90 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a patient so interesting, beloved, cherished and adored, not only by 

 her own children, who have thoughtlessly neglected her, but by 

 her fond admirers, the s ster states throughout the nation, how 

 can one do aught else than keep to his work as a task of love and 

 s}Tnpathy ? 



Doubtless there are those present who have known this forest 

 patient when she was healthy, vigorous, and strong; how beautiful 

 primeval forests dotted this good old Bay State in those days, and 

 how year by year they have succumbed to our mad rush of uneco- 

 nomic commercialism, until today finds us in a sadly depleted and 

 unrational condition, viewed from the standpoint of modern forest 

 management. It is always easy to point out mistakes after they 

 have happened, but experience though a dear teacher is nevertheless 

 extremely effective. Year by year the primeval forest growth was 

 cut and harvested, second growth, inferior but valuable, has fol- 

 lowed where conditions have been favorable; this has in turn been 

 utilized as soon as it reached merchantable size. Demand for 

 forest products has been increasing in greater and greater pro- 

 portion as we have been developing the state and nation, while the 

 products themselves have likewise been approaching exhaustion. 

 Our people have looked upon the forest products as inexhaustible, 

 thinking, naturally, that though Massachusetts should be depleted 

 there are plenty of other states at our very doors with indefinite 

 supplies. Many of our country-loving and farsighted citizens have 

 time and again in the past predicted our present calamity, but the 

 commercial era has absorbed us, and the successful business man 

 of America has been the admired of admirers. Aesthetics in a new 

 country are as nothing compared with commercial activities when 

 the bases of the commodities dealt in are free gifts and cost only 

 for the marketing. The balance finally comes with the nation's 

 development. 



From the substantial old-time sawmill, formerly so common 

 upon our streams, now only n relic of bygone days, our evolution 

 has developed to the portal)k' mill. Instead of taking the logs to 

 the mill, we now take the mill to the logs. While it is easy to com- 

 prehend this change of milling operations and the economy therein, 

 the effect upon forestry itself and the country community has 

 changed most remarkal)ly. When logs were taken to the mills 



