200 STATE LAWS FOR PROMOTION OF TREE-PLANTING. 



provements in their streets and suburbs, whereby a refining influence 

 would be awakened and dittused in a manner tending to the improve- 

 ment and enjoyment of its citizens, and to the promotion of tree-culture 

 generally. In order to secure harmony of plan and eifect, such plant- 

 ings should be under the direction of the local governments as fully as 

 the constructions of sidewalks or the pavement of streets. Where they 

 applied to a street, they should be in accordance with the wishes of a ma- 

 jority of the owners of property benefited, and at the expense of the own- 

 ers of the adjacent premises, without liability of interruption through 

 the caprice or dissent of individual owners. Examples of successful 

 tree-culture, in parks and avenues, cannot fail of having a tendency in 

 favor of the practice generally, and this, if secured, leads to better re- 

 sults in the planting of timber-belts upon farms, and in the improved 

 appearance and condition of the whole country. 



A suggestion of management in some degree comparable with Euro- 

 pean methods, was made by Peter Guillet, in a work on timber-measure- 

 ment published in 1823. He says : 



Individaals wishing to make the most of their woodlands will find it very profitable 

 to cut their timber by sections, sparing to every acre ten or twelve of the most promis- 

 ing size white oaks or pines, whichsoever the soil will produce best ; range the order of 

 their lands so as to cut a section every year. For example, say a mau has 200 acres of 

 woodland divided into sections of 10 acres each, then, by cutting one section every 

 year, he would have young timber twenty years old, which makes excellent firewood, 

 and I should say that in common lands wood of twenty years' growth would yield 15 

 or 20 cords of firewood per acre, besides fencing-timber sufficient to always keep in 

 good repair an inciosuie of 200 acres. Then the 10 or 12 trees growing in reserve will, 

 at the end of SO or 100 years, furnish timber fit to make shipping or staves. Where 

 land has become useless from long cultivation, a little trouble only is necessary to make 

 it productive and profitable to the owner. By inclosing it for a few years and encour- 

 aging the growth of the most promising young trees, which will generally spring up 

 spontaneously, all the advantages above described will be derived from it, which is 

 certainly the best way that worn-out or sterile laud can be disposed of. Such a course 

 recommended to and adopted by individuals would not only be to their own private 

 gain, but also of great public utility.^ 



STATE LAWS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF TREE PLANT- 

 ING. 



The following is not presented as a complete collection of the State 

 laws that have been passed upon the subject of tree-culture and timber 

 protection, but it will be found to include the principal ones in which 

 inducements have been offered for the planting of trees. The laws of 

 all of the States afford remedies against trespass and depredations 

 upon timber-lands, and many of them confer the right of planting trees 

 within the limits of the highways by the owners of adjoining lands. The 

 comparison will present a general idea of the state of public opinion, as 

 ex])res8ed in statute laws upon the subject under consideration, and will 

 afford suggestions of value in the preparation of further laws for the 

 promotion of tree-culture. 



CALIFORNIA. 



By an act approved March 2, 1864, it was declared unlawful to cut or 

 girdle any tree on lands belonging to the State or the United States, so 

 as to remove the bark on more tban an eighth part of the circumfer- 

 ence, or more than three inches into the wood. The gathering of pitch 



' Timber Merchants^ Guide, etc., with numerous colored plates representing the prin- 

 cipal pieces of timber used iu building a 74-guu ship of the line, in standing trees. By 

 Peter Guillet, I'alu^, " French by birth, American by choice." Baltimore, 1828. 8°. 

 pp. 112. 



