Clearing Up 



the end of each year or four years, some 

 slight reward, such as a simple medal or 

 even an honorable mention, could be 

 awarded to that plant or tree which had 

 made any surprising growth, it might still 

 further stimulate an interest among the 

 young people in this most beautiful and 

 useful work. If masters of schools and 

 professors of colleges would use their in- 

 fluence to bring about this change as 

 speedily as possible, it could not fail to 

 do good to the youths themselves, and 

 would replace with vigorous trees and 

 vines the usually melancholy specimens 

 which many classes now leave behind 

 them as their monument. 



The forester of ever so minute a wood 

 has a fund of enjoyment on his plantation 

 that no unlimited order to the best of 

 landscape gardeners can ever give him. It 

 is a fine spiritual exercise to bring the mind 

 into sympathy with inferior organisms, 

 and when one has fairly learned to love 

 anything so stubborn and irresponsive as 

 a tree, he has gained a step in mental de- 

 velopment, even beyond that point won 

 49 



