WHY TO PLANT. II 



figure of a wood-chopper with his axe lifted 

 on high to smite the trees. It might be taken 

 as the characteristic emblem of the nation. 



At length we have hewed our path through 

 the seemingly interminable forest and come 

 out upon the treeless plains beyond the Mis- 

 sissippi. And now, ^is the naked land spreads 

 out for hundreds of miles on every side, we 

 are awakening to the discovery that the trees 

 have a positive value.} As the settlers on the 

 plains of Kansas or Dakota feel the blasts com- 

 ing down upon them from the Arctic zone, 

 the " blizzards " that thrust their icy darts to 

 the very vitals of man and beast, they long 

 for the trees to stand between them and the 

 deadly storm. The few belts of them that are 

 found along the courses of the streams are 

 like protecting ramparts in the way of a be- 

 sieging foe. Happy those who are near enough 

 to take advantage of them ! Then, too, in an 

 economic point of view, for fuel and for lum- 

 ber, to be used for construction purposes, how 

 valuable have the trees become! Moreover, as 

 the demands of these vast and rapidly peopling 

 prairies draw heavily upon the forests that are 



