AMERICAN FORESTRY 



117 



CHRISTMAS TREES FOR COMMUNITIES 



"Growing Christmas trees is the latest 

 industry suggestion for Ohio. The for- 

 estry department of the state experiment 

 station at Wooster, believes it would be a 

 profitable industry, and there is no doubt 

 that it would be since only ground that is 

 otherwise valueless need be used. 



"Yet there are thousands of acres of 

 almost barren land in Ohio admirably suit- 

 ed for the growth of spruce, and 'Christ- 

 mas' and not pine as so many believe. The 

 evergreen is a slow- grower but the fores- 

 try department says 2,500 Norway spruce 

 can be grown to a size suitable for Christ- 

 mas decorations on an acre of ground in 

 four to six years, and will bring perhaps 

 60 cents each. Netting that return on poor 

 ground is worth while, and in addition 

 really valuable trees now cut down merely 

 for temporary decorations would be saved." 



Keener and keener becomes the drive 

 for a national forest policy on the part of 

 the editors. The print paper situation has 

 brought them to a halt in many places. In 

 the view of the editor of the Ithaca Journal 

 the situation is this : "The American For- 



estry Association is trying to have the gov- 

 ernment adopt continuous policy of pres- 

 ervation of the forests, something going 

 far beyond the effort now being made to 

 protect them from destruction by fires. 

 Reforestation is the special policy upon 

 which continuation of forests for future 

 generations chiefly depends, accompanied 

 by more stringent regulation of the cut- 

 ting of timber for the protection of the 

 small trees and younger growth. Planting 

 seeds is a slow process, especially in the 

 burned-over areas. It must be done on a 

 large scale to be effective." 



"Shortage of print paper," says the 

 Illinois State Journal, "and discussion of 

 the problem which it involves has created 

 a healthy revival of the forest conserva-. 

 tion movement. Demand for a policy em- 

 bracing something more substantial than 

 the parking of vast tracts of the public 

 domain and policing the forests against 

 fire is taking form. 



"How many Americans are aware that 

 the American forests are disappearing 



rapidly?" asks the editor of the Jackson- 

 vilee Times-Union. "Yet the warning 

 comes from many authoritative sources. 

 Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the 

 American Forestry Association, says the 

 United States has only about one-fourth 

 of its original forest and this is now dis- 

 appearing very much faster than it is 

 being reproduced. 'The United States must 

 decide upon a national forest policy in 

 order to perpetuate its timber supply,' he 

 declares. 'We have no adequate forest 

 policy now. We are far behind France, 

 Great Britain, Germany, Japan and other 

 nations in this respect.' 



"Protection against fire, proper thinning 

 out when it is needed, and replanting are 

 three of the main requisites in forest cul- 

 ture. Fire is the chief enemy of the forest, 

 as the almost yearly accounts of extensive 

 fires which occasionally rage in the great 

 forests of the still heavily wooded North- 

 west shows. Thinning out produces more 

 merchantable timber and replanting as 

 trees are removed for timber or for fire- 

 wood perpetuates the forest. All of these 

 are factors in an intelligent forest policy. 



HERE'S THE HISTORY OF JOHNNY APPLESEED 



TVJRING the first decade of the nine- 

 teenth century, when Ohio was still a 

 vast wilderness, save for a few river and 

 lake towns, a queer looking man came down 

 the Ohio in a canoe, towing another, and 

 both were loaded with sacks of apple seeds, 

 according to High Spots in Ohio's History 

 in the Columbus Citizen. The work of the 

 American Forestry Association of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, in campaigning for memorial 

 tree planting and the planting of fruit or 

 nut bearing trees wherever possible, par- 

 ticularly in the gardens of the country, 

 makes the life story of "Johnny Appleseed" 

 interesting at this time. 



The man was John Chapman, known in 

 Ohio history as "Johnny Appleseed," who 

 did more for encouraging the growing of 

 apples within the Buckeye State than any 

 man who has come after him. 



Johnny went ashore in what is now Jef- 

 ferson County and at a spot nine miles 

 below Steubenville he planted his first 

 orchard. This was in 1806. He had 

 brought the seed from cider mills up in 

 Pennsylvania. 



For more than 30 years following this, 

 Johnny Appleseed was a noted character 

 in the wilds of Ohio. Every pioneer fami- 

 ly knew and loved him and every latch- 

 string was open to him. 



People in those days called Johnny 

 "queer," but even so, he hid a wide 



influence on their lives. He was educated, 

 refined and polite and everywhere he went 

 throughout the state he carried a Bible 

 and a few books with him and of evenings, 

 as he enjoyed the hospitality of some log 

 cabin he would lie before the fire and read 

 to the family and expound religion. 



Johnny's idea was to set out orchards 

 in various parts of the state so that there 

 would be young trees ready for the new 

 settler to plant on his land when he arrived 

 in Ohio. In the course of a year Johnny 

 would travel hundreds of miles going from 

 one orchard to another, pruning and tak- 

 ing care of the young trees that he had 

 planted. 



Although the forests abounded with hun- 

 dreds of savage Indians who were con- 

 tinually murdering the whites, none of 

 them ever bothered Johnny. They regard- 

 ed him as a wizard and the fact that he 

 never carried a gun convinced the Red 

 Men that he was under the special guidance 

 of the Great Spirit. 



An early Ohio historian describes Johnny 

 as follows : 



"His nature was a deeply religious one 

 and his life was blameless among his fel- 

 lowmen. He regarded comfort more than 

 style and thought it wrong to spend money 

 for clothing to make a fine appearance. 

 He usually wore a broad-brimmed hat. He 

 went barefooted not only in the summer, 



but often in cold weather, and a coffee 

 sack, with neck and armholes cut in it, 

 was worn as a coat. 



"Upon his journeys Johnny usually camp- 

 ed out. He never killed anything, even 

 for food. He carried a kit of cooking 

 utensils with him, among which was a mush 

 pan, which he sometimes wore as a hat." 



During the War of 1812, when the British 

 and the Indians were terrorizing the popu- 

 lation of Ohio, Johnny often warned the 

 people of approaching danger. 



Once, the Indians killed a man in Rich- 

 land County and the residents of Mansfield 

 fled to the blockhouse which was the town'? 

 public square. It was believed a general 

 massacre was about to be attempted by the 

 savages and it was imperative that help 

 be secured from troops that were then at 

 Mt. Vernon. But who would go? The 

 Indians were lurking on every side and it 

 was thought to be certain death for any 

 messenger who might attempt the trip. 



Johnny Appleseed, barefooted, barehead- 

 ed, volunteered to go. That night he di= 

 appeared into the woods and between Mans- 

 field and Mt. Vernon he visited many set- 

 tlers' cabins and warned them of the 

 danger. When he returned to Mansfield it 

 was with enough help to overawe the 

 Indians and prevent the attack. 



In his late years Johnny left Ohio and 

 went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to live with 

 a relative. There he died in 1847. 



