8 FOREST TREES. 
employed for that purpose.* Something of the sort 
might still be done, but there is little hope of its ac- 
complishment. Our National Legislature, in this 
‘respect at least, wholly destitute of statesmanlike 
forecast, panders to the rapacity of corporations, and 
“hastens to squander the public domain. Most of our 
State legislators ignore the encouragement of tree 
planting altogether. Our Agricultural Societies, both 
State and county organizations, with few excep- 
tions, liberally patronize the horse-jockey, while they 
wholly neglect the tree planter. The matter seems 
to depend almost entirely upon the enterprise and 
patriotism of individuals. 
Let all, then, who have the opportunity to plant 
trees, awaken to a sense of the importance of the 
object. The evils attending a general destruction of 
* Perhaps a better plan would be to transfer the woodlands 
to the individual States, whose authorities might be more efficient 
for their preservation than the U.S. Government. The latter 
could not—at least did not—protect the live oak woods of 
Florida, which were intended for the use of the navy. Timber 
growing on the public lands has everywhere been considered. 
fair game for everybody, and Government is said in some instances 
‘to have paid high prices for timber stolen from its own wood- 
lands. Nearly fifty years since, when the navigation of the 
secondary rivers of the West was of more importance than since 
the introduction of railroads, Dr. Drake, of Cincinnati, recom- 
mended the reservation by government of tracts of woodland 
around the head waters of the principal streams, as a means of 
preventing their diminution. Probably the doctor did not 
anticipate the time when these reserves might become important 
as a source of supplies of timber. It is scarcely necessary to 
say that his advice was disregarded. 
