SECRETARY'S REPORT. ' 139 



FOREST TREES. 



[The following communication, on the subject of Forest Trees, has been submit- 

 ted to the Board of Agriculture by the IIon. John C. Gray.] 



If this country has been highly distinguished in any respect 

 by the bounty of Nature, it is in the number and variety of its 

 trees. If we were compelled to describe the territory of the 

 United States in a few words, we could not do it more philo- 

 sophically than in the language of Yolney, who represents it as 

 one vast forest, diversified occasionally by cultivated intervals. 



With the exception of some of the prairies of the valley 

 of the Mississippi, I am not aware that there is any considera- 

 ble section within our present States which was originally 

 destitute of wood. Beyond the immediate vicinity of our 

 large towns we find every stream thickly shaded by overhang- 

 ing branches, and every mountain, with the exception of a few 

 of the highest, covered with a leafy screen of all varieties 

 of shade, from its base to its summit. 



The progress of population and improvement, astonishing 

 as it is, has been insufficient to efface to any extent this distin- 

 guishing feature of American scenery ; and the striking picture 

 drawn by one of our own poets, of the native aspect of the 

 country, has not yet lost its general resemblance : — 



" Then all this youthful paradise around, 



And all the broad and boundless mainland, lay 

 Cooled by the interminable "wood, that frowned 



O'er mount and vale, where never summer ray 



Glanced till the strong tornado broke its way 

 Through the gray giants of the sylvan wild ; 



Yet many a sheltered glade, with blossoms gay, 

 Beneath the showering sky and sunshine mild. 

 Within the shaggy arms of that dark forest smiled." 



The extent of our woods is not more remarkable than the 

 various kinds of trees which compose them. It is stated by 

 Michaux, that in the United States there are one hundred and 



