INTRODUCTORY. 
9 
were stored, viz. with tliis spreading tree at handsome intervals, 
bv which grazing might be improved for the feeding of deer 
and cattle under them (for such was the old Saltus), being only 
visited with the gleams of the sun, and adorned with the distant 
landscapes appearing through the glades and frequent valleys, 
nothing could be more ravishing.” 
The greater the success of the forester, the more pro- 
found is the solemn stillness of the forest — and the more 
monotonous. In place of the natural forest, with its varied 
and teeming life, we have what Wordsworth called a timber 
factory. In the natural forest, with its mixture of many kinds 
of trees, the undergrowth of shrubs, and carpet of grass and 
weeds, the stronger trees spread out their arms in all 
directions, and fritter away (as the scientific forester would 
say) their wood-producing powers in making much firewood 
and little valuable timber. But the result is very beautiful, 
and the nature-lover can wander among it without tiring, and 
can study without exhausting its treasures. Emerson says : “ In 
the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God 
a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, 
and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand 
years.” To the scientific forester this is all waste land, and he 
pleads for the “ higher culture ” being applied to it. With every 
desire that the natural resources of our country should be 
properly developed, we do hope that he will not be entirely 
successful in his efforts, and that a few of the woods and wastes 
of Nature’s own planting may be left for the recreation of the 
simple folk who have not yet taken to appraising the value of 
everything by the price it will fetch in the market. 
The trees described in this volume are the really wild growths 
that have lived a natural life ; and though many of the photo- 
graphs are from planted trees, they are such as have been 
allowed to grow as they would, and show the characteristic 
branching of the species. 
