ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 4, 1874. 203 



and "Bot. Soc. Trans.," xii. 167). An interesting work by Mr 

 Menzies, Deputy-Surveyor of Windsor Forest and Park, is in the 

 press (" Forest Trees and Woodland Scenery, as described in Ancient 

 and Modern Poets"), which contains much useful information, and 

 depicts in chromo-lithograph some of the finest specimens of trees 

 in the royal demesne. 



The use of steam-power in uprooting trees has been adopted in 

 some districts, with a view to economising labour in stubbing out 

 the roots; but there can be little doubt that the timber, especially 

 of soft-wooded trees, is materially damaged by the process, and the 

 depreciation in value must be set against the diminution of labour. 



It is a source of great regret to me that I have never visited the 

 forests of North America, which have given to us so many of the 

 trees successfully cultivated in this country, such as the Weymouth 

 and Douglas pines, Cupressus Lawsoniana, the gigantic Sequoia, 

 Taxodium Sempervirens, the tulip-tree, snowberry, and many others. 



When the first settlers landed on the shores of the western 

 world, they found the country covered with primeval forests, which 

 had to be felled and cleared to make room for their settlements and 

 the production of food. The supply of wood was then considered 

 inexhaustible; as cultivation proceeded westwards, new forests 

 revealed themselves, stretching far beyond any knowledge which 

 the settlers possessed of their extent. Gradually the great lumber 

 trade of Canada and the United States sprang up, which has sup- 

 plied our western ports with timber for ships and houses. The 

 wants of the great American continent itself, with its rapidly- 

 increasing population and its enormous export trade, have mean- 

 while grown immensely. The unparalleled facilities for internal 

 navigation afforded by the numerous American rivers, have proved 

 fatal to the forests, which have become so sparse in accessible situa- 

 tions, that at last it has been found necessary to legislate for the 

 preservation of what remains; and in place of a superabundance of 

 wood, matters are thus described (" Gard. Chron." 1847, vol. ii. 459 : — 



" Lumber operators and consumers in Pennsylvania are awakening 

 to a knowledge of the important fact that the timber resources of 

 the province are not inexhaustible, as they have long been con- 

 sidered. The State was once one of the leading pine producers in 

 the Union. The dense forests bordering the Susquehanna, and 

 traversed by its many tributaries; the mountains of the Monon- 

 gahela Valley; and, in fact, the tall, majestic trees that covered 

 thickly much of the area of whole counties in the State, were a few 



