120 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



ally in cumbrous and uninteresting looking volumes ; but the 

 reports herein mentioned have been more fortunate. Their brevity 

 has made it possible to publish them in pamj^hlet form, and they 

 have reached the public within a few weeks of their reception by 

 the department. 



The reports thus scattered broadcast by the government have 

 been copied by the newspapers of the country, two or three of 

 them, to my knowledge, having appeared in full in over four hun- 

 dred newspapers, and extracts from them in thousands more. The 

 National Forestry Congress is now publishing weekly bulletins, or 

 ''leaflets," in which the points made in the reports of the govern- 

 ment agents are given, with other matter relative to the cultivation 

 and care of forests. 



We may briefly sum up the present attitude of the government 

 in regard to forestry, as follows : 



The Government, by the passage of the timber culture act, 

 committed itself to the encouragement of tree culture, and even 

 though the act should be repealed, its principle will be preserved in 

 some other enactment. 



The importance of forestry has been recognized by the erection 

 of a Forestry Division in the Department of Agriculture, the 

 present Chief of the Division being Mr. N. H. Eggleston. 



Special agents have been appointed, to whom has been assigned 

 the duty of investigating the needs of difterent portions of the 

 country in the matter of the protection and culture of forests. 



A regular system of disseminating information has been 

 adopted by the government. 



As a result of all this the government may be said to have in- 

 formed itself of the extent and condition of its own forest domain, 

 and something has been done, though manifestly not enough, 

 toward protecting government timber from spoliation and de- 

 struction. 



Finally, every believer in trees may take courage from the 

 present attitude of the government, and hope that in time, the 

 wise example set by other governments, as for instance, France 

 with her " Bureau of Woods and Waters," may be followed by our 

 own. 



You have noticed, with the assurance of success, the rising 

 interest in horticulture ; you have noticed that particularly, be- 

 cause horticulture is your specialty. Let me tell you that there has 

 been a corresjionding increase of faith and works in regard to 

 forest trees. 



