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asking the question, am I not echoing the sentiments 

 of many here present ? I dearly love the trees of my 

 rustic home. Truly, I know, on God's earth, no more 

 noble object than a majestic oak, a wide-spreading elm, 

 a lith, green, graceful maple, a luxuriant silver-birch, 



" most beautiful of forest trees, the lady of the woods " 



an umbrageous, centennial white pine, alive with the 

 rustle of summer zephyrs and tuneful with the voice of 

 birds. 



Well might a French poet write : 



" Quel livre vaut un arbre auguste et tout en fleurs ? 

 L'homme fait en six mois un livre et des meilleurs. 

 Dieu met cent ans a faire un chene " 



Yes, indeed, it takes a man six months, sometimes 

 less, to write a book, even a good one ! It takes Omni- 

 potence one hundred years to raise an oak ! 



Friends, we shall treasure the lesson you come to 

 teach, that a tree is not to be considered as an enemy. 



We shall henceforth learn, to protect and cherish, not 

 only the graceful shade trees of our lawns, but also their 

 " venerable brotherhood " in the dark, silent woods. The 

 care, the water we shall bestow on some of them, they 

 will return in many ways : restoring the failing sources 

 of diminished streams — fertilizing arid tracts of country 

 previously held as useless — supplying material which 

 will send a glow of heat through our homes ; wealth 

 in our coffers through the Argosies of commerce ; 

 health and gladness to our children, nestled at eventide 

 under their cool foliage. Such, gentlemen, we take to 

 be the teachings of your patriotic association. 



Many of you, have no doubt, discovered since your 

 arrival in our midst, more than one point of dissimi- 

 larity between our climate and the productions of our 

 soil and your own. Ours are not the concentrated suns 

 and gorgeous vegetation of Florida, California, Virginia, 

 the Carolinas, etc. 



