TKEES AND TREES. 107 



such a charmed existence. Our eyes seek the old sugar 

 bush on the hillside, the maple groves in the pasture 

 fields, the wild cherry trees in the meadow, and the 

 wide spreading elms that stood sentinels at the gate- 

 ways. Fortunate, indeed, if these " landmarks and love- 

 marks" are still standing, but oftener we find them 

 swept away. Some Erisicthon in the guise of the '' model 

 farmer " could not tolerate mere objects of beauty where 

 they stood against the bank account. There were dol- 

 lars' worth of cord- wood in the maples ; the cherry tree 

 shaded valuable grass land ; children, when they came 

 in the later summer time to gather cherries, trampled 

 down the aftermath ; and the elms obscured the view of 

 the new house. And what are landscapes and senti- 

 ments and affections in comparison with gratified pride 

 and accumulated dollars ? If sentiment and love of 

 scenery have no influence in restraining our people from 

 this prodigal waste of forests, at least a regard for the 

 physical condition and welfare of the country should 

 cause them to pause and ask themselves what will be the 

 final and near consequence of this almost total extinc- 

 tion of our forests. Great freshets and inundations, 

 bare hills still farther disfigured by unsightly gullies, 

 extended droughts and dried-up vegetation, a loss of 

 equilibrium of climate, seasons of extreme heat quickly 

 followed by intense cold, violent and destructive storms, 

 a scarcity of insect-destroying birds, and thereby a 

 great increase of pestiferous insects that annoy man and 

 prey upon the products of his industry, a drying up of 



