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PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



It is not only for the sleepers, lumber, 

 posts, poles, timbers required by a road 

 to keep it in repair, maintain track, build 

 cars and erect buildings all these are 

 important but to supply a traffic which 

 will afford a permanent income year by 

 year is a most important consideration 

 for railroads. 



It is thus highly important that all rail- 

 way companies shall aid and assist in this 

 great work of forest perpetuation, and en- 

 courage those who are making efforts to- 

 ward this end, as the International So- 

 ciety of Arboriculture is doing. 



FOREST FIRES. 



It has been the common practice in 

 Florida to burn over the wood lands each 

 year, in order to secure a clear grazing 

 tract for cattle. This has been continued 

 for the eighty-five years that Florida has 

 been a part of this nation. Thirty thou- 

 sand square miles, or more than twenty 

 million acres, on each acre of which a ton 

 of valuable fertilizing materials have 

 grown, have been wasted in these burn- 

 ings each year. At a low estimate of $2 

 per ton, there has been an annual loss to 

 the State of $40,000,000 or in the eighty- 

 five years past a loss of $3,400,000.000. 



If this statement is questioned, I have 

 but to refer you to your fertile hummock 

 lands and the muck lands of the Ever- 

 glades, which are merely an accumulation 

 of these very materials incorporated with 

 the identical sands, but from the moisture 

 present in the lower levels they were pro- 

 tected from fires, while the dryer lands 

 were burned. The annual loss of timber 

 and standing trees greatly augments the 

 aggregate of the fire losses, while the de- 

 struction of the young forest trees, except 

 in protected places, has prevented a re- 

 production of the forests. 



Stringent legislation is necessary to 

 prevent a total loss of the timber, which 

 is of so great value to the State. 



GROWTH OF THE CATALPA SPECIOSA 

 FROM THE STUM I 1 . 



