336 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, jqi6. 



Off to the Nursery. 



As they were going out the 

 teacher they called Dr. Forester said 

 to the scholar that was the Jinnee, 

 "It's going to be a pretty long tramp 

 to-day. Better bring Jack along 

 with us to the Nursery." 



The Boy was inclined to resent 

 this, but s'till the tramp of the day 

 before had been a long one and he 

 was doubtful about repeating it. 

 But what struck him as strange was 

 that this Dr. Forester should know 

 his name. 



The doctor and the Boy and sev- 

 eral of the scholars started' on a brisk 

 walk, and, after what seemed a good 

 while, the lumbermen's track which 

 the Boy had called the "tote road" 

 ran into what seemed a regular wa- 

 gon road. A little farther on a tele- 

 phone line appeared which seemed 

 from that point to strike right into 

 the forest. The Boy who was walk- 

 ing near Dr. Forester called his at- 

 tention to this. 



"Yes," said Dr. Forester, "that 

 line takes a short cut to the camp. 

 It is very handy. I was talking 

 with your father over it last night. 



The Boy would have asked more, 

 but just then they came to a little 

 farm in the woods that seemed to 

 be filled with hundreds and thous- 

 ands and millions of little trees. 

 Some were tiny trees scarcely as 

 thick as a match and only four or 

 five inches high. Then there were 

 long beds as wide as a dining table 

 and miles long, it seemed to the Boy, 

 where the little trees were just peep- 

 ing through the ground. Farther on 

 there were larger trees and when 

 they reached another field the 



scholars took off their coats and be- 

 gan to plant little trees about a foot 

 high. The little trees were taken 

 from some of the beds they had pas- 

 sed and were carried about the field 

 in pails of muddy water. What sur- 

 prised the Boy was the speed with 

 which they were planted. He found 

 that if he walked along the rows 

 slowly two planters working togeth- 

 er could about keep pace with him. 



The Boy Bids Good-bye. 



In a little house in the nursery 

 there was a machine, something like 

 a squirrel cage, which the Boy was 

 told was for separating the seeds 

 from the cones of pines, spruces and 

 other cone-bearing trees. 



The Boy was examining this and 

 some implements used for planting 

 trees, called dibbles and mattocks, 

 when he heard a familiar sound. It 

 was the jangle of the bell on the 

 light wagon which was used to 

 bring children in from the country 

 to the school which the Boy at- 

 tended. There were no children at 

 the nursery but the driver stopped 

 at the gate and Dr. Forester said, 

 "I guess this is the carriage to take 

 you to your school." "When you 

 are as tall as this tree," said he tak- 

 ing hold of one eighteen inches 

 higher than Jack's head, "come back 

 to our School in the Forest." 



"Thank you." said the boy, "but 

 I shall never be as tall as that tree. 

 It grows faster than I do. But 

 when I am as high as this gate post 

 I will surely come back and learn to 

 be a forester." 



And this is how the Boy ran away 

 to school. 



Our Biggest Industry) 



Wall Street Journal: "Measured 

 by number of persons employed, 

 what is the country's biggest manu- 

 facturing industry? Lumbering, 

 with its 48,000 saw-mills, its $1,000,- 

 000,000 investment in these plants, 

 and its employment of 605,000 men. 

 This does not include, says The Na- 



tion's Business, the standing tim- 

 ber, which brings the total invest- 

 ment to $2,500,000,000. This indus- 

 tr}^ furnishes railroads a traffic in- 

 come of $200,000,000 a year. Yet 

 lumbering is one of the most depres- 

 sed of industries, and seems to be 

 the victim of its own helplessness 

 because of uncontrolled competition. 



