PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 53 



I 





IMPROVEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND FORESTS. 



Address of John P. Brown, at Worcester, Mass., Nov. 19, 1902. 



Forest conditions in much of New England differ from those of any other 

 portion of the country and require a different treatment from what would be 

 prescribed for other locations. 



An older settled community than that to westward; the original forests 

 long since removed ; fields cultivated for more than a century and abandoned 

 as being no longer profitable, they have grown up with trees having the re- 

 semblance of woodlands, yet not fulfilling the requirements of a forest; how 

 can they be improved? 



Does any citizen of Massachusetts presume that upon the landing of the 

 pilgrims the groves which met their gaze were such as we see all over the 

 state today? 



Far from it. A dense forest of stately trees existed and demanded all tlte 

 energies and strength of those sturdy pioneers to subdue in order that these 

 lands might be prepared for cultivation. 



The original forests having been destroyed, subsequent and recent growths 

 were confined to such species as chanced to have seed deposited through the sim- 

 plest possible agencies. 



The Almighty planted the forests, but various agencies are employed to 

 insure their continuance, and these, to a large extent, have much the appear- 

 ance of chance. 



Man looks upon the forest with an eye to his personal profit, the lumber- 

 man to the density of the stand and size of the logs they will make. The dairy- 

 man, on the contrary, prefers an open wood where the grass may grow for pas- 

 turing his herds. The farmer desires trees upon such lands as he cannot till, 

 to supply his winter's fuel. 



And so, while man would have the forest to suit the peculiar wants of 

 each individual, nature has her own plans and endeavors to cover up every 

 bare spot on the earth with some kind of verdure, strewing the seeds in great 

 variety, every forest differing from every other forest. 



Upon the coast of the Pacific, in the northern part of California, on a 

 narrow strip, ten to twenty miles wide and 200 miles long, nature planted the 

 redwood, yet not another tree of its kind existed elsewhere upon the globe. 



A little lower down the coast on a promontory covering forty acres, she 

 planted a group of Monterey cypress, and if others were planted they are not 

 iiovv in existence. 



