IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 95 



cared for and guarded with the same assiduity as any other 

 private property. Nevertheless the people have free use of 

 the most splendid parks and beautiful woods in the world. 

 The same thing can be true of the United States, of Iowa, 

 hopeless as the task may now seem. In the eastern states a 

 movement to this end is even now discernible. 



What Mr. Vanderbilt is doing in North Carolina, at Bilt- 

 more, will doubtless be done presently in all our mountainous 

 and forested states. This is another opportunity for our 

 millonaires, and forest foundations properly established will 

 prove for future generations rich in benediction as any univer- 

 sity endowment left in the name of whatsoever state or sect. 

 In Massachusetts five years since a movement was inaugurated 

 for the accomplishment of similar purposes in New England. 

 A board of trustees, by legislature authorized to act, becomes 

 the legatee of suitable property donated for public use, becomes 

 the curators of such grounds and the custodians of funds 

 bequeathed for the care of such lands or for their purchase. 

 The results in Massachusetts of just a simple effort have in five 

 years proved most gratifying to the projectors, as to every 

 lover of his native land. Thousands of acres have already 

 been rescued from spoliation and subjected to intelligent man- 

 agement, such as will eventually result in the attainment of all 

 the beneficent ends for which public parks exist. In Io\\a 

 nothing is done; nothing will be done until somebody or some 

 association of our citizens makes a beginning. That the effort 

 will one day be made there is no doubt. Whether it shall be 

 made in time to save that which nature in this direction has 

 already committed to our hands is a question. Is not the prob- 

 lem worthy the consideration of the Iowa citizen and legisla- 

 tor, and does it not open to us a field where by practical activ- 

 ity we may again show before the world our practical sense 

 and wisdom? 



