SURROUNDINGS OF THE HOME 257 



Scientific forestry like scientific farming requires an en- 

 lightened citizenship to apply the principles and follow the 

 procedure that attends upon the advances of science in this 

 field of human effort. It requires the application of business 

 methods where before a reckless and haphazard course has 

 caused waste and destruction, and it involves consideration 

 for the welfare of the country in the years to come. The 

 "science" taught in schools fails in many of its possi- 

 bilities in education for citizenship where there is failure 

 on the part of those who are taught to make use of 

 the knowledge they have gained for the benefit of the 

 community. 



The actual planting of trees by the average householder is 

 usually confined to a few shade trees along the street front of 

 his home and to some fruit trees at the rear of the house. In 

 the crowded limits of dwellers in large cities even this is 

 impossible. In the rural districts there are ample oppor- 

 tunities for the planting and proper care of both shade and 

 fruit trees. Such work is, however, often poorly done or is 

 neglected altogether. Some one has estimated that a shade 

 tree in front of a home, if vigorous and healthy, adds to the 

 valuation of a lot in any town or small city as many dollars 

 as there are square inches in its cross-section near the ground. 

 If its diameter is fourteen inches, its value in the sale of the 

 property might be reckoned as $irr 2 = $3/^X7X7, 

 or $154. Some trees about a home are so located, and add 

 so greatly to the beauty and comfort of the place, as to be 

 priceless to the appreciative owner and to the passing public. 

 The man who sees in trees about the home, or standing out 

 prominently in the landscape, only so many cords of wood 

 has missed something of the best in an education. 



Perhaps in tree-planting better than in some of the simpler 

 affairs of life there is an exemplification of the adage that 

 "what is worth doing at all is worth doing well." Shiftless, 



