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On the Growth of the Forestry Idea in Pennsylvania. 
By Dr. J. T. Rothrock, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Forestry 
Association; and Member of the Pennsylvania Forestry 
Commission. 
An occasion like the present, when this Society celebrates its cen- 
tury and a half of useful activity, might also mark a fitting period for 
the State to inaugurate a change from a period of wasteful extrava- 
gance in its forests to one of jealous care for their perpetuity. We 
may, at least, record the fact, that the first serious attempt on the 
part of the Commonwealth to adopt protective forest laws dates 
from the spring of 1893. 
It is quite true that Penn had stipulated, with those whom he 
styles adventurers, in his newly acquired domain, that they should 
retain one acre in six in trees ; especially that the oak and the mul- 
berry should be preserved, the one for ships and the other for silk. 
How these healthful restrictions came to be abrogated, or set aside, 
is unknown to the writer. 
The following letter is of interest, not because it indicates any 
real forestry ideas, for it does not, but because it is so strikingly ap- 
propriate yet. 
« Passy, December 24, 1782. 
«‘T thank you for your ingenious paper in favor of the trees. I own I wish we 
had two rows of them in every one of our streets. The comfortable shelter they 
would afford us in walking, from our burning summer suns, and the greater cool- 
ness of our walls and pavements, would, I conceive, in the improved health of 
the inhabitants, amply compensate the loss of a house now and then by fire, if 
such should be the consequence; but a tree is soon felled, and as axes are at hand 
in every neighborhood, may be down before the engines arrive.” —Dr. Benjamin 
Franklin to John Hopkinson. 
Marshall’s Ardustum, published in 1785 in Philadelphia, was not 
only a notable contribution to the forest literature of its time, but 
is now of increasing interest in view of important changes in nomen- 
clature which are pending. 
The earliest settlers on the New England coast did, here and 
there, farm out timber privileges and grant special wood rights 
under certain circumstances. It was not to be expected that they 
could at once come to consider trees as of no value. Education 
and experience both forbade this. 
