746 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ot tamous Frenchmen. The Society will begin in the 

 gardens of the Invalides (or Military Museum), dedi- 

 cating its first oak to General Gallieni, the military gov- 

 ernor of Paris, who played a prominent part in the battle 

 of the Marne. Among other well-known patriots des- 

 tined to receive shortly arboreal monuments are Charles 

 Peguy, Ernest Psichari and Guynemer. To be sure, the 

 forest of Fontainebleau contains trees named for such 

 popular heroes as Roland, Bayard, Turenne, Conde and 

 Hoche, but these were not planted as commemorative 

 monuments. The new custom, therefore, will assume a 

 more personal form of national gratitude. 



Octave Mans suggests that the Ligue des Arbres 

 should organize pilgrimages to historic trees, just as now 

 archaeological societies make trips to cathedrals. He 

 would prepare, with the co-operation of the Touring 

 Club, a classification of celebrated trees, to be posted in 

 the schools. Thousands have admired, in the Paris 

 Botanical Garden, the Lebanon cedar which, in 1735, 

 Jussieu is said to have "brought back in his hat" from 

 the Holy Land. In view of the lessons of the war, the 

 French will heed the warning of Colbert, who expressed 

 the fear that France might some day perish for want of 



wood. More than ever will they revere the names, too 

 long forgotten, of Bernard Palissy and Olivier de Serres. 

 They must take to heart the exhortations of Andre 

 Theuriet : 



"In the deepest of woods the nation keeps its heart; 

 A people without forests is a people that dies. 

 Hence whenever a tree succumbs, 



Let us vow one and all to plant a successor upon its tomb. 

 And let us vow to reforest the denuded wastes 

 Where quick-rising floods swell into torrents 

 And the mountain sides are bitten bare by grazing sheep 

 And the rocks thrust forth like Nature's bones. 

 And may our children behold in future seasons 

 The robust branches of oaks and pines 

 Sway o'er the plain and flaunt their feecy foliage in the air 

 Like the fruitful tossing waves of the sea." 



In addition to her depleted timber areas, France pos- 

 sesses fifteen million acres of waste lands awaiting 

 afforestation. Aid from America in the form of nursery 

 trees and seeds has already been gratefully accepted. 

 The American Legion might well offer to participate in 

 converting at least part of the battle-front into a "sacred 

 forest." 



MEMORIAL FORESTS WHY NOT? 



MEMORIAL trees have been planted by the hundreds 

 in honor of the boys who fought in the Great War, 

 and hundreds will be planted yet in their honor. But 

 why stop with the planting of one tree in honor of each ? 

 Why not make it a half acre, or even more, for each, and 

 bunch the planting to make a forest? We can call it 

 whatever we may, a township, a municipal, a county or a 

 community forest, letting it be distinctly understood that 

 it is to serve as a memorial forever to those for whom 

 planted. 



All the arguments in favor of memorial trees apply in 

 greater measure to the memorial forest. But the tree 

 will be gone, in the course of two or three hundred 

 years, at the most; the forest, rightly handled, will 

 remain practically forever, even though individual trees 

 come and go. Suppose we call to mind the city forest 

 of Zurich, Switzerland, under continuous management 

 since the Eleventh Century. Similarly, too, ours should 

 not be a forest preserve with no harvesting of the prod- 

 ucts, but an area whose resources would contribute to the 

 well-being of the people. I believe those in whose 

 memory it exists would rather have it so. 



Many persons who know tell us that France's trees 

 played a powerful part in winning the war. Notice, 

 however, that they pay tribute not to France's trees, as 

 trees growing singly, but to the collection of trees, the 

 forest. 



This country needs more tree planting to. make it a 

 better place in which to live ; trees can serve as memorials 

 and serve the second end, too. But the country needs 

 to have forests planted: let us not overlook the possi- 

 bilities of the memorial forest. 



REFORESTING WAR SWEPT REGIONS 



T^HE following letter, acknowledging the receipt of 

 :* seeds donated by the American Forestry Association 

 to France, has been received by the Association from 

 Ambassador Jusserand : 



"I beg to say that my Government has taken all the 

 necessary precaution for the receiving and proper utiliza- 

 tion of the seeds so generously offered to us by your 

 Association. 



"Our Minister of Agriculture has given to the 'Con- 

 servator of Waters and Forests' at Rouen the necessary 

 instructions for all the seeds to be sent, the moment they 

 reach Havre, to the central warehouse of the Forest 

 School we have at Nogent sur Vernission (Loiret), which 

 will see to it that each lot reaches at the proper moment 

 its definite destination. 



"In the letter I have just received the Minister adds 

 that most of the seeds of the Douglas Fir will be sent to 

 the Departments of Aisne, Oise, Ardennes and Somme 

 for the reforesting of the regions devastated by the war. 

 The seeds of the leafy trees, such as oak, ash, poplar, 

 will be sown this spring in the nurseries of the same 

 school and of that at Nancy. The seedlings will be 

 watched with care and it will be only when they are 

 three or four years old that they will be planted in the 

 regions appropriate for their growth. The results 

 reached will be made known to this Embassy from time 

 to time, and I shall keep you informed thereon. 



"The Minister adds an expression of his desire that 

 his feelings of deep gratitude and those of our Adminis- 

 tration of Waters and Forests be conveyed to the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association." 



