THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 23 



able writers of the "Chicago Tribune," has written a fine poem entitled 

 "The Pine Forest of Illinois Speaks," — 



Above your acres of corn and grain. 



We stand a living choir. 

 To put life's prose into rhyme again. 

 While the dreams of youth suspire. 



Oh fend for us, that we may still 



Sing on in shine and rain — 

 Thrive by your love, live by your will, 



The guardians of your plain. 



And we will coax reluctant skies 



To shed their showers for you, 

 And make it our benign emprise 



To store the dripping dew. 



Your children's sons shall visions see, 



A dream beneath our shade ; 

 So shall our debt of fealty 



To you and yours be paid. 



Governor Lowden on Re-Forestation 



On New Year's Day newspapers printed an informal message from 

 Governor Lowden entitled, "A Vision of 1919." Among other various 

 significant paragraphs those printed below are selected as peculiarly 

 appropriate to accompany the conservation articles in this issue of the 

 Bulletin. It would be fortunate if every paper in Illinois would reprint 

 the quotations with the explanation that the Governor's suggestions as to 

 the encouragement of re-forestation can be realized only if at the forth- 

 coming constitutional convention the necessary provisions are written into 

 the constitution. 



Governor Lowden says : 



"I know of no single acre of land in the state, even though it be 

 not suited to cultivation, that cannot be made to produce trees 

 successfully. We shall, if we are wise, make laws whereby every 

 acre which will not produce wheat or corn will be made to grow 

 trees. 



"It may be that we shall be wise enough to exempt these lands 

 from taxation, saying to the owner : 'Plant this little tract to trees 

 and we shall tax you nothing, requiring only that when your 

 children or your grandchildren harvest them they shall pay a fair 

 percentage of the proceeds into the treasury of the state.' 



"You would not only thus set these idle acres to work for the 

 profit of both the state and the owner, but the little growing forest 

 upon the farm will help to tie the children to the farm." 



