A BEGINNER IN FORESTRY 



By ANNE WARNER 



Paper Three 



IMKAXT in write an article on the 

 beginnings 'of < .ernian forestry, 

 but 1 must defer that until I can 

 get some books, as the only book 

 which goes far back, in my present 

 library, is one which tells how Havana, 

 under the Agilolfinger, was divided 

 not bv woods but into cleared districts 



j 



nr plain land. It's very interesting to 

 read, but doesn't bear much relation to 

 our >ubject unless, indeed, one goes 

 nut of his way to wonder if, perhaps, 

 America won't be divided into plains 

 and cleared spaces herself before long. 

 1 suspect that the forest is such a men- 

 ace to new society, and such a problem 

 to settlers, that its destruction is sim- 

 ply a rule of economics, which each 

 nation has to solve summarily in the be- 

 ginning. They all solve it pretty much 

 the same way, too. And then come- 

 the same result. 



In lieu of a nice story about the 

 When and Where, 1 am forced to offer 

 this time a riddle which racked our 

 brain- and which may be simpler to 

 others, but i- still complex to me. 



Ye-terday we were all in the woods, 

 and there we came ^uddenly upon one 

 of the most wonderful sight- which 1 

 have ever -een. It bur-t upon us quite 

 unexpectedly, and stopped us short. 

 There we -tood "we" being the 

 women, two men. a -mall girl, a don- 

 key and a poodle and this i- what we 

 -aw : 



An enclosure about uxi by 2OO 

 feet. Around it posts five feet high, 

 with a wire running on top. Kclow tin- 

 wire a wide-meshed net, pegged to the 

 ground occasionall) (not so often as 

 -emi-occasinnally." but rather quadri- 

 occasionally. I should -ay). Tn a few 

 places the net was carefully tied to the 



wire above. There wa- something so 

 naive and childlike about the whole 

 treatment of the net something which 

 led u- to hold the po. idle from diving 

 under it something which savored of 

 the wickedne-- of picking the pocket- 

 of a sleeping friend. \o one would 

 have willingly desecrated the purj- 

 of the net, and all that troubled us 

 was that it was so hard to gne-- its 

 purpose from its behavior, that we he-i- 

 tated for fear of doing so. 



And, after all, the net was only the 

 frame of the rest of the riddle. Within 

 the guarding net were long row- of 

 stout twig.s. each with a bit of twin-- 

 tied to its top. The bits of twine were 

 about eight inches long, and each had 

 an old rag tied to the other end. Tin- 

 little ra^- all waved in the breeze. Two 

 of the twigs were crowned with odd 

 bunches of dead leaves tied up in old 

 cloth; two other- were crowned with 

 tin cans; in the center of the whole an 

 old umbrella wa- carefully pegged 

 down. 



N'othin^ 50 weird and mvstcriou- 

 wa- ever -een before. Some one who 

 had never been in India, -aid it made 

 him think of an Indian graveyard, an 1 

 some one who had never known a ghoul 

 -aid it looked ghouli-h to her. We all 

 stood and wondered for a long, Ion- 

 time, and the only opinion ha/arded was 

 that it wa- to catch rabbits In view 

 of the laxne-s ( ,f tin- net. thi- miglr 

 -ound absurd, only that we have learne 1 

 by experience that the I .ichtenluTL: 

 ideal of a trap i- very novel indi 

 The mouse trap- hen- are tw '--toried. 

 with a window upstair-. After the 

 mou-e i- caught, lie leans in the win- 

 dow literally on his elbow-, for I've 

 seen one caught and on as th-- 



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