1885.] AMERICAN THOUGHT AND ACTION. 31 



According to Ben Perley Poore, chestnuts are perhaps the most 

 profitable forest tree that can be planted. The oak is of such slow 

 growth that two or three generations pass away before it can be 

 remunerative. Chestnuts, on the contrary, soon bear nuts, wliich 

 are a source of profit if sold, and of great delight to the young 

 people if they are permitted to gather them. In twenty-five or 

 thirty years, trees are sizable for timber or for fuel. In the interior 

 of Pennsylvania extensive tracts are devoted to the growth of 

 chestnut timber, which is cut off at intervals of sixteen years and 

 converted into charcoal for the use of ironworks. New trees 

 spring up from the stumpage and, if carefully thinned out, make 

 rapid growth. 



Mr. J. W. Manning, of Eeading, gathered the newly-ripened 

 seeds of the maple late in June, sowed them at once, and in fourteen 

 months had seedlings seven inches high. The white pine drops 

 its cone for seed once in four years. 



A SPIRITED VILLAGE. 



The little city of Maiden, Mass., has an " Improvement 

 Association," composed of some of its leading citizens, which might 

 be copied to advantage by villages all over the land. The scope of 

 this association is thus expressed : " The object of this association is 

 to awaken and encourage in the community a sentiment and a 

 spirit which will act for the common interest ; to create or stimulate 

 in the individual a regard for the elevation and improvement of the 

 community, thereby securing better hygienic conditions in our 

 homes and surroundings ; an improvement of our streets, sidewalks 

 and public grounds ; a protection of natural scenery, and the build- 

 ing up and beautifying the whole town, and so enhancing the value 

 of its property and rendering it a still more inviting place of 

 residence." The association offers encouragement for the planting 

 of trees along streets, by offering to plant any tree which may be 

 furnished, providing the citizen furnishes half the loam required ; 

 or it offers to pay 2 dels, " to any citizen for each tree of a proper 

 size, symmetrical and of good equality and suitable variety." The 

 kinds recommended for general planting are elms, rock maples, and 

 Norway maples. 



CANADIAN CO-OPERATORS. 



Miss Annie L. Jack insists, in the Rural Canadian, that children 

 should be taught to love and grow trees, after all the most hopeful 

 future aid of forestry, and most likely to give strength to the 



