604 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The owpier of this park region has been advised to fence it in and 

 stock it with goats. But there are some things a man ought not to do. 

 If he has a spark of sentiment or a grain of love he could never bring him- 

 self to the thought of pasturing his mother's grave. And the gainful idea 

 of denuding every tree-covered spot which God never intended for the 

 base use of ordinary money-getting is a cropping out of the barbaric in- 

 stinct to kill every living thing in sight and trample under foot the lofty 

 sentiments of the soul. Hundreds of acres of Iowa's beautiful lands have 

 been skinned by the tree-butchers to get a little indifferent pasture or a 

 field marred by gullies after every heavy rain. 



Perhaps there is little or no money in sentiment. It has little com- 

 mercial value in the present rushing western life. The prevalent thought 

 of today is to let the next generation take care of itself; and yet who 

 shall say that some of the wasted timber resources of this country had 

 not better been husbanded in a money point of view! 



But there is a higher aim that ought to inspire the leaders of horti- 

 cultural thought. This world is not always going to be dominated by the 

 utilitarian idea. Culture is going to have its inning. The time is com- 

 ing when a park will be more attractive than a goat-pasture. 



I hope you will pray that the present owner of one of Iowa's beauty 

 spots may not become so avaricious of present gain that he is ready to 

 sacrifice the artistic for a little vulgar coin. 



HISTORIC TREES OF IOWA. 



Ida Grillett, Ames, Iowa. 

 In almost every country the world over, we find some majestic old 

 tree preserved by the people as a historical relic. Perhaps the oldest of 

 such trees that we have record of is the "cypress of Somma" in Lom- 

 bardy. It is supposed by the inhabitants of the place to have been planted 

 in the year of the birth of Christ, but an ancient chronicle of Milan proves 

 that it was a tree in Caesar's time, 42 B. C. It was one hundred twenty- 

 three feet high and twenty-three feet in circumference, measured one 

 foot from the ground, the last time any account of its measurement was 

 given. 



The United States has many trees such as the "Washington Elm" 

 and the "Charter Oak" woven into her history, and even Iowa has several 

 of more or less importance that are being protected from ruthless de- 

 struction. 



Being a prairie state, Iowa has many trees that were designated by 

 the settlers of that section as "Lone Tree" which at present are sur- 

 rounded by dozens of their progeny that have sprung up since the early 

 history of the state. Among such trees is "Lone Tree" in Johnson county, 

 an old elm from which the town in which it stands derived its name. 



