34 



NEW YORK STATE FORESTRY 



pine, which as you are aware will 

 yield box boards in something less than 

 thirty years, or in terms of the quick 

 growing hardwoods which yield fence 

 posts in eight or ten years and fir wood 

 in maybe ten more,. and lumber in per- 

 haps thirty or forty years. Most men 

 are apt to think of the results of tree 

 planting in terms of long lived, slow 

 growing oaks, which take perhaps a 

 century to grow, twelve inches through. 

 To make the facts plain to such men, 

 not only about money returns from tree 

 planting but about how soon these re- 

 turns can be had, is an urgent task be- 

 fore all foresters. 



Now, the next task. That is to get 

 tree planting done so well that disap- 

 pointment will not be the crop instead 

 of posts or lumber or fire wood. Suc- 

 cessful tree planting is a wholly prac- 

 ticable thing. The Germans have dem- 

 onstrated that fact for well over two 

 centuries ; and of course being foresters, 

 you are well aware of the fact that to- 

 day one-third of the reproduction in 

 German forests is from planted trees. 



But we do not need to go to Germany. 

 Go to Biltmore, North Carolina, to the 

 estate of George W. Vanderbilt. You 

 will see forest plantations there, grow- 

 ing on steep hills which twenty years 

 ago were bare and red and gullied by 

 erosion and which today are already 

 yielding useful products. If you do not 

 care to go so far, why then travel in 

 your own State here at home, and see 

 the admirable results already obtained 

 by planting good forest stock from the 

 splendid State nurseries under the di- 

 rection of Mr. Pettis ; nurseries which 

 yield the palm to no nurseries in Ger- 

 many or France or anywhere else ! 



Successful tree planting is a practical 

 thing; so is successful farming. But 

 there are farmers who fail. Now what 

 is needed in order to insure as low a 

 percentage of failure as possible among 

 tree planters? My impression is that 

 object lessons are needed more than 

 anything else. One cannot learn how 

 to be a forester from books. You will 

 grant that. I will affirm with equal 

 vigor that one cannot learn how to be 

 a banker from books ; and possibly we 



will agree that men cannot learn how 

 to do good tree planting wholly from 

 books. They need to see the thing in 

 operation. Of course, the obvious 

 answer is as I have just stated, that 

 successful plantations are to be seen in 

 New York State and elsewhere in 

 America. 



But, gentlemen, can you conjure up a 

 life sized picture of an up-state farmer, 

 a thrifty cautious farmer, traveling east 

 and west and north and south, and 

 spending largely of his means to see 

 plantations which contain the trees he 

 wants or the trees which he should or 

 might or could consider setting out on 

 his worn out lands, or in his woodlot, 

 or elsewhere where trees are needed on 

 his farm ? You might say, " Why are 

 forest arboreta needed?" There are 

 a great many arboreta which contain 

 practically every kind of useful tree. 

 Let the prospective tree planter inspect 

 those. 



There are such arboreta at Harvard, 

 and elsewhere. Deep and undying 

 credit and honor is due to Dr. Sargent 

 and the other eminent gentlemen who 

 established them. They serve a most 

 valuable purpose to landscape archi- 

 tects, to foresters, to land owners and 

 to all classes of men who wish to study 

 the habits and behavior of individual 

 trees, but they are not planted in forest 

 conditions. 



I have made some study of arboreta 

 around and about the world. I think 

 I may say I have seen with some degree 

 of thoroughness nearly all the great tree 

 arboreta of the world, both in America 

 and foreign lands. I do not need to 

 recount to you who are foresters, the 

 wonderful living museum of trees in 

 the Arnold arboretum ; nor do I need to 

 describe the great arboretum in Kew 

 Gardens, near London, where many 

 foresters have worked, including possi- 

 bly some of yourselves ; nor do I need 

 to describe the great arboreta in semi- 

 tropical countries, as in Ceylon on the 

 island of Java, or which are in the mak- 

 ing in several other foreign lands. 



I am thankful as an American citizen 

 for the Arnold arboretum and for all 

 such wonderful and useful evidences of 



