nuts, resin, turpentine, oils, and various products for medicines.

8. We should have greater extremes of heat and cold if it were not for the trees and forests.

9. The leaves of trees catch the rain and hold it a little while; then they drop the water a little at a time; this is better for the ground.

10. The old leaves make a deep sponge carpet in the woods, and this keeps the ground from freezing. If the earth does not freeze it takes up the rain better.

II. We might have dangerous floods if we did not have trees. The trunks and roots of trees stop the water that comes pouring down the hillside.

12. I will be very careful not to hurt any tree, but will call every tree my friend.

FOREST PRESERVATION AND
RESTORATION

BY JAMES S. WHIPPLE

MY DESIRE in writing this article is to interest my readers in the protection of our forests, fish, game animals, and game and song birds. It is, of course, most important that the forest should be preserved, for upon its life depends largely the life of the fish, and the game animals and birds.

The necessity for preserving the forest for commercial purposes alone is apparent. There are on

public and private lands in this state of New York abou 141,000,000,000 feet of timber, board measure. Last year there were cut and manufactured in the state 1,500,000,000 feet of lumber, taken, of course, from private lands, since a clause in the Constitution prohibits the removal of timber from state lands. But at the same rate of cutting, all the timber in the state, public and private, would not last more than thirty years. To be sure, there is considerable growth going on in the forest, but this is more than offset by the increasing demand for lumber on account of the rapidly growing population, and the increasing use of wood in manufacturing.

The first settlers along the Hudson knew something about practical forestry, and the necessity of forest preservation. They had learned it in Holland. On their arrival here they found a great, deep, dark forest stretching westward, how far they did not know. They found it a hindrance and constant threat. It hid their enemies. In order to build, to plant, and to make a place to live, it had to be cut down and removed. It was about this first cutting that the poet wrote,

His echoing axe the settler swung

Amid the sea-like solitude,

And rushing, thundering down were flung

The Titans of the wood.

The early settlers soon forgot their forestry principles, and the second generation knew little and cared

less about them. Billions of feet of good timber were deliberately burned to ashes to get it out of the way. There was great waste, wanton waste, because much timber was taken from lands that could never be used for tillage.

An examination of the early colonial laws, the acts of Parliament to the mother country, shows that as far back as 1640 there was a very correct idea of the value of the splendid pine forest that covered the lands of the new world. Yet nothing practical was done until 1885, when a commission was appointed in this state, which commenced the work now carried on by the department which I have the honor to represent. A hundred years previously, however, a commission had been appointed to investigate and report upon the forests of the state and devise some plan to acquire and save some of the forest lands. But nothing came of it and no legislation followed. Surely in this case the Legislature cannot be accused of hasty legislation.

If our forests were converted into lumber they would be worth many millions of dollars, but they are worth many millions more if left standing, and managed according to forestry principles. Not only will they then continue to grow, but they will protect the headwaters of our streams, regulate temperature, protect from hot and cold winds, serve as a health and pleasure resort, and furnish a home for game, fish, and song birds.

It is time to call a halt on forest destruction, and order a forward march on forest restoration. The great pines once used for spars and planks in the king's ships are all gone. The great oak forests are seen no more. Their grandeur and beauty are known only in legend, song, and story. But a worse disaster is close at hand. In a few years we shall experience the inconvenience of a wood famine. If we would minimize its effects, and prevent the dire results of forest destruction upon the streams, fish and game, we must bestir ourselves.

At least two lines of action it is certainly our duty to follow. The state should immediately acquire a million acres more land in the Adirondacks, and five hundred thousand more acres in the Catskills. Then, not only should the state plant millions of trees each year upon its denuded lands, but it should encourage private owners to reforest all ground not good for agriculture. The State should raise and distribute seedling trees, at actual cost, or, if possible, free of cost, to all persons who will plant them according to directions furnished by the state.

SPARE THE TREES

BY MADAME MICHELET

ALAS, in how many places is the forest which once lent us shade, nothing more than a memory. The

grave and noble circle which adorned the mountain is every day contracting. Where you come in hope of seeing life, you find but the image of death. Oh, who will really undertake the defense of the trees, and rescue them from senseless destruction? Who will eloquently set forth their manifold mission, and their active and incessant assistance in the regulation of the laws which rule our globe? Without them, it seems delivered over to blind destiny, which will involve it again into chaos. The motive powers and purifiers of the atmosphere through the respiration of their foliage, avaricious collectors, to the advantage of future ages, of the solar heat, it is they which pacify the storm and avert its most disastrous consequences. In the low-lying plains, which have no outlet for their waters, the trees, long before the advent of man, drained the soil by their roots, forcing the stagnant waters to descend and construct at a lower depth their useful reservoirs. And now, on the abrupt declivities, they consolidate the crumbling soil, check and break the torrent, control the melting of the snows, and preserve to the meadows the fertile humidity which in due time will overspread them with a sea of flowers. And is not this enough? To watch over the life of the plant and its general harmony, is it not to watch over the safety of humanity? The tree, again, was created for the nurture of man, to assist him in his industries and his arts. It is owing to the tree,