28 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 



the Hudson. It was the simple beauty that 

 Webster created at Marshfield the smooth 

 lawns and shady approaches that bound him 

 so strongly to that sequestered spot. The 

 charin of Abbotsford, the gmnd Mecca of i 

 Scott, and comes mainly from its ivy clad 

 walls, beautiful shrubbery, and the now 

 majestic trees,planted by the hand of its illus- ! 

 trious owner. An American, whose thoughts 

 drop like sparkling gems, has put in my way 

 the worr's that so beautifully express the 

 emotions that should animate every citizen 

 of the State. "If I have no coaches and 

 horses, I can at least have a tracery of vine 

 leaves along my porch, so exquisitely deli- 

 cate, that no sculptor can imitate it, and if I 

 have no conservatory with their wonders, 

 yet the sun and I together can build up a 

 little tangled coppice of blooming things in 

 my door yard, of which every tiny floral 

 leaflet shall be a miracle. Nay, I may make 

 my home, however small it may be, so com- 

 plete in its simplicity, so fitted to its oflices, 

 so governed by neatness, so embowored by 

 wealth of leaf and flowei, that no riches in 

 the world could add to it without damaging 

 its rural grace and beauty, and my garden- 

 ers sunshine, frost and showers are their 

 name shall work for me with no crusty re- 



luctance, but rather with an abandon and a 

 zeal that asks only gratitude for pay." 



May the beautiful thought conveyed in the 

 above words prove to be the monitor of every 

 citizen of this State, that we may the >rore 

 quickly realize the work before us to-day; so 

 that the almost boundless expanse of prairie 

 by which we are surrounded, and which is 

 terminated only by the distant horizon, shall 

 have its due proportion of tree growth, and 

 this fair land clothed with fruitful farms, 

 the abiding place of a grand civilization. 

 The preservation and planting of forests is a- 

 duty we owe to posterity and to our ancestors 

 who left us the picturesque elm, the mighty 

 oak and other denizens of the forest. 



May we in the future so perform that duty 

 as to be qualified to utter the beautiful senti- 

 ment of the poet Whittier in the following 

 lines: 



"Give fools their gold and knaves their power, 

 Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; 

 Who sows a field or trains a flower, 

 Or plants a tree is more than all. 



"For he who blesses most is blest; 

 And God and man shall own his worth 

 Who toils to leave as his bequest; 

 An added beauty to the earth. 



