22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail.,. 



pose to do my utmost to see that this lawless element in the 

 mountain regions of Pennsylvania and among our forests is 

 crushed out. 



Mr. HINMAN. There are some times when a forest seems 

 to take from the ground more than it returns, or, at any rate, 

 certain trees do. I have a meadow that has been in my 

 family for a great many years and in that meadow there was 

 a spring. When I was a little boy my uncle owned the 

 meadow, and I used to go up there and sit around that 

 spring. We used to take cucumbers and throw them into 

 the water, it was so clear and cold, and it was an elegant 

 place to eat dinner under the shade of that tree by that spring. 

 In process of time, before I bought the farm, there came up 

 a maple tree. It made elegant shade. It grew and grew, 

 and when it got about so big it took every bit of water. Its 

 roots absorbed it, diverted it so that the tree spoiled that 

 valuable spring. I was obliged to cut the tree down to get 

 my spring back, because I wanted it for my cattle and could 

 only have it by doing away with the tree. 



Secretary GOLD. Did you get your spring back? 

 Mr. HINMAN. I did. The spring is there to-day. That 

 tree, growing larger as it did, with its roots spread out all 

 over the ground, took that water right up and the whole 

 spring was gone. In the summer time, when the leaves were 

 on the trees, that was particularly so. There was an instance 

 where one single tree spoiled a living spring for years. When 

 I cut the tree down, the spring came back, and is there to-day. 

 The PRESIDENT. Now, let me make a little inquiry in re- 

 gard to something on my own farm, a farm which I bought 

 some forty years ago. There was an inland spring of water 

 on it ; no visible outlet or no visible inlet to it ; only from the 

 bottom of this little pond there seemed to be feeding springs. 

 I never found them and never saw them. Right near by were 

 four very large oak trees which cast their shade over it. It 

 was just about the size of an ordinary farmer's garden. There 



