A ROYAL FORESTER 271 



we use more tubbed or potted trees and plants and more artificial 



leaves and branches which, although more expensive at the 



start, do not fade and have to be replaced each year. 



We are each of us directly responsible for our share of this 



destruction, unless we know that the greens we have or buy come 



from carefully pruned shrubs or from plants especially grown 



for the purpose. Under present conditions we might paraphrase 



the familiar quotation by saying that our woodlands are being 



"butchered to make a Christmas holiday." 



Reprinted by permission from the Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, 

 May 1922, page 26. 



A ROYAL FORESTER 



Elbert Francis Baldwin of New York, one of the directors of the American 

 Forestry association, makes a graphic report of his recent visit to the king of 

 Italy, when he formally presented 5,000,000 Douglas fir seeds for the rehabili- 

 tation of Italy's forests destroyed during the war. The seeds were the gift 

 of Charles Lathrop Pack of the association. 



"One minute after I met King Victor Emanuel," writes Mr. Baldwin, "I 

 forgot that I was talking to a king. He seemed a forestry expert, pure and 

 simple. It had taken two months' hard work to obtain through our embassy, 

 an audience with his majesty. But it was worth while, if for nothing more 

 than to discover that, learned and experienced in many a department of science 

 and government, Victor Emanuel was also up in forestry. 



Planted Trees as Boy 



"As a boy, he would plant young trees at his father's country places and rise 

 at 4 o'clock in the morning to water the trees properly himself — and not 

 merely see that it was done. 'In my own place, outside the city,' he added, 

 I have grown foreign trees and I want to see how the Douglas firs will 

 do there.' He told me of his success with varous trees and of his desire to 

 extend the quantity and quality of tree growing. 



"Italy's chief occupation is agriculture and the king is intensely interested 

 in all things agricultural. 



"As with all Italians, so Victor Emanuel's great regret is, as he said to me, 

 the country's lack of raw materials. The American gift being in the line of 

 raw materials, is therefore especially welcome to king and people. It should 

 extend Italy's forest resources, it should ultimately add to her food supply, 

 it should equalize the flow of brooks and rivers. In conferring these benefits 

 on a foreign countr}^ as his majesty pointed out, the American Forestry associ- 

 ation is more than American; it has become international and its work is a 

 model to the rest of the world." 



Item from Syracuse Post Standard 



