148 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETT. 



they are quickly dried to dustiness afterward. Those streets 

 shaded by trees suffer far less by rains, and are not so dusty as 

 the others. On this ground he claimed that trees are a protection 

 to the road-bed, and that it is economical to plant trees on the 

 streets, because it costs less to take care of streets so adorned. 



John D. W. French spoke of the subject as being broader than 

 usually came before the Society for discussion, — it is as broad as 

 the land itself. It is a question ef the most vital importance. If 

 the forests in one section of the country are devastated by fires, 

 or unnecessarily destroyed by the axe, all sections suffer in more 

 or less degree. 



Figures are suggestive and carry weight, but are often not as 

 impressive as the words of a living witness. At the last Forestry 

 Congress, in Philadelphia, Richard J. Hinton, who had accom- 

 panied the Irrigation Commission the previous summer, stated 

 that they travelled thousands of miles through burning and burnt 

 forests, where the smoke was so dense as to fairly obscure the 

 sun. And then, in one of the most eloquent addresses that Mr. 

 French had ever heard, he set forth in glowing words, the iniquity 

 and wickedness of our present system of forestry administration, 

 with its wholesale destruction of timber by fires and lumber 

 thieves. 



Something can be done to stem this tide of destruction before it 

 overwhelms all our forests, by agitation at home, in the news- 

 papers, and by bringing to bear, all influences possible, on our 

 members of Congress, to persuade them to pass suitable forest laws. 

 Professor Rothrock had suggested the formation of a State Forestry 

 Association here, similar to the one in Pennsylvania. It may be 

 well, sometime in the future, to form one. It is possible that the 

 objects in view can be accomplished by existing societies, like 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, and the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



There are at present in our State, various laws bearing on the 

 forestry question, such as exempting from taxation plantations of 

 trees on land of low value ; to prevent fires, and for the punish- 

 ment of offenders ; to allow towns to assess on polls a certain 

 sum, not exceeding fifty cents each, for the planting of trees on 

 public squares and highways, and also to protect trees from 

 \wanton and malicious mutilation. 



