State Board of Forestry. 45 



Ground denuded of trees becomes disfigured by the soil being 

 washed away by heavy rainfall, because of the lack of roots which 

 is between the bedrocls: and the soil proper. 



This disfiguration of the surface of the land is noticeable in 

 our own State, which has been denuded of its forests only a short 

 while; and as the years pass the conditions will, of course, become 

 worse. 



Travelers in Spain and China notice this condition even in 

 that far country, which is every day growing worse. 



While men have learned to make buildings without so much 

 timber as was formerly used, there are places, and, indeed, ever 

 will be, where nothing will answer so well as the walnuts, oaks and 

 pines for the beautiful architecture which is always wanted in a 

 building. 



Summing up, then, the reasons why Indiana should be refor- 

 ested, we would say to replace, in a small measure, at least, nature's 

 primitive adornment, which, like the trimming on the maiden's 

 hat, is the portion that attracts; to preserve from greater disfig- 

 uration the land surface itself, the roots of the trees, and the 

 foliage mass, preventing, in a way, the washing away of soil, the 

 making of ditches, gutters, etc., on slopes and plains; the furnish- 

 ing, in a purely economical way, if not ornamental, of material 

 for furniture, casings and building furnishings. Now, like the 

 division of labor among the people of a community, or the members 

 of the body, so the trees that drew their sustenance from the earth 

 should and will return a hundredfold that which it has taken, by 

 laying their coverlets of leaves to be converted into loam, by adding 

 their tons of water to be returned as rain to feed spring and 

 river. 



Added to all this, we have the shelter from storm and sun, the 

 nuts, the home of birds, bees and beast; in short, it is impossible 

 to enumerate the many uses which trees supply in the world. Br}^- 

 ant may well ask us the question, "What do we plant when we 

 plant a tree?" 



The nations of the old world are already at work replacing the 

 groves that were ruthlessly destroyed, and are sparing neither ex- 

 pense nor labor in doing so. 



No one who considers the matter in a fair light but will add 

 their voice in commendation of the work, not only in the old world, 

 but in that much loved section of the new which bears the name 



