1 6 BOTANY OF MADISON, LINCOLN, GARRARD, 



A careful, intelligent clearing of forests is all right ; but an 

 ignorant destruction of the plant life of any locality is all 

 wrong. One hundred years is not much in the life of some 

 nations ; but a hundred years from the opening up of a coun- 

 try covered with a wealth of plant liie, is too short a time for 

 such widespread destruction as marks the; timbers of this 

 country. 



Had there been a power to control, and an intelligence to 

 direct the clearing of lorests for agricultural purposes, and the 

 preservation of young trees in given conditions, this region 

 would have been the fairest under the skies. Hill sides now 

 washed into deep hollows and covered with loose blocks of 

 stone, would have been clothed in valuable trees. Licks 

 which exhibit nothing but utter desolation, would have been 

 robed in green. Creeks whose beds are either raging tor- 

 rents or dry gulches, would have been hemmed with a garni- 

 ture of shade " over purling waters' flow." Springs of sweet 

 water would have gushed forth under leafy trees and amidst 

 blooming flowers, where now only muddy seeps are seen. 

 Along the margin of rivers, where wide bottoms extended, a 

 strip of forest would have protected the rich fields, where now 

 the freshet tears away the fruitful lands. Where now stand 

 ragged clumps of injured and dying trees, long lines of valua- 

 ble timbers would have shed their moisture to the thirst)' air. 

 Where great fields of corn are now grown, to be distilled into 

 death, flowers and orchards would have wafted their perfumes 

 on every breeze. 



For want of system and intelligence, despoliation has been 

 the rule. Lands, which should have been left as wood nur- 

 series for all time, have had their protecting trees removed, 

 and the soils have been carried away by the action of water. 

 Streams on which old men have gone to mill, or from which 

 they have drawn fish in their youth, " are numbered with the 

 things that were ; " and where springs bubbled and flowers 

 bloomed in sweetness, offensive slop-yards now "smell to 

 heaven." 



