1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



415 



and tall, to furnish grateful shade for 

 man and beast. You should have 

 spared them to a nobler destiny than 

 the mere plebian use of supporting 

 dirty linen " 



"Yassum," in open-eyed wonder. 



"Now don't interrupt ! You have 

 not the iota of a glimmering percep- 

 tion of the glory of the tree, the sym- 

 bol of aspiration, thrusting its crown 

 ever heavenwards " 



"But dese heah am jes' cloe's props, 

 Ma'am !" 



"That's just it! Dead, inert, life- 

 less and leafless ; doomed now to de- 

 cay in the defiling and careless hands 

 of an ignorant washer-woman ; no 

 longer to burgeon with bud and bloom, 

 no longer to put forth their resurrec- 

 tion garments of green, no longer to 

 raise their leafy boughs in suppli- 

 ance " 



"Yassum !" assented the old darky 

 growing restive. "But cloe's props 

 ain' nevah menat to' grow no leaves." 

 He saw the prospects of a sale di- 

 minishing and was therefore embold- 

 ened to ask, with an air of finality, 

 "Does yo' all want any cloe's props, 

 to-day?" 



"No; I do not," answered the lady 

 with some asperity. "I would not 

 thus encourage the wanton destruc- 

 tion of the beautiful young trees. I 

 tell you it is wrong; it is wicked, it 

 is destructive and criminal to make 

 clothes props of God?s green and 

 growing things. I could not disgrace 

 myself nor defile my backyard by buy- 

 ing of you and thus encourage the fur- 

 ther devastation of " 



"Then yo' don' wan' no cloe's props, 

 Lady? Good day Mis'!" And the 

 old man trudged on, muttering to him- 

 self, "Well, ef dat ain' de beatenes' ?" 



There was right on both sides of 

 the clothes-prop question, yet, all 

 things considered, the old darky was 

 nearer to the real principles of for- 

 estry than the lady was. She was left 

 speechless and choking with a right- 

 eous indignation at what she con- 

 sidered an awful crime. He, on the 

 other hand, was, as the lady said, de- 

 void of esthetic ideals, and had simply 



seen the cash value of some saplings 

 on outlying commons which were then 

 being "scalped" for a new suburban 

 subdivision. His industry had con- 

 verted waste material into a money- 

 making product. The lady exempli- 

 fied one main type of misconception. 

 Her theory, based on a sentimental 

 concept, was correct, especially since 

 she considered only the relation of the 

 tree to the landscape. The vendor 

 was, however, not far from the fun- 

 damental truth that goes with for- 

 estry, that trees are for use. 



Another case in point where the 

 sentimental and the economic points 

 of view are at variance is found in the 

 annual protest against the cutting of 

 Christmas trees. Letters galore are 

 published in leading periodicals, call- 

 ing attention to a destructive vandal- 

 ism in which the innocent little trees 

 are "butchered to make a Christmas 

 holiday." These letters, in many in- 

 stances, have a rational basis, but more 

 often a colder and more calculating 

 judgment sees many good reasons 

 why Christmas trees should be cut. 

 Here are two attitudes, diametrically 

 opposed. The common or popular 

 point of view sees a great wrong done. 

 The other attitude, held by those who 

 favor an economic use of forest pro- 

 ducts sees no more wrong in cutting 

 trees for Christmas decorations than 

 it does in cutting them for pulp, for 

 fuel, or for lumber. Nor does it seem 

 any more wrong to those who advo- 

 cate the latter theory to cut a tree for 

 Christmas than to cut a lily for Easter. 

 Reduced to its simplest economic as- 

 pects the case is similar, and if a 

 Christmas tree crop is valuable it 

 should be grown for such value. 



The Forest Service does not hesi- 

 tate to espouse this latter view, and 

 while it may seem only a coldly calcu- 

 lative one, it is not wholly lacking in 

 sentiment, because the foresters believe 

 that there are few uses to which small 

 fir trees could be put which would con- 

 tribute so much to the happiness and 

 good of mankind as their use for the 

 children on a Christmas dav. More- 

 over, the species cut do not have any 



