116 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



EDITORS URGING PERMANENT 







'T'HE Christmas Tree cover of the 

 American Forestry attracted a great 

 deal of attention from the editors of the 

 country. Dr. Frank Crane, who writes for 

 a syndicate of newspapers, reproduced it 

 as a Christmas feature. The Association 

 has received many letters in regard to 

 permanent Christmas trees which the 

 Association advocates as a means of keep- 

 ing alive the ideals of Community Service 

 and the community spirit the year around. 

 The Association has urged that wherever 

 possible a community transplant a tree that 

 will stand the year round as a center of all 

 community effort as well as the center of 

 the Christmas exercises. 



Profiteers in Christmas trees had a great 

 surprise when people refused to pay from 

 $4 to $10 each for them. The Associated 

 Press dispatches to the Wash- 

 ington Star, say: 



Pittsburgh, Pa. Pittsburgh pro- 

 duce men are seeking ways and 

 means to dispose of some 40,000 

 Christmas trees left unsold on the 

 market without destroying them. 

 Fifty carloads of trees remain in 

 the produce yards awaiting dis- 

 position. Eighteen carloads were 

 taken to a dump yesterday and 

 thrown away. 



be abolished unless the need is too plain 

 to be questioned. There is, as yet, no 

 reason for abandoning the use of Christ- 

 mas trees, but there is abundant reason 

 for preaching discretion and common sense 

 in the harvesting of the trees. 



"The Christmas trees, mostly spruce, 

 with some pines, firs and hemlocks, have 

 in the past been gathered indiscriminately. 

 Any small tree that has caught the fancy 

 of the axman has been ruthlessly cut. The 

 value of the trees thus destroyed reaches 

 millions of dollars each year." 



The matter is one of grave concern to 

 the Christian Science Monitor whose editor 

 writes : "One thing worth noting about the 

 present holiday season in the United States 

 is that its celebration, compared with prev- 



deemed essential in a half-million homes, 

 not figuring the thousands of shop windows 

 that must have them to meet the require- 

 ments of the season. That would mean 

 500,000 young trees removed from the 

 forests of Texas, new growth which, if 

 permitted to stand, would within a genera- 

 tion take the place of their elders and make 

 less difficult the work of reforestation that 

 is going to be necessitated. 



"The green that is needed to give a fes- 

 tive touch to the home decorations can be 

 obtained, and should be, without destroying 

 baby trees. This isn't a kill-joy suggestion. 

 It is practical. And at its heart lies the 

 seed of self-protection." 



New York. Speculators in Christ- 

 mas Trees in New York were hard 

 hit this year, and dealers who had 

 hoped for big profits have hired 

 truck men to cart many remaining 

 firs to the bay. Others were turned 

 over to janitors to help heat apart- 

 ments. 



"THE HALL OF FAME" 



The American Forestry As- 

 sociation has no quarrel with 

 intelligent Christmas tree cut- 

 ting but when profiteering en- 

 ters into holiday things it 

 seems time to call a halt. Our view is 

 well expressed by the editor of the Buffalo 

 Evening News, who writes: 



"Many American cities have adopted the 

 Community Christmas tree as an annual 

 institution. But so far it has always been 

 a dead tree, set up temporarily, to be re- 

 moved as so much rubbish. 



"Now comes the American Forestry 

 Association with the suggestion that the 

 tree be a living one. Such a tree would be 

 all the more attractive because of its perma- 

 nence. It would take on character in keep- 

 ing with its use. 



"Children and grown-ups who love 

 Christmas would love that tree. It would 

 be a source of pleasure and enjoyment all 

 the year round." 



The Boston Herald's editor gives a generous half 

 column to the Hall of Fame For Trees of the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association, saying in part: "The 

 American Forestry Association believes that the time 

 has passed for regarding the tree merely as building 

 material, as a source of paper or as so much potential 

 firewood. It is gathering photographs of the most re- 

 markable trees in the United States for a 'Hall of 

 Fame.' How many of us realize the aptness of the 

 lead thus followed? Folklore students and ethnolo- 

 gists show that there was a period in human history 

 when our ancestors worshipped trees and regarded 

 them as the pregenitors of the race. In our own land 

 the association has a vast continent in which to make 

 selections. Well indeed has the oldest living thing on 

 earth justified its title to a place in the 'Hall of Fame 

 for Trees.' " 



ious years, apparently brings somewhat less 

 harm to the forests. Year by year, the 

 cutting of evergreen trees has seriously 

 affected the value and beauty of the wood- 

 ed area, until, at last, the thought of tens 

 of thousands of trees annually destroyed 

 had become a matter of grave concern. 

 Now it has been realized that the waste is 

 needless, that the forest may actually be 

 improved by removing practically worthless 

 trees, and that these trees can be built 

 up, by boring holes in the trunk and insert- 

 ing additional branches, until they answer 

 yuletide purposes quite as well as any 

 that might have been selected." 



Why not prepetuate a happy Christmas 

 with a growing tree is the question asked 

 by the editor of the Detroit 

 Free Press, who points to what 

 a sad thing a stripped and 

 dead Christmas tree is. He 

 writes : "The Christmas tree, 

 denuded of its gifts and deco- 

 rations, is a sorry sight in the 

 backyard after its brief period 

 of pleasure-giving is over. One 

 can but feel regretful at the 

 fate of a thing once so full of 

 life and promise. The arti- 

 ficial Christmas Tree is a poor 

 substitute for the real thing. 

 It has been suggested that in- 

 stead of the tree life thus 

 terminated, we should call for 

 evergreens that have been lift- 

 ed, roots and all, set in a pail 

 or tub with earth enough to 

 make them solid, use them as 

 desired and then set them aside 

 to be planted out in the spring, 

 thus performing the double service of 

 Christmas tree and ornamenting the premi- 

 ses afterward, instead of becoming un- 

 sightly rubbish that must be carted away. 

 The plan sounds feasible and though in- 

 volving an increased expense, makes a cer- 

 tain return for the investment if the tree 

 is replanted. 



"Some hundreds of acres are cut over 

 annually through selection of the finest and 

 best-shaped conifers for shipment at the, 

 holiday season. In view of our diminish- 

 ing forests and of the number of trees 

 provided which remain unsold, the pres- 

 ent wasteful methods ought to be re- 

 formed." 



In the opinion of the editor of the 

 Cleveland Plain Dealer, "the Christmas 

 tree is too praiseworthy an institution to 



There are few more valuable suggestions 

 in the mind of the editor of the Dallas 

 Evening Journal, who speaks of the toll 

 each year and then adds : "Roughly esti- 

 mated, there are a near million homes in 

 Texas. Say that a Christmas tree is 



That the growing of Christmas trees 

 should be an industry and serve a double 

 purpose is the view of the editor of the 

 Youngstown Telegram, who tells of the 

 plans in Ohio in the following editorial : 



