1905-6.] TREES AND THEIR INDIVIDUALITY AND RELATION TO OUR DalILy LIFE. 263 
In arguing the question whether it was good or bad policy then to 
patronize them, we are face to face with this fact, that thousands of trees 
annually would never have been planted were it not for the persuasive 
eloquence and persistent energy of the much abused agents. By whatever 
means they took to sell the trees, they have induced thousands to plant 
them who would not have done so, and many an orchard now whitens the 
hillside with their fragrant bloom in spring, or tints the autumn landscape 
-with the crimson and gold of their tempting fruits; many a garden yields its 
abundant supply of juicy strawberries or grateful and satisfying currants 
and gooseberry ; many a vine covered arbour, or trellised wall covered with 
leaves and fruit of the luscious grape. Many a bleak spot or unlovely 
farm home is draped and graced in charming and attractive beauty by 
climbing vines or perfumed rose, or sheltered and protected from stormy 
wintry blasts with the comforting windbreak of cedar or spruce, that owe 
Second Growth White Pine. 
their entire and absolute existence to the eloquence of the agent, relentless 
and persuasive, scrupulous or unscrupulous as he may have been; to him 
is due many a bouquet of fragrant flowers that delight the senses with 
their beauties of colour and perfume. Then long may he continue in his 
activity, doing good as it were by stealth. But my subject is not tree agents 
or policies of forestry, but those distinctive qualities that belong to 
individual trees that meet our eyes in their various situations as we see 
them in our immediate neighbourhood of street and park. 
To a lover of trees they are always beautiful and perhaps we are more 
apt to appreciate them in the summer than the winter, but even now 
