PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
wn 
A 
PETRIFIED FORESTS OF AMERICA AND THE LESSON THEY 
TEACH. 
By John P. Brown, Secretary of International Society of Arboriculture. 
Address to the Farmer’s National Congress, Sioux Falls, S. D. 
Within the arid and semi-arid belt west of the 99th meridian, west longi- 
tude, are numerous monuments recording a climatic condition far different 
from that which now exists—forests in stone, evidences of a soil and moisture 
capable of producing growths in vegetation equal to our most favored regions. 
THE NOTABLE PETRIFIED BRIDGE, FIRST FOREST. 
These petrified trees are found in large numbers throughout all the portions 
of the United States in which at present the rainfall is the least and the vege- 
tation is the most scant. 
Duplicates of the sequoias, equalling them in size—cedars of mammoth 
proportion akin to those on the higher mountains of Washington—have been 
found in the Rocky Mountains where no living trees of like character are 
now known. 
The petrified forests of Arizona are so well known because of the very 
beautiful ornaments made from the cut sections. Many tons cf these trees 
have been sent to Europe, where better facilities for cutting and polishing 
are had. The material reduced to a coarse powder is also used as emery and 
corundum for grinding metals. 
