VARIOUS NATIONAL SOCIETIES. Ill 



need, at the bands of the nurseryman, a supply of fruit trees for the orchard, 

 and trees for shade and ornament around the duelling and along the street, but 

 that the problem is before us how to preserve our great forests from absolute 

 destruction, and how to establish forests where now there are none, or only the 

 semblance of any. Whole States and Territories, under the impulse of advanc- 

 ing settlement and agriculture, have sprung into being within a few years, 

 where, a little while ago, hardly a tree offered its shelter for man or beast. 

 Every consideration appertaining to human welfare and comfort demands that 

 these great spaces should be properly supplied with trees if possible. Our exist- 

 ing forests are falling before the ax and the forest fire at the rate of not less 

 than 00,000 acres every day. This rapid destruction needs to be checked and 

 regulated, or our agriculture and our industries will suffer almost beyond our 

 power to estimate. We may subdue the forests to our uses, but we must not 

 exterminate them. Their extermination would be our extermination. We 

 cannot live without them. They are the raw material of life and happiness for 

 us, and»we must preserve them in due measure. Where we have been planting 

 trees by the hundreds or thousands, the call is now for trees by the million. 

 You and others engaged in the same occupation we to clothe the great expanses 

 of the western prairies, the plains and mesas of the still farther west, with that 

 covering of trees which is necessary, in order to secure and maintain in all that 

 region a condition of things which will fit it to be the permanent abode of the 

 millions who are now gathering there, and the millions more who are following 

 their immigrant footsteps. 



For this grander work, as well as for all ornamental planting around our 

 homes, and by the wayside, we have a wealth of tree species equal to all our 

 needs. No country in the world is better supplied in this respect, than ours. 

 We have at least 800 species of woody plants. Three hundred of these attain a 

 height of thirty feet. Two hundred and fifty of these are tolerably abundant 

 in one portion of the country or another. We have this large number from 

 which to make our selection, while Germany has but about 60 native species of 

 trees, and France and England only about half that number. That eminent 

 authority, Lindley, declares that, " by far the finest ornamental trees and 

 shrubs [of England] are from North America:* We may make our country, 

 from its native resources, the glory of all lands for the beauty and value of its 

 trees. It is your privilege while engaged in business which will give you 

 reasonable pecuniary returns, to be also public benefactors. It is your privilege 

 to do as much as any other class of men in determining what shall be the 

 future condition of the country, as to its industries, and the comfort and happi- 

 ness of its people. 



A large part of the time of the convention was taken up in reports of 

 amounts and condition of nursery stock throughout the country. A compli- 

 mentarv resolution was adopted with reference to Commissioner Colman's 

 method* of conducting his department. Officers were elected for the ensuing 

 vear. Nearly an entire session was devoted to the question of where to hold 

 the next meeting, resulting in Chicago as the choice. A reception was given 

 the members by President Cleveland. A delightful excursion was enjoyed 

 down the Potomac river. 



THE EXHIBIT. 



The committee upon whom fell the duty of examining and reporting upon 

 the exhibit presented the following report to the convention : 



