214 



often be transported long distances at considerable expense. 

 Nearly every farm contains some land that is too poor for raising- 

 crops or that is not available for grazing or other purposes, which 

 usually lies idle year after year. This land is a burden to the 

 owner because it brings in no returns, yet must bear its share of 

 the taxes. Such land ought to be devoted to the raising of for- 

 est trees. When we consider that an acre of land planted to fast- 

 growing trees will produce from one to three thousand fence 

 posts in twenty years, and that with some species fence posts can 

 be secured in less than ten years, a farmer, by allowing waste 

 places to stand idle, is losing a return he could secure by a slight 

 effort. It is not a difificult matter to start a woodlot, neither is it 

 an expensive one. It can be done without any cost to the owner 

 except the time and effort necessary to grow and plant the trees. 

 "One reason why farmers do not start forest plantings is be- 

 cause they believe large trees are necessary which can be pur- 

 chased only at considerable cost. The best trees for starting a 

 woodlot are one-year-old seedlings, which can easily be grown 

 from seed by the farmer himself. Every farm should have a 

 forest nursery for growing trees for starting forest plantings. 

 Such a nursery can also be used to grow larger trees for plant- 

 ing about the house, along the roads and for making windbreaks. 

 It should be located on well-drained fertile soil such as might be 

 selected for a garden. Where the space can be spared a portion 

 of the vegetable garden makes an ideal nursery site. The soil 

 should not be made excessively rich, as too fertile a soil will pro- 

 duce a rank growth in the seedlings, making them difficult to 

 handle in transplanting."— yV/t? Xortli ]] oods (Minnesota For- 

 estrv Association ) . 



RELIGION OF THE IT OODS. 



Tribute to the presence of God in the woods, recently was paid 

 by Rev. George R. Gebauer, pastor of the First Unitarian church 

 in Duluth, while delivering a sermon on the subject. "Influences." 

 The following i)retty eulogy of the stars and woods and the ser- 

 mons they preach, came from him : 



"It was none less than the great Kant who said : 'The two 

 things which most overawe me are the starry heaven above and 

 the moral law within.' He said nothing of any relationship be- 

 tween the two, but to me there seems to be such. I am con- 

 vinced that if only we would take our children into the star-lit 

 silence of the night, and in the presence of this visible Infinite 

 speak to them of the Infinite and the eternal law of goodness, wc 

 should find them much more receptive than in our Sunday schools 

 with their sanctimonious trimmings. What the stars preach to 

 us is truly 'heavenly.' and the sweet inlluences ot the Pleiades 

 creates a reverence whicli Imly >crii)ture will hardly give in such 

 rich and pure iiH'a'>ure. 



