Tick-Tock " Talk 



sources, great as has undoubtedly been 

 the lavish waste and destruction of our 

 native forests, there is still no occasion 

 to fear complete denudation of our 

 wooded areas if any sort of reasonable 

 conservation be practiced. We may 

 therefore continue to enjoy our open 

 fires complacently. That is one thing 

 among many others that we Americans 

 have to be thankful for. 



I have been in at least two countries 

 where it almost seemed a crime to 

 burn wood upon a hearth — Italy and 

 parts of Scotland. The fact is that in 

 Rome or Naples, if you chance to be 

 there in February and call for wood 

 for your hotel grate, you will get a 

 handful of "punk" that responds to 

 your most urgent coaxing only with 

 that languor which we usually associate 

 in our minds with the Mediterranean 

 atmosphere, climate and peoples. In 

 Aberdeenshire the patches of wood 

 you may see here and there upon the 

 granite hills are just "plantations," 

 [in] 



