266 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



would certainly choose forestry instead of agricul- 

 ture as my profession. The one is constructive, 

 the other destructive; the first husbands and pro- 

 tects the soil for future generations, the second has 

 filched from our common mother her precious, 

 long-stored treasures only to thrust her products 

 upon an unresponsive market. All the people ulti- 

 mately suffer when there is taken from the soil 

 that which by the laws of economy is not wanted 

 and which sells in the market for less than it costs 

 to produce it. 



I always had a peculiar love for the woods about 

 my native home in central New York; and so when 

 I was very tired I used to go, in later years, to 

 that little corner of the University Farm where 

 the oaks and pines, the chestnuts and hemlocks, 

 were still standing in their pristine dignity; and 

 lying flat on my back, admire their straight, limb- 

 less trunks, their graceful swaying, and their soft 

 eternal worship of their Maker. I was therefore 

 particularly pleased when once upon a time I was 

 invited to deliver an address at the dedication of 

 the Federal Experiment Station building at Orono, 

 Maine. Here I thought I should behold not only 

 the useful lumber pine of New York but lofty 

 spires fit for the masts of great battleships and 



