A MODEL FORESTRY COMMISSION. 233 



1. The (lueftion of the ultimate ownership of the forests now be- 

 lon^injr to the government; that is, what portions of the fore.st on 

 the pijl)lic domain shall he allowed to pass, either iu part or en- 

 tirely, from jrovernment control into private hands. 



2. How shall the jifovernnient forests be administered so that the 

 inhabitants of adjacent regions maj' draw their necessary forest 

 supi^lies from them without atfectintf their permanency. 



3. What provision is possible and necessary to secure for the gov- 

 ernment a continuous, intelligent and honest management of the 

 forests of the public domain, including those in the reservations 

 already made or which maj' be made in the future. 



This admirable statement of the scope of the work is accompanied 

 by the appointment of a commission of experts to undertake the in- 

 vestigation, which in character and in range of scientific knowledge 

 of the sort that (jualilies for a given task, has seldom, if ever, been 

 equalled in the record of governmental work. The members are: 

 Professor Charles S. Sargent, of Harvard, chairman; Professor Wol- 

 cott Gibbs, ex-ofTicio; Alexander Agassiz; Professor \V. H. Brewer,of 

 Yale; General Henry L. Abbott, U. S. A. (retired); Arnold Hague, of 

 the Geological Survey and Gififord Pinchot, practical forester. 



These gentlemen, serving without pay, will proceed to make a 

 scientific and practical study of the public forests from every point 

 of view and on the ground, and their report and their recoinmen- 

 dations, whatever they may be in detail, cannot fail to carrj' such 

 weight with the press and the public that it will be as impossible to 

 go back to the old policy of neglect as to re-enact literarj' piracy or 

 the toleration of lotteries or any other outworn system of robbing 

 the many for the benefit of the few. 



We regard the establishment of this commission as a landmark of 

 national progress. While of extraordinary value to the whole 

 country, it will prove, particularly, the salvation of the West from 

 those who would sacrifice its entire future to the greed of the 

 immediate moment.— T/je Century ?IuguyJne, Nuy, 1895. 



Petunias.— I once knew an old bachelor who lived in a house by 

 himself on a Western prairie. A stray flower catalogue fell into his 

 hands, and in it he found a colored picture of that brilliant carmine 

 petunia, Countess of Klsmere, so much used for bedding. It 

 struck his fanc}', and he sent for three papers of the seed. Next he 

 made a big, round flower bed, at least ten feet in diameter, and sowed 

 the entire bed to the petunia seed. The ground was mellow, the 

 soil was rich, and the little seedlings soon grew into long armed, 

 thickly matted plants. When they bloomed, the purplish hue of the 

 flowers could be seen a mile away, and when face to face with the 

 bed it was seen to be a solid circle of glowing, radiant, velvety 

 bloom. As he complacently and slangily remarked: "His bed 

 knocked the socks off from any other flowers on the prairie." 



I give this as an examjjle of what a stricking effect can be obtained 

 at little cost or trouble by the use of this good old annual, of which 

 it may truthfully be said that it is one of the half dozen best plants 

 in existence for garden decoration. — Vicke. 



