192 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FORESTRY. 



ELMER REEVES, WAVERLY, IOWA, 



It has been the fashion of certain writers to bewail the destruction 

 of forests and lay all manner of evils, past and present and pro- 

 spective, at the door of those who cut or permit the cutting of 

 trees from any considerable tract of forest land. Thirty years ago 

 there was quite an outbreak of this sentiment. It resulted in the 

 planting of many groves all over this northwestern country, not 

 alone for the protection of buildings, but in many cases with a view 

 to the protection of growing crops, and a supply of fuel and wood 

 for various uses. 



It was predicted that the next fifteen years would witness the de- 

 struction of all our available supply of timber fit for building. 

 Thirty years have passed, and lumber is sold at about the same 

 prices, and the then visible supply is still drawn upon, and we have 

 immense tracts of the best of timber added to the world's visible 

 supply. It is also claimed on good authority, that in the prairie 

 state of Iowa there is more timber now growing than there was 

 thirty years ago. Considering these facts, it appears useless to at- 

 tempt to scare people into planting forest trees. None of us are 

 likely to live to witness much of a change in the price of lumber or 

 wood for fuel or other purposes. If these thoughts have any weight, 

 they may seem to cause a severe shaking up of the old sentiment 

 regarding the destruction of forests, but facts as shown by exper- 

 ience are worth more than theories, and it is useless to urge false 

 theories to induce the planting of trees in our prairie states. There 

 are sufficient good reasons for planting. Not only may the planter 

 reckon the money or practical value of the trees when grown to use- 

 ful size, but the sentimental side of the question should be consid- 

 ered as well. Tree planting has a large share in home-making on 

 our broad, wind-swept prairies. A house standing alone upon 

 a treeless farm may be a place to live, but it is not a home. 

 Plenty of trees and shrubs surrounding it, forming shaded nooks 

 and corners, with stately specimens here and groups there, ar- 

 ranged either after the approved plan of the up-to-date landscape 

 gardener or according to the owner's own sweet will, help to form 

 a, home. Each tree has its history. You remember where it came 

 from. But whether pulled up in the forest, carefully grown from 

 seed or bought from that rascally peddlar at four prices, it still has 

 its pleasant associations. You remember when it came upon the 

 place, its planting and where it now stands, the more or less 

 anxious thought as to whether it would grow. You have watched 

 with pleasure its slowly extending branches and steady growth and 

 have shielded it from danger and perhaps nursed its wounds and 

 shaped its top into its present comely proportions. You know its 

 whole history. It is a child of your care and a part of your home. 

 You may buy a farm with trees upon it and call it home, but it is an 

 adopted home and not your home in reality until you have made it 

 take on your personality by your care and plans. 



Tree planting to make the home surroundings what they should 



