THE GROIVTH OF THE OAK 



pay (and therefore with love) , who may seal to 

 the town by his label such trees as are truly 

 the common possession, regardless of whose land 

 they happen to be on. If the owner desires 

 to cut down a tree thus designated, he must 

 first obtain permission, after stating satisfactory 

 reasons, of the annual town-meeting, and this 

 is not so easy as to make cutting very fre- 

 quent. The whole country should have such a 

 law, and I should enjoy its application right 

 here in Pennsylvania, where oaks of a hundred 

 years have been cut down to make room for 

 a whisky sign, and where a superb pin-oak 

 that I passed today is devoted to an igno- 

 minious use. If I may venture to become 

 hortatory, let me say that the responsibility for 

 the preservation of the all-too-few remaining 

 great primeval trees, and of their often notable 

 progeny, in our Eastern States, rests with 

 those who care for trees, not alone with those 

 who ought to care. To talk about the great- 

 ness and beauty of a fine oak or maple or 

 tulip, to call attention to its shade value, and 

 to appeal to the cupidity of the ground owner 

 by estimating how much less his property will 



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