1877.] 197 [Price. 
Sylviculture. 
By Ext K. Price. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, November 16 and Decem- 
ber 7, 1877.) 
By the will of André Francois Michaux, the American Philosophical So- 
ciety is, to the extent of the means afforded by his legacy, charged with 
the trust, to contribute in this country ‘‘to the extension and progress of ag- 
riculture, and more especially in Sylviculture in tiie United States.’’ This 
Society, also, by its Charter is under the obligation of diffusing useful 
knowledge ; and few subjects can be more useful than the cultivation of 
trees. 
It becomes us, therefore, to consider how we can promote the cultivation 
of trees in this country ; how make that cultivation subserve the interests 
of agriculture ; and in what manner, and how widely we may fulfill these 
duties, and diffuse useful knowledge upon these subjects. 
Mr. Michaux, as well as his father, spent his life in acquiring knowl- 
edge of trees, and wrote his volumes to describe them, not only to promote 
science, but to teach their uses and value as timber. He has intended that 
we should do more. He intended that we should promote the growth of 
trees, and also extend the growth of agriculture ; by the influence of tree- 
culture upon climate, soil and the water supply, whereby to increase the 
food of man and beast, and thereby to multiply the population of the 
world. 
In a revoked will he had suggested the purchase of land, and the plant- 
ing of it with trees. In this he no doubt intended the exhibition of many 
varieties of kinds to give a scientific knowledge of them, and also intended 
that the groves there planted should be a centre of distribution of trees and 
their fruits. This idea has been held in view by this Society when it 
placed half the income of the legacy at the disposal of the Fairmount Park 
Commissioners, for the purchase, planting and distribution of trees and tree 
seeds, With half the income applied in this manner a more extensive good 
can be effected than by a separate application of the whole by the Society, 
which would of necessity have been at a more distant place, to be seen 
by a few only in the time that a thousand will see the trees in the Fair- 
mount Park, and obtain their seeds. In that Park the name of the Testa- 
tor has been honored by the plantings commenced in the ‘* Michaux 
Grove,’’ while thousands of trees procured by his provision are in the 
Nursery, waiting to be transplanted over the Park, of nearly three thou- 
sand acres, and elsewhere. These add to the variety of our plantings, and 
to the self sown trees of the native woods, thus adding increased attrac- 
tions for botanists and lovers of the landscapes. 
When Mr. Michaux extended his views to agriculture in connection with 
tree-culture, we must believe that he had in mind the influences of trees 
