PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 



15 



tiou and disaster to follow upon this 

 wholesale destruction of the forests of Col- 

 orado. 



THE USE AND BEAUTY OP 

 FORESTS. 



BY RALPH MEEKER, OF GREELEY. 



It has been said that the earth would be 

 uninhabitable were it not for its trees. How- 

 ever true or false this may be, it is a fact that 

 no product of the soil enters so large. 1 y into 

 the industries of the world as timber. The 

 table on which we eat, the bed on which we 

 sleep, the floor on which we walk, the roof 

 that shelter us, the chest that contains the 

 relics of a generation, the car on the railway, 

 the ship on the ocean, the house, the barn, 

 the plow, the reaper, the fence in fact 

 nearly everything made with tools for the 

 use of mankind is more or less indebted to 

 our forests for its existence. 



Coal mines may become exhausted, oil wells 

 may cease flowing, but trees will grow and 

 flourish while the earth remains habitable. 

 Practicably considered, our forests are neces- 

 sary to civilization. JUsthetieally consid- 

 ered, trees ic their way are as beautiful as 

 the ocean or the mountains or the sky. 



The man who rears his family in the 

 center of a, township of black prairie, six 

 miles from a school house, and sells corn for 

 ten cents * bushel, may see no benefit in the 

 beauty of the forest, which all the poets from 

 Homer to Shakespeare have immortalized. 

 Byron says, "There is pleasure in the path- 

 less woods;" and Bryant speaks of the groves 

 as God's first temples. 



But we need not go to the poets for 

 authority on this subject. Our trees speak 

 for themselves. The Cedars of Lebanon, that 

 bowed their heads in ancient Palestine, so 

 deeply impressed the people with their sol- 

 emn grandeur and stately magnificence, that 

 their names were used as figures of speech in 

 all the great writings of that day. 



Any object of nature that purifies a man's 

 thoughts or awakens his reverence is of as 

 much benefit as a teacher, a poet or 

 evangelist, so far as its influence extends. 

 There can be no doubt that beautiful groves 

 and long shaded avenues soften rugged 

 natures as they modify the climate in which 

 men live. A great writer has said that "Im- 

 agination rules the world." Inhabitants oi 

 a wooded country are undoubtedly more 

 given to sentiment and imagry of a higher 

 character, than those living in mud-flats and 

 low countries. 



It is fashionable in this age of machinery 

 to speak lightly of schemes for expending 

 money in beautifying land that one does no 

 own. It is with diflaculty that the Yellow 

 stone Parks were set aside for public uses 



The Adirondacks have been the subject of 

 egislative discussions for years, but still the 

 work of destruction goes on. Niagara Falls, 

 hat marvelous combination of the sublime 

 ind beautiful, is treated as if it were a circus 

 obe viewed for so much a head, while its trees 

 nd lovely natural shrubbery are mutilated 

 ind destroyed. In our own State of Colo- 

 rado, we see the mountains robbed of their 

 green covering every year. Careless hunters 

 and woodsmen leave their fires to blacken 

 ind deface the finest scenery in the world. 

 The spirit of vandalism is becoming a char- 

 acteristic of the American people, and the 

 iterrture (the dime novel literature) most 

 read by our young people, is in keeping with 

 ;his vandal spirit. A reverential regard for 

 the beautiful things on eari h exists only in 

 sentiment among comparatively few people, 

 [n Germany, where the strongest feeling is 

 ? or the Fatherland, trees literally cover the 

 great Empire. Groves crown every hill-top, 

 and shadow the humblest dwellings. The 

 phrase ("Unterder Linden") "Under the Lin- 

 len" has become a household word throghout 

 Europe. All the parks and gardens which 

 are open to the public are as much respected 

 as if guarded by soldiers. The flowers and 

 trees of Germany are the themes of song and 

 poetry. A child is taught from its youth to 

 revere the forests; and the same is true, to a 

 great extent, of France and England, both 

 countries celebrated for the beauty of their 

 wooded parks. What is the result ? Every 

 line of Chaucer and Wordsworth breathes a 

 spirit of affection for the trees of that land. 

 In Germany the love of country amounts to 

 a passion. It is there and in Switzerland 

 (similar iu all respects to Garmauy), that 

 patriotism is most heroically defined. The 

 best of literature is read and every boy is 

 familiar with Schiller and Goetae, while the 

 common music sung in the schools and 

 around the hearthstone is recognized as 

 classi c throughout the world. Large appro- 

 priations of money have been made by 

 the governments of those countries for the 

 protection of their forests. It is generally true 

 the best laws and the deepest patriotism are 

 founded on sentiment. In the old countries 

 wanton destruction of timber is punished by 

 law a0d condemned by all good citizens. In 

 this country the great forests are lookod 

 upon as public property, and every man who 

 can wield an ax does not hesitate to chop a 

 tree. In fact, the most popular event in the 

 life of Washington was the cutting down of 

 his father's cherry tree. The story has been 

 repeated to every child, until the ruling am- 

 bition in life is to destroy a tree without 

 lying about it. Of course we must have 

 lumber and trees to make it from; but there 

 is no reason why other trees should not be 

 planted to take their places. 



