102 ESSAY ON FOREST TREES. 



the county, as well as in the safety with which our majestic ships 

 built of our wood, and fashioned by the wise craftiness of our own 

 men, have resisted, and out-lived the mighty lifting up of the ocean- 

 wave* 



The object which the society is pursuing, and which the worthy 

 individual referred to above, is so generously helping to carry out, 

 is one of great interest. I hope these efforts may be successful. It 

 is an enterprise connected with more and wider results then at first 

 thought are likely to be supposed. The mildness of our climate, the 

 purity of the air we breathe, the life and freshness of our water, the 

 plentifulness of refreshing showers, the fulness of the out-gushing 

 springs, the beauty of our scenery, the number and variety of the 

 beautiful songsters of the woods, the facility of raising many of the 

 tenjier plants, flowers and fruits, the perfection even of the apples, 

 pe^ars and peaches, which in addition to the pleasure we derive 

 from a rational use of them, are becoming an article of so extensive 

 a traffic, and a means of so much wealth, are all to a lesser or great- 

 er extent, connected with the success of this enterprise. From these 

 sources a most abundant reward would be obtained for all the money 

 and labor expended in carrying it out, were no returns to be expect- 

 ed from the growth of the trees themselves. If we value there- 

 fore the wealth or happiness of those who may come after us, or re- 

 gard the estimation in which we shall be held by those, whose gratified 

 feelings, and kind remembrance we wish to secure, we cantake no more 

 wise and sure course, than to cover our hills, ornament our plains, and 

 fill our valleys with a rich proportion, and pleasing varieties of the 

 forest trees. Mixing those that put forth their freshness in the 

 spring, with those which by their evergreen foliage, mantaln in win- 

 ter season, a pleasing contrast with the whiteness of the drifting 

 snow. With such an inheritance handed down to them, our chil- 

 dren's children made glad by the glory and beauty which they see 

 around, will say that we their fathers, were a wise and understand- 

 ing people. 



