Gordon • The Conservation of Wild Flowers 



195 



no provision for taking care of them 

 during the journcv home. A large 

 market basket containing damp news- 

 papers is a handv container; it will pre- 

 vent the plants from drying out until 

 thev return home. Thev should be 

 watered and kept cool until the leaves 

 look well, llien the flowers may be ar- 

 ranged to suit the purpose intended. 



THE DAMAGE FROM 

 GRAZING IN WOODLOTS 



Perhaps the greatest damage to 

 wild flowers has been due not to man 

 directly, but to his domestic animals. 

 Cattle, sheep, and hogs have undoubt- 

 edh' destroved far more wild flowers 

 than man himself. Usually the ten- 

 derer, more succulent grasses and herbs 

 are eaten first. As the supply of feed 

 plants diminishes, the stock are ob- 

 hged to eat coarser and coarser plants, 

 comparatively low in actual feed value. 

 It is not uncommon to see small wood- 

 lots where hogs have uprooted all the 

 sod and leaf mold, and have eaten 

 ever}' green plant except a few stout 

 jimson-weeds and coarse thistles. 



There is no question that, if any of 

 of us had to decide whether to have 

 meat on the table or flowers on the 

 table, we should choose the meat. 

 However, there is a serious question as 

 to whether the sparse grass in a shady 

 woodlot is of much feed value com- 

 pared with forage crops on the same 

 land kept in pasture, but not over- 

 grazed. 



Few farmers who turn stock into a 

 woodlot realize the deleterious effect 

 of overgrazing on the growth of trees. 

 Those who have become interested in 

 the woodlot as a source of domestic 

 lumber and firewood are enclosing their 

 woodlots. The State Forester can furn- 

 ish the farmer excellent advice on 

 managing his woodlot successfully. An 

 overgrazed woodlot is actually a dou- 

 ble liability. Not only does it take up 



space which might more profitably be 

 used for pasture (jr field crojDs, but it is 

 also being rendered unfit for thrifty 

 growth. The changes brought about bv 

 the removal of litter, the compacting 

 and puddling of clay soil, exposure of 

 roots, removal of bark, and destruction 

 of young trees in the undergrowth, arc 

 such that a forest is scarceh' able to 

 grow or to reproduce itself. Placing 

 the fence a rod or two back from the 

 woodlot boundar}' will protect the in- 

 terior from grazing and allow some 

 shade for cattle in the adjacent pasture. 

 Incidentally, this will establish a pre- 

 serve for the forest wild flowers. 



In the last analysis each landowner 

 must decide for himself whether to en- 

 close the woodlot and protect it from 

 stock, or to cut down most of the 

 trees and establish a permanent pas- 

 ture. 



LAWS PROTECTING 

 FERNS AND WILD FLOWHERS 



A Vermont law, enacted by the 

 General Assembly and approved April 

 1, 1921, provides that "a person shall 

 not take in any one year, except upon 

 lands occupied by him, more than a 

 single uprooted specimen or two cut- 

 tings of each of ten kinds of ferns and 

 club-mosses, and then for scientific 

 purposes only." The law also protects 

 some 20 or more species of wild 

 flowers, providing a fine of not more 

 than $10 for each plant or additional 

 cutting taken. 



In West Virginia a state law for- 

 bids the picking of flowers within a 

 hundred yards of the highway without 

 the written consent of the landowners. 

 The legislature of Illinois has made it 

 a misdemeanor to "knowingly buy, sell, 

 offer, or expose to sale any bloodroot 

 (Sanguinaria canadensis), lady's-slip- 

 per {Cypripedium paryiflorurn and 

 Cypripedium hirsiituni), columbine 

 {Aquilegia canadensis), trillium {Tril 



