TREES. 
215 
much do not we ourselves owe to the forests as regards our daily 
wants ! Our fields are di\ided by wooden fences ; wooden bridges 
cross our rivers ; our village streets and highwaj’s are being paved 
with wood ; the engines that carry us on our way by land and 
by water are fed with wood ; the rural dwellings without and 
within, their walls, their floors, stairwaj’s, and roofs are almost 
wholly of w'ood ; and in this neighborhood the fires that burn on 
our household hearths are entirely the gift of the li\*ing forest. 
But independently of their market price in dollars and cents, 
the trees have other values : they are connected in many ways with 
the civilization of a country ; they have their importance in an 
intellectual and in a moral sense. After the first rude stage of 
progress is past in a new country — when shelter and food have 
been provided — people begin to collect the conveniences and 
pleasures of a peiinanent home about their dwellings, and then 
the farmer generally sets out a few trees before his door. This 
is very desirable, but it is only the firet step in the track ; some- 
thing more is needed ; the preservation of fine trees, already 
standing, marks a farther progress, and this point we have not 
yet reached. It frequently happens that the same man who yes- 
terday planted some half dozen branchless saplings before his 
door, will to-day cut down a noble elm, or oak, only a few rods 
from his house, an object Avhich was in itself a hundred-fold more 
beautiful than any other in his possession. In very truth, a fine 
tree near a house is a much greater embellishment than the thick- 
est coat of paint that could be piit on its walls, or a wdiole row of 
wooden columns to adorn its front ; nay, a large sliady tree in a 
door-yard is much more desirable than the most expensive ma- 
hogany and velvet sofa in the parlor. Unhappily, our people 
