io PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



ornithology, since birds are protectors of the forests. Both these are included 

 in arboriculture, which also comprises the study of those fungus and other 

 diseases common to many forest and cultivated trees. 



I 'rotection of forests from fires, how to prevent and how to extinguish them 

 before too great an area shall have been destroyed, construction and maintenance 

 of fire guards along natural base lines carefully prepared and managed so as [ 

 prevent the spread of fires which may have been started from any cause, arc im- 

 portant subjects included in arboriculture. 



Irrigation, which is receiving increased attention as it deserves, is subor- 

 dinate to arboriculture, for without forests to protect the snowfall, preventing 

 its too rapid melting, as well as to regulate the electric currents which largely 

 govern the movement of clouds and precipitation of moisture, there will be no 

 necessity for irrigation works, since there will be little water requiring reservoirs 

 or ditches. 



History is replete with illustrations oft repeated in which nations have 

 been destroyed and the people dispersed, or greatly reduced in numbers, where 

 after the destruction of the forests such country became so arid and barren 

 as to refuse support for the. population which inhabited it. Arboriculture 

 points out a way by which such disastrous results may not be visited upon 

 our country. 



The planting of trees in forests, for economic reasons, on the streets and 

 roadside for shade and shelter; in parks and private grounds for ornament, 

 species of trees suited to various soils, altitudes, aspects and localities, are sub- 

 jects pertaining to arboriculture. 



NURSE TREES. 



The influence of apparently unimportant shrubs and plants upon the nat- 

 ural reafforestation of a region with more important coniferous or other trees 

 upon the mountains and on the plains, is an important study. As, for instance, 

 the little valued scrub oak which covers many mountain slopes prepares a special 

 soil by collecting and holding its fallen leaves within its cluster of stem--. 

 Here the seed of fir, spruce and pine finds lodgment, germinates and is pro- 

 tected from browsing animals until it has outgrown its protectors and be- 

 comes the mighty tree so prized by man. 



\YOOD PRESERVATION. 



The chemical preservation of timber, to increase its durability, becomes a 

 highly important subject since our forests are being so rapidly depleted. The 

 most economic and effectual methods of treating timbers to preserve them 

 from decay, and a study of the antiseptic substances which may be thus used 

 will be considered by those who are able to treat this subject intelligently. 



It was well known to the earliest nations of history that asphaltum, bitu- 

 men, salt, and other material would preserve wood, flesh, cloth, and other sub- 

 stances from decay, while mummies and their wrappings and wooden caskets 

 have lasted through thirty centuries. 



By a proper application of this knowledge our forest products may be 



