FORESTRY AS RELATED TO THE FARM. 4l9 



do all of these women patients come from, and what is the cause of 

 their insanity?" and received the answer: "They come from just 

 such homes as you saw yesterday that you said would drive you to 

 madness." Overwork, monotony and lack of cooling shade and rest- 

 ful coloring is the cause of much insanity. Is it not truer economy 

 for state and nation to spend millions for forestry and irrigation 

 rather than build madhouses and people tliem with our producing 

 population ? 



"Forestry as related to the farm" ! Why the kinship is so close 

 and so necessary from every viewpoint, we can no more divorce 

 the "two in thought than we can disassociate home and mother. What 

 are the enhanced values that will survive the collapse of a boom and 

 prove a permanent asset? To a would-be purchaser what improve- 

 mepts appeal to him the strongest, a pretentious house or a simple cot- 

 tage with wood lot well under way, that shall furnish future fencing, 

 fuel and building material ; a fruit orchard, a highway frontage of 

 trees, a flowering hedge row for bees and a few fine food trees for 

 birds. And these latter are as essential -as the former if we are to 

 have honey to eat and bird music to delight the ear. 



We are startled at such facts as these : that "the earth would 

 become a desert in nine years but for the insect-eating birds ;" that 

 "the boll- weevil, now costing Texas $10,000,000 annually, threatens 

 the entire cotton crop of the country and its dependent industries ;" 

 that "unintelligent lumbering and consequent fire and flood threaten 

 the wood and water supply." Where shall we look for help? The 

 homes of Minnesota that today furnish the students of our agri- 

 cultural college realize the vital, necessary relation which must exist 

 b'etween the different phases of forestry and the farm, and in this 

 student body rests our hope for the future. 



This subject as your president phrased it, "Forestry as related 

 to the farm," is like some great Bible text or grand bit of imagery 

 that preaches its own sermon, delivers its own message and needs 

 no exposition, because it is a masterpiece in itself, full of suggestive 

 lessons and pictures of prosperity, beauty and contentment. 



Over against a sun-blistered shelter it presents a cool, leaf- 

 shaded cottage. Over against a tiring stretch of ploughed ground 

 or wide area of pasturage, with its complement of hot, thirsty herds, 

 it presents a varied landscape, single tree or family groups, offering 

 grateful shade to man and beast, while not far distant rises the leafy 

 grove with its berry patches, while birds and bees are busy storing 

 up for us their contribution of sweetness and song. 



If not so far afield would our vision stray — the old maple on the 

 lawn furnishes the picture of a hot, midsumimer afternoon. Beneath 



