FOREST ARBORETA 



35 



the great ability and devotion of scien- 

 tific men. In promoting, as we have 

 done, the establishment of a forest 

 arboretum at Letchworth Park I feel 

 we are simply carrying the arboretum 

 idea to a further progressive develop- 

 ment. For I am convinced we should 

 have here in America, not only tree 

 arboreta but a forest arboretum not 

 only one either, but several but one 

 at a time. 



My old friend, William Pryor Letch- 

 worth, a man of great beauty of char- 

 acter and of great service to mankind, 

 spent his leisure moments throughout a 

 long and busy life in beautifying and 

 developing his estate, upon the bank of 

 the Genesee river near Portage about 

 sixty miles from Buffalo. In the twi- 

 light of his life, Mr. Letchworth felt 

 more and more the need for forest 

 conservation. And through his wide 

 vision and his great generosity, he left 

 Letchworth Park to the people of New 

 York as a public park; and he left a 

 very definite request that it should be 

 used so far as practicable for purposes 

 of useful and educational afforestation, 

 and he also left the means for its 

 accomplishment. 



I shall always remember my talks 

 with Letchworth on this subject. And 

 ' it was with a vigor inspired both by my 

 friendship for him and by my contempt 

 of the great needs of such an object 

 lesson in tree planting as the custodians, 

 The American Scenic and Historic 

 Preservation Society, are now establish- 

 ing at Letch\vorth Park, that I have 

 devpted all the time I could to the de- 

 velopment both of the forest arboretum 

 idea and of the work itself upon the 

 grounds. 



Our purpose is to develop the forest 

 arboretum at Letchworth Park deliber- 

 ately forest arboreta do not spring up 

 like mushrooms over night and in 

 doing so establish a great object lesson 

 for this region, illustrating the results 

 of forest planting. We wish to see es- 

 tablished at Letchworth Park and a 

 small but satisfactory beginning has al- 

 ready been made blocks of planted 

 forests seldom left less than an acre 

 in extent, and each containing a useful 



tree or a useful combination of trees 

 which will grow in that vicinity. We 

 want foresters, farmers, landscape gar- 

 deners and tree planters, present or 

 prospective, to go to Letchworth Park, 

 to walk among those planted blocks of 

 forests, to make a right selection for 

 their uses ; and then to go home and 

 plant forest trees for themselves. 



At the inception of the movement, 

 the principle upon which the Letch- 

 worth arboretum was to be established 

 and certain plans for carrying out the 

 principles were adopted by the custo- 

 dian society. This principle and these 

 plans are in part as follows : " The 

 principle upon which the Letchworth 

 arboretum be established is that it shall 

 consist of a permanent collection of 

 the various species of the world's timber 

 trees, likely to thrive in this northern 

 climate, planted scientifically to test 

 their value and illustrate their proc- 

 esses of development, thus supplying 

 not only knowledge for knowledge's 

 sake, but also knowledge for practical 

 use. 



" In carrying out that principle we will 

 have a collection of the valuable timber 

 trees of the world and the Letchworth 

 arboretum will become the first of its 

 kind and its contribution to the cause 

 of forest conservation in the United 

 States will be of great economic and 

 scientific value. 



"After the arboretum has been estab- 

 lished, planted singly and in groups will 

 be every important tree species with 

 which experiment under local condi- 

 tions of soil and climate will justify, 

 and visitors will thus have ample oppor- 

 tunity to study the value of trees of 

 many kinds for ornamental planting, 

 but the object lessons of enormous eco- 

 nomic significance which will lie spread 

 before their eyes will be blocks .of 

 planted forest in each of which has been 

 set out one or more kinds of trees of 

 commercial importance. 



" By this course Letchworth Park will 

 aid materially in laying an exact scien- 

 tific basis for the successful extension 

 of practical forestry in the United 

 States. Every practical step will be 

 taken, not only to insure results of the 



