54 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



be of the most valuable or desirable character, but it shows what 

 nature is ready to do, and it indicates a direction in which the influence 

 of Arbor Day may be made effective. 



Let it be understood that the hills and mountain slopes are worth 

 more for the growth of trees than for agricultural use, or rather that 

 the tree crop is the most appropriate agricultural crop for the hill and 

 mountain slopes, the rocky surfaces which resist the plow and the hoe. 

 Let the farmer learn that if he will but exclude from his woodlands the 

 browsing cattle, which are ready to eat off every tender tree as it sprouts 

 from the ground and to break down with their heavy bulk those which 

 have already attained a hopeful size, and if he will cull the inferior 

 trees instead of the best, for his occasional uses, and fill the too wide 

 vacant spaces with a judicious planting, he may soon have a woodland, 

 though it may not have the dimensions of a forest, which will be of 

 manifold benefit to him as well as to others and be increasing in value 

 from year to year. This use of elevated and rocky lands, where ordi- 

 nary agriculture is difficult and comparatively unremunerative, ought 

 to be encouraged by the Arbor Day movement. It may and should 

 make itself felt in this direction. 



The same is true in reference to many sandy and swampy lands. 

 These will nourish trees and prove a perpetual source of income. 

 Trees, unlike the ordinary farm crops, continually improve the quality 

 of the ground on which they grow. The German Government, in its 

 wise and careful management, is constantly buying up the worn-out or 

 impoverished farms of its husbandmen and by stocking them with trees 

 restoring their fertility and fitting them again for agricultural use. 

 On a great many of our light, sandy soils, now left as wind-swept 

 barren fields or yielding only the most meager crops, a growth of that 

 most valuable tree the white pine (Pinus strobus), may be secured in 

 twenty years and even less, of marketable size. There is a great demand 

 for the wood of this tree in its early stages, for the manufacture of staves, 

 for tubs and small casks, as well as for other uses, and many land- 

 owners are finding it quite profitable to raise and market this pine at a 

 comparatively early age. 



This is not the place to discuss further the subject of forest planting 

 or forest preservation, unless it be to say that perhaps a greater enemy 

 of the forest than the ax is fire, and that wherever .there is regard 

 enough for trees to occasion the observance of Arbor Day there ought 

 to be also consideration enough for the preservation of the forests of 

 the vicinity to inaugurate some well-arranged and efficient plan to pro- 

 tect them from the flames which, kindled by accident or carelessness, 

 are not only a detriment to the legal owner of the forest but to the 

 whole community, for, in an important sense, the forests are common 

 property. By their beauty, their influence upon climate and water 

 supply, they are of benefit to all who live in sight of them and may be 

 to those more distant from them. All, therefore, ought to be ready to 

 make their preservation a common cause. 



