PRIZE ESSAY 



BY L. B. CASWELL, FITCH BURG. 



OUR FORESTS. 



The destruction of our forests by the woodman's axe and the devour- 

 ing fire, is at last making itself felt in the climate, the scenery, and" 

 the industries of our country. When the early settlers of Americ*-^ 

 first reared their homes on these shores, they found a land of grand; 

 old forests ; stretching far back towards the interior of the continent, . 

 was the virgin forest in all its beauty of form and color, eovering; 

 mountains, hill and valley with its luxuriant growth. Here the majes- 

 tic oak, the noble pine and beautiful maple flourished in their native 

 wildness, and covered the land with "the noblest and proudest drap^ 

 ery that sets oflfthe figure of our fair planet." But these forests must, 

 fall, that the rich soil beneath, teeming with the elements of fertility., 

 which had been accumulating for ages in the vast laboratory of Na- 

 ture, might be made available for the production of food for our ances- 

 tors and their flocks and herds. Necessity compelled our forefathers 

 to clear away these forests, but we, with seeming thoughtlessness, are ■ 

 denuding the hill-tops and stripping the mountain-sides without consid- 

 ering the effect which such a course will hav6 upon the future of oui. 

 country. 



The functions which the forests perform in the economy of Nature 

 are vast and varied. They are the great fertilizers of the soil and, 

 modifiers of climate, while their value to us for timber and fuel can. 

 not be estimated. In an aesthetic point of view they are not to be 

 ignored ; they give an added beauty to the landscape, an indescribable 

 charm which nothing else in Nature can bestow There is no other 

 agent of Nature which is so intimately connected with the health and 

 comfort of man, so necessary to the continued fertility of the soil, as- 

 the forest trees, yet we may venture to assert that no subject has bee».. 

 so neglected, as that of the cultivation and growth of trees. 



We of New England, living in that part of the land of which it is • 

 said that "there is not another equal area of the earth's surface whereon 

 so many kinds of valuable trees grow spontaneously and rapidly,*' 

 can hardly realize the want of them. But go to the treeless prairies, 

 of the West, sta-nd amid those fertile fields,, behold on every side the 

 boundless expanse terminated only by the distant horizon, with not a 

 tree to break the monotony ; travel for days over the prairies with no 

 cooling shade, no barrier to protect from the sweeping winds; do this 

 and you will realize as never before the value of trees, and will thank 

 your Heavenly Father for the groves and forests of your own New 

 England. But our woodlands are rapidly dfeappearing. The forests 

 of Maine, which in times past have fu nisheh the principal part of the 

 lumber consumed in the United States and the West Indies have 

 nearly disappeared, and the rapacious lumberman seeks for fresh con- 

 quests amid the timber lands of Canada, Michigan anl Wisconsin.. 



