158 



State is turning her attention very earnestly to these waste and comparatively unprofit- 

 able portions of her territory. Bills are now pending before the Legislature looking to 

 the adoption of measures for bringing the active and intelligent aid of the State in 

 planting and protecting these waste lands. 



I may mention also that several years ago our Society for the promotion of agricul- 

 ture issued circulars on the subject of forest culture, and offered premiums for the en- 

 couragement of tree-planting on the large scale. 



In the Arnold Arboretum also, at Brookline, Boston, under the charge of Professor 

 Sargent, Massachusetts has a Forestry School, at least in embryo, and a garden of accli- 

 mation, where already are gathered thousands of trees from all parts of our own country 

 and from the other side of the Atlantic, with a view to the practical study of their growth, 

 and their adaptation to different soils and climates. 



By its publication also the Arboretum has diffused throughout the country much 

 valuable information in regard to tree culture, and influenced the legislation in several of 

 our States upon this important subject. 



Professor Sargent, as many know, is also charged with the preparation of the census 

 returns in regard to the forests of the country. In discharging the duties of this office he 

 has made, with the aid of a competent corps of assistants, a more comprehensive and 

 careful survey of the timbered portions of the country than has ever been made before. 

 Specimens of the various woods of the country have been gathered and a great deal of 

 information in regard to their habits of growth and value for different purposes. Maps 

 have been constructed sliowing the amount of timber that has been cut off, and the amount 

 now standing in each State and Territory. Maps have also been constructed which indi- 

 cate at once to the eye the extent of forest destruction by fires. 



The remainder of the day was devoted to the reading and discussion of papers. 



April 27th. 



This day which was specially set apart for tree-planting, and designated as arbor 

 day, was opened by a general session of the Congress, at 9 a.m., when Dr. Franklin B. 

 Hovigh, Chief of the Forestry Division of the Agricultural Department at Washington, 

 read a paper on " The Forestry of the Future," which was followed Ijy one from David 

 K. Bailey, late Consul-General of the United States in China, upon " The Droughts, 

 Famines, and Floods in China." After some discussion on these papers the meeting 

 adjourned. 



In the afternoon the Congress took part in the holiday procession and general tree- 

 planting which characterises arbor day. The day was kept as a general holiday by the 

 citizens, the public buildings, and many of the places of business were gaily decorated, 

 and an immense procession formed, which, accompanied by bands of music, proceeded to 

 Eden Park, where trees were planted in honour of presidents, authors, pioneers, soldiers, 

 sailors, etc. Trees were also planted in honour of Queen Victoria and Princess Louise. 



The tree-planting ceremonies commenced with the firing of a signal gun and closed 

 with the firing of a second gun, when the vast assemblage and the speakers proceeded to 

 the grand stand, where President Loring addressed the vast audience in the following 

 strain : He spoke of himself as a stranger in a strange land where he had been elevated 

 to the high position of President of the American Forestry Congress. He said : 



" We are now all better acquainted with each other than we were. We have awakened 

 to a common interest. The forests are mutely appealing to us for aid against the hand of 

 the destroyer, and they should and will be helped by the American people. 



" After listening to the learned papers of the Convention, we are practically carrying 

 out the theories by planting trees that will stand as monuments to the great men who 

 founded the United States. We began with Columbus, who explored and reported back 

 to Spain the discovery of a virgin country. Next we planted to the memory of a long 

 line of citizen magistrates unequaled by any line of Kings. Among these magistrates 

 we have Geoi'ge Washington, who first, as a. surveyor, trod the forest, and afterwards led 



