Kothrock.J bO\J [Nov. 19, 



were to be kept open, the central one was to have upon it 

 " houses for public affairs — as a meeting house, assembly or 

 State bouse, market house, school house, and several other 

 buildings for public concerns." That pamphlet should least of 

 all be forgotten by this Society, as it declares our legal status 

 in times of either peace or war. 



Prior to 1816 the legacy of Andre Francois Michaux became 

 available to this Society. It is worthy of note that our honored 

 chief in botany, Prof. Asa Gray, was present at the preparation 

 of that will, and it is more than possible made suggestions which 

 should be kindty esteemed here. This, however, is conjecture. 

 Mr. Price was made chairman of the committee having in charge 

 the execution of the Michaux trust. In 1876 he read his report 

 here, showing that the income had been judiciously expended, 

 and, almost as enthusiastically as if he had been half a century 

 younger, he stated his plans and the hopes which grew out of 

 the fund. It can hardly be said that this legacy from France 

 started Mr. Price upon the agitation of the timber question and 

 the necessity of a national and state system of forestry. His 

 fondness for trees was an inherited one, and all his life 

 he had been a tree-planter. For a score of years he had wit- 

 nessed with sadness the wholesale destruction and waste of our 

 forest growth. It was thus a happy chance which associated 

 his name with that of Michaux. No man could have had a 

 stronger or more practical leaning toward the execution of such 

 a trust, and no man would have been more certain to see that 

 the testator's wishes were religiously carried out. 



I thus desire here to record the fact that of all those who, in 

 this State, agitated the timber question before it had commended 

 itself to the public judgment, the most efficient was Eli Kirk Price. 

 He has had his share of sjnnpathy for having gone so wide of 

 the mark (it was thought b}' some) as to predict that there ever 

 could be a dearth of timber in this land. Now that the whole 

 country is awakening to a recognition of the truth of what he 



