THE TREE PLANTERS OF AMERICA 45 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS 



It is now proposed to organize the farmer boys and young men 

 of the country into a great national body to be known as the "Tree 

 Planters of America"; these to act in conjunction and co-operation 

 with the forestry department at Washington. 



It is reckoned that as a nation we are fast approaching a tim- 

 ber famine, the estimate being that 300,000,000 acres of timber out 

 of the original forests of 850,000,000 acres have been cut and 

 marketed or destroyed by forest fires, and that the day is here 

 when action is necessary for a replenishment. 



The idea is fast gaining strength that the farmer should raise 

 his crop of trees as he does other products of the farm, not that 

 he himself will see its advantages and reap its benefits, but that the 

 crop will be one in perpetuity from father to son throughout the 

 future years. 



THE BEACON. AURORA, ILL. 

 Bending the Twig 



"As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." 



This truism has been blazing the way through the forests of 

 civilization from time immemorial. It applies to the material as 

 well as to the mental and the spiritual. Bring up a boy in the way 

 he should go and when he is old he will not depart therefrom.. 



Applying this principle to present day needs in the United 

 States, the National Business League of America proposes the 

 establishment of "The Tree Planters of America." Encourage the 

 boys of the country to plant trees and thus reforest the areas 

 which have been swept by commerce and by fire. That is the 

 object of "The Tree Planters of America." 



The idea is a splendid one. Let it be given every encourage- 

 ment. A host of Farmers' institutes are now being held in our 

 own and surrounding counties. We hear the boys telling how to 

 raise corn and how to test their father's milk herds. Let them 

 also take interest in tree planting. The point is a vital one with 

 them as it is with the business world at large. 





THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON. D. C. 



James Russell Lowell said once: "I think no man does any- 

 thing more visibly useful to posterity than he who plants a tree." 

 Many wise men have said the same thing, clothing the idea in 

 different words. There is romance and utility in the judicious 

 planting of trees. Too many farmers in the desire to increase their 

 tillable acreage slaughter trees, so that they are without shade around 

 the house, without a few trees under which stock may seek shelter 

 from the summer sun and without a wood lot. In this they err. 



