1356 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TREE PLANTING TAKEN UP BY MANY EDITORS 



NEWSPAPERS OPEN COLUMNS TO DISCUSSION OF LIVING MEMORIALS AND 



"ROADS OF REMEMBRANCE" IDEA 



T> EADERS of the New York Times find 

 •^ the columns of that paper have been 

 opened to a discussion of the merits of 

 roadside tree planting. The New York 

 Times had a fine editorial on the American 

 Forestry Association's campaign for "Roads 

 of Remembrance" in which it said: "The 

 American Forestry Association is doing 

 good service in linking the causes of roads 

 and forestation. The Road of Remem- 

 brance and the shaded highway have a more 

 intimate connection with the general prob- 

 lem of reforestation than may at first ap- 

 pear. Very soon they will become bases 

 for the advance, of veritable armies of 

 trees. Nature unaided may be sure, but 

 she is slow. The industrious squirrel car- 

 ries acorns, hickorynuts, walnuts and chest- 

 nuts a rod or so before he buries them— 

 and fortunately often forgets his cache. 

 The winds carry the seeds of maple, pine, 

 and linden a little further. But for reasons 

 at which the forester can only guess there 

 are vast prairies and waste lands without a 

 useful tree. The shaded highway will cross 

 them and the shade trees will scatter their 

 seeds and nuts in the nearby country. 



"He who plants a tree is building the 

 world of the future. In twenty years a 

 maple will grow to a sturdy tree, with 

 dense if not widespread shade. And in 

 that time, when wind and soil are favorable, 

 it is already parent to groves of young 

 maples marching from the highway across 

 lands that have hitherto been waste." 



This brought out many letters from read- 

 ers who advocated fruit and nut tree plant- 

 ing. The Times has devoted several edi- 

 torials since the first one answering some 

 of the letters and sticking mainly to the 

 planting of shade trees. The first letter 

 printed was from Alida (Countess) von 

 Krockow who pictured the roadside fruit 

 trees of Europe. George J. Horowitz, 

 formerly of the Ambulance Service with 

 the French Army, wrote about the virtues 

 of the French roads. Dr. Robert T. Morris 

 contributed a letter, as did Henry Wood- 

 ward Hulbert on the planting of trees. The 

 Times gives the members of the American 

 Forestry Association a first hand lesson on 

 what can be done if the members will take 

 up these subjects with their newspapers. 

 The editors are keen for just such dis- 

 cussions and while they may not always 

 agree with the writer they are glad to give 

 space to constructive thought. Every mem- 

 ber of the association should discuss the 

 need of a national forest policy with the 

 editor of his paper and tell him what the 

 American Forestry Association is doing. 



Forty Maples. 

 A Yankee farmer fourscore years ago 



Set forty maples by the highwayside; 

 Twenty tall saplings stood in either 

 row; 

 The farmer viewed them with a silent 

 pride. 



They grew apace; there children school- 

 ward bound 

 Loitered in spring to pick the blood- 

 root flowers; 

 There many a bird found sanctuary 

 ground, 

 And laborers refuge from the sudden 

 showers. 



They waxed in size and beauty when the 

 beams 

 Of our mid-summer sun's unpitying 

 beat; 

 Here dusty drivers paused to rest their 

 teams, 

 And cattle sought a shelter from the 

 heat. 



They statelier spread; when autumn's 

 pageant came, 

 And all our valley donned its festal 

 dress, 

 Rose forty pillars lit with crimson flame, 

 To stir man's spirit by their loveli- 

 ness. 



But years passed, and the farm fell to a 

 hind — 

 A prosperous, pushing hind from 

 overseas, 

 Who, with the full contempt that marks 

 his kind, 

 Felled in his blasphemy those forty 

 trees. 



At times like that one's peaceful spirit 

 longs 

 For the fierce justice of an elder day, 

 For the stern sense that trifled not with 

 wrongs, 

 And did not deem that punishment is 

 play. 



Who, save for need, destroys a goodly 

 tree, 

 Does mischief; and who wantonly 

 may kill 

 Forty such trees does murder, and 

 should be 

 Hanged forty fathom high on Gallows 

 Hill. 

 — G. S. B. in the New York Tribune. 



In the Review of Reviews, Elbert Francis 

 Baldwin details the devastation in France 

 and Belgium and tells of the plans of the 

 American Forestry Association for helping 

 in the restoration of these forests. Dr. 

 Frank Crane, who writes for a syndicate 

 of newspapers, has devoted another edi- 

 torial to forestry, this time to the "Roads 

 of Remembrance" idea and also urges co- 

 operation with the Association in its work 

 abroad. This editorial appears in such 

 papers as the Chicago Daily News, the New 

 York Globe, the Washington Star, Phila- 

 delphia Bulletin, Atlanta Journal, Kansas 

 City Star, Cincinnati Times-Star, Buffalo 

 News, Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph, St. 

 Louis Star, St. Paul Dispatch, Des Moines 

 Capital, Milwaukee Journal, Sacramento 

 Bee, Dallas Times-Herald, Omaha World- 

 Herald, Binghamton Press, Houston Post, 

 Richmond News Leader, Oakland Post, 

 Boise Statesman, Baltimore Star and many 

 others. Here is where the members should 

 co-operate with the Association by writ- 

 ing an appreciation to the editor of the 

 paper in which such features are used. 

 Leslie's Weekly has a generous editorial on 

 the value of tree planting and the New 

 York Herald takes up the question of better 

 fire protection for forests by saying "with 

 summer fires of unusual severity sweeping 

 the extensive timber lands of Montana, 

 Idaho and Washington, the American For- 

 estry Association is urging the lumbermen 

 to forward their views as to the steps to 

 be taken for the better protection of the 

 woods." The Herald then goes on to 

 point to the losses. 



The Trenton Times-Advertiser devotes a 

 long editorial to roadside tree planting and 

 points to the fact that "if this work is 

 properly carried out it would mean in time 

 a memorial highway across the United 

 States. No finer memorial can be built 

 than a tree bordered highway and aside 

 from tender sentiment connected with such 

 an undertaking there can be no better in- 

 vestment for any community." The Denver 

 News calls attention to the fact that the 

 "president of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation has issued a call to the people to 

 beautify their highways as memorials to 

 the men who fought for world freedom. 

 Good roads and tree planting go hand in 

 hand. Federal and local authorities are 

 attending to the road building but it will 

 require voluntary citizen effort to get trees 

 planted." The Washington Times points 

 to the famous Potomac Drive made famous 

 by its trees and adds "here is a logical 

 proposition. The roads are to be built. A 



