YIL 



TREES WOODLAND FOKESTS. 



I AM not at all sentimental much less mawkish 

 regarding the destruction of trees. Descended from 

 several generations of timber-cutters (for my paternal 

 ancestors came to America in 1640), and myself en- 

 gaged for three years in land-clearing, I realize that 

 trees exist for use rather than for ornament, and have 

 no more scruple as to cutting timber in a forest than 

 as to cutting grass in a meadow. Utility is the rea- 

 son and end of all vegetable growth of a hickory's 

 no less than a cornstalk's. I have always considered 

 " "Woodman, spare that tree," just about the most 

 mawkish bit of badly versified prose in our language, 

 and never could guess how it should touch the sen- 

 sibilities of any one. Understand, then, that I urge 

 the planting of trees mainly because I believe it will 

 pay, and the preservation, improvement, and exten- 

 sion, of forests, for precisely that reason. 



Yet I am not insensible to the beauty and grace 

 lent by woods, and groves, and clumps or rows of 

 trees, to the landscape they diversify. I feel the 

 force of Emerson's averment, that "Beauty is its 



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