Planting Trees 



131 



economically in Ouelph. Evidently 

 no one liHs a fat contract to supply 

 them with nwo u\}w lumber. They 

 knock to^jfther a crate from any old 

 boards that arc \y\i\^ around, just as 

 any farmer would do it. That shows 

 a praiseworthy Hpirit. I was partic- 

 ularly charmed when preparing to 

 open the crate by finding a bent 

 nail. That showed that they are not 

 all scientists at Guclph. They evi- 

 dently have some men there who can- 

 not drive a nail into a pine board 

 without bending it. That made rae 

 feel that I was dealing with men in 

 my own class, and 1 was less afraid 

 of the work l>efore me than T would 

 otherwise have b»!on. Following the 

 instructions 1 had received, I *heled. 

 healed or lieeled in' the trees. *IIeIe^* 

 is a good old English word, mean- 

 ing to 'cover,' which I never before 

 met with in print. You may spell 

 it any way to like and it will still 

 be right. As a dabbler in words, 1 

 am thankful to the foresters for re- 

 viving it. 1 also noticed that Pro- 

 fessor Zavitz spoke about the 'boles' 

 of the trees, and 1 was thankful for 

 that. I had never before heard 

 'bole' used in conversation. But 

 this is wandering from my theme. 

 Only men who occasionally write 

 verses know what a treasure a stran- 

 ger word sometimes is in a language 

 so l)arren of good rhymes as is the 



English. 



• • • 



The whole trouble about the work 

 of reforestration is the number of 

 trees that mu.st be planted. They 

 use from twelve hundred trees up- 

 ward on each acre. That means 

 many days of persistent work to 

 make any showing at all. And is 

 the work worth while? Ever since 

 announcing that I intended doing it 

 I have had to bear the tolerant 

 smiles of people who looked upon it 

 as one of the whims of an imprac- 

 tical man. I am not going to re- 

 hearse the reasons for planting trees. 

 They are many and sound, and have 

 been placed before the public so 

 often that evervone knows whether 



he it convinced or, not. If trees are 

 not planted, and what remains of 

 the forest protected from pasturing 

 cattle, this part of the country will 

 soon be 'as bald as a campaign lie.' 

 The present state of affairs is not so 

 much due to the fact that the pio- 

 niM'rs were rapacious as that they 

 did not know how to take care of 

 the woods. I remember hearing the 

 older men talk about leaving part 

 of the land under trees. They seem- 

 ed to think that the right way to 

 put a woodlot in order was to cut 

 the underbrush and clear out the 

 fallen timber. But I never heard 

 (4U' of them speak of the need of 

 keeping out the cattle. "When the 

 woodlots began to die off they said 

 it was because the forests around 

 had been cleared away and that the 

 trees could not live in the open coun- 

 try. If they had been told the right 

 method to use in taking care of their 

 trees I am convinced that many of 

 them would have done their part 

 properly. But now if we are to have 

 trees we must plant. Though fenc- 

 ing in the woodlots has given good 

 results in some cases, in many cases 

 the new growth is largely made up 

 of ironwood and blue-beech and sim- 

 ilar 'weed trees.' 



• • • 



It is quite true that I shall get no 

 returns from this work of tree-plant- 

 ing as returns are counted. But what 

 of that? Having done many days 

 work from which I expected returns 

 that I did not get, I do not mind 

 doing five days* work from which I 

 expect no returns. And yet it is 

 hardly true that I shall get no re- 

 turns. Already I feel a sort of glow 

 of philanthropic satisfaction over my 

 work. Someone in the distant future 

 will profit by it, and will perhaps 

 feel grateful. They say it takes three 

 generations to make a gentleman, 

 but it takes more than that to make 

 a tree. Many generations of men 

 will pass before the walnuts I have 

 planted will be fit to use as timber. 



(Concluded on page 138.) 



