INTRODUCTION xxi 



friends with you. Places of friendly contact with 

 them are not always easy to find, but they are 

 there, and it is usually the mental attitude of the 

 seeker which obscures them. When the State of 

 Nebraska set aside the first Arbor Day in 1872, it 

 started an enthusiastic movement which has since 

 swept over the entire country and surged over the 

 seas to foreign soil. The old reverence for the trees 

 still exists, even if it sometimes has been almost 

 entirely obscured by long dwelling amid brick and 

 mortar. 



Genuine acquaintance with the trees reacts upon 

 the nature-lover's soul with startling effect. What 

 man is so base and sordid that he can contemplate 

 the beauties of an autumn wood without feeling 

 some measure of uplift and ennoblement? What 

 blind eye is so filmed by materialism that it can 

 watch a tiny seed develop into tons of solid timber 

 and then declare there is no God? 



