



Allien experts tell us tlmt the forests of 

 the United States contain less than one 

 and a half trillion feet of standing timber 

 (B. M.). and that we are consumi'ng a 

 matter of ninety billion feet per annum, 

 we are amazed. It means that we shall 

 1)6 facing a timber famine in less than 

 twenty 3^ears; it means that thousands of 

 enterprises depending upon the forest for 

 raw material must soon be closed and that 

 tens of thousands of laborers must bo 

 thrown out of employment — all l)ecause 

 the forest's are failing. 



No country can live without timber. 

 T*lie forest is the right arm of civilization. 

 Cities and villages are l)uilt of lumber: 

 the railroads must have ninotv million 



ties a year and millions of feet of lum- 

 ))er for cars ; the farmer must have houses 

 and barns, fences and timber for endless 

 othei- purposes; our homes, our offices and 

 our houses of trade and commerce are lav- 

 ishly furnished with the most costly 

 woods; a large ])er cent of the luxuries, 

 conveniences and necessities that enter 

 anto our daily lives are made of wood. 

 The implements with which the farmer 

 produces and harvests the food -of the 

 v>'orld are also largely made of wood. The 

 uses of timber are endless; the draft upon 

 ihe forest is simply enormous. 



With such vivid pictures in view it is 

 easy to see irhy Forestry should have a 

 place at the Farmers' Institute. If in 

 tv/enty years or less we are to be face to 

 face with a timber famine, it becomes evi- 

 dent that farmers will have to go to plant- 

 ing trees, nor can they begin too soon to 

 n CL't the impending crisis. 



The Farmers' Institute must become his 

 School of Forestry. He can attend no 

 other. It 'is not scientific, technical nor 

 theoretical forestry that he needs at the.se 

 Institutes. l)ut clear-cut, every-day, prac- 

 tical, horse-sense talks on how to grow 

 trees for use and profit. I say use and 

 / / oft. These are the two motives that 

 will appeal. 



The lecturer must be a practical man; 

 h.e naist know one tree from another; what 

 Trees are for utility and what are not; 

 what s])('cies to ])lant, and how to plant 

 tl.em ! He must know the relative lives of 

 Irees; at what age they can be marketed, 

 and to what uses they can be put when 

 grown. If he can point to examples of 

 tiee growing; if be can tell of successes 

 and give instances of what can l)e done, 

 'vho did it, where and when — the figures 

 and the dollars — he will set farmers 

 ,t't'i liking, and then to planting. 



The Agricultural Colleges of the vari- 

 ( us states, through the Farmers' Institute, 

 can do for the farmer what the Forest 

 Scrxico (an not. The Govei-nmeni can 

 deal w itli the national forests; it can assist 

 liiirhei' com])an'es and the owners of large 

 eshites in managing their forests, and it 

 (an help railroads to solve their timber 

 |irol)leins, l)ut it can not reach the farmer 

 in ,uiy iiractical way. He is too far re- 



