FOREST ARBORETA 263 



and more the need for forest conservation. And through his wide 

 vision and his great generosity, he left Letchworth Park to the 

 people of New York as a public park; and he left a very definite 

 request that it should be used, so far as practicable, for purposes 

 of useful and educational aflforestation, and he also left the means 

 for its accomplishment. 



I shall always remember my talks with Mr. Letchworth on 

 this subject. And it was with a vigor inspired both by my friend- 

 ship for him and by my contempt of the great needs of such an 

 object lesson in tree planting as the custodians. The American 

 Scenic and Historic Preservation society, are now establishing 

 at Letchworth Park, that I have devoted all the time I could 

 to the development both of the forest arboretum idea and of the 

 work itself upon the ground. 



Our purpose is to develop the forest arboretum at Letchworth 

 Park deliberately — forest arboreta do not spring up like mushrooms 

 over night- -and in doing so establish a great object lesson for 

 this region, illustrating the results of forest planting. We wish 

 to see established at Letchworth Park — and a small but satis- 

 factory beginning has already been made — blocks of planted 

 forests seldom left less than an acre in extent, and each containing 

 a useful tree or a useful combination of trees which will grow in 

 that vicinity. We want foresters, farmers, landscape gardeners 

 and tree planters, present or prospective, to go to Letchworth 

 park, to walk among these planted blocks of forests, to make a 

 right selection for their uses; and then to go home and plant 

 forest trees themselves. 



At the inception of the movement the principle upon which 

 the Letchworth arboretum was to be established and certain 

 plans for carrying out the principle were adopted by the Custodian 

 society. This principle and these' plans are in part as follows: 



"The principle upon which the Letchworth arboretum be 

 established is that it shall consist of a permanent collection of 

 the various species of the world's timber trees likely to thrive 

 in this northern climate, planted scientifically to test their value 

 and illustrate their processes of development, thus supplying not 

 only knowledge for knowledge's sake, but also knowledge for 

 practical use. 



In carrying out that principle we will have a collection of the 

 valuable timber trees of the world and the Letchworth arboretum 



