PRIZE ESSAY. 13 



become still more beautiful and fruitful. Let the now barren and 

 desolate plains of the Far West be planted with tr«es, until the future 

 years shall behold them covered with fruitful farms and the happj 

 abodes of a grand civilization. 



Our Agricultural Societies can help alonj/ this great work, by 

 offering suitable premiums for plantations of forest trees. Many of 

 them have done this, but more needs to be done in this direction. 



Our State Governments can aid, by exempting standing forests 

 from taxation, by imposing taxes on wood felled for fuel or timber, 

 and by offering premiums for the planting of trees. Some of our West- 

 ern States have already done this, and others are about to do so ; but 

 above all we must look to the general diffusion of knowledo-e araono' 

 the people on this subject. The American is reluctant to invest in 

 anything that does not yield a quick return in dollars and cents. The 

 forces of Nature act too slowly 4:br him, and he hesitates to plant trees 

 because he may not himself receive the benefit of them ; but he who 

 plants a tree must be actuated by higher motives than that of direct 

 pecuniary gain. 



The preservation and planting of trees is a duty that we owe to the 

 memory of our ancestors who have left us the waving elms and wide- 

 spreading maples of our New England homes. It is a duty that we 

 owe to the posterity that shall come after us when we shall have passed 

 from the stage of life. May we so perform that duty that we can 

 truly utter that beautiful sentiment of the poet Whit tier. 



"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power. 

 Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall ; 

 Who sows a field, or trains a flower. 

 Or plants a tree, is more than all. 



Por he who blesses most is blest ; 

 And God and man shall own his worth 

 Who toils to leave as his bequest, 

 An added beauty to the earth." 



