PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
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A REPETITION OF HISTORY. 
But three centuries ago all of New England, the great Middle States, the 
northern lake region, the Atlantic and Gulf States, in short, every portion of the 
United States east and south of the prairies, were as densely covered with prim- 
eval forests as is the Coast Range of the Lacife at present 
In the Rocky Mountains were magnificent forests, while the Pacific Coast 
contained vastly more than it has to-day. 
Almost the entire forest region east of the Continental Divide has dis- 
appeared. That of the Southern States is going rapidly, and can not last beyond 
two decailes, or to the close of this century's first quarter. 
Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, formerly covered with immense oak, walnut 
poplar and other timber trees, might now well be called prairie States. 
New England's abandoned farms, where once the white pine abode, were 
cleared for farming, which, becoming unprofitable, have been abandoned, to grow 
up in brush and trees of slight value, bringing no adequate returns to the common- 
wealth and are of little profit to their owners. 
The great manufactories of wood in New England were forced to remove to 
Indiana and other timbered States half a century ago. 
Thirty vears ago it was affirmed, without contradiction, that the hardwood 
forests of Indiana could never be exhausted. Manufacturers of wagons, carriages, 
furniture, building lumber, and innumerable sawmills sprang into existence 
throughout the State. To-day the few factories which remain procure their wood 
from other States far distant. There are no forests in Indiana to-day. 
Thirty vears ago the white pine covered Michigan and Wisconsin so denselv 
that is was considered inexhaustible. To-day it is gone, and but a very moderate 
quantity of hard wood remains. Sawmills of great capacity were busy night 
and day. The timber could not be removed with sufficient rapiditv. Millionaires 
were made in this speedy destruction of Michigan forests; but what are anv of 
them doing to aid the timber-impoverished State in a restoration of her wasted 
forests? Can a millionaire of Michigan reply ? 
The mills have gone, their owners seeking other forests to conquer in the 
South and the West. 
Grand Rapids manufactories now transport their lumber for a thousand 
miles from the small forest areas remaining in the South. 
The Southern States have been more backward in clearing away their timber 
simply because the means of transportation has been insufficient to facilitate its 
more rapid removal. 
