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Show OUR FORESTRY INTERESTS. Wkat Arbor Bay Means to Tree lovers. Reforestation Systems, . The festival of Arbor Day, which eyi--inated about fifteen years ago i'i Xe-braska, Xe-braska, has already won an established place among American holiday!, and j; annually celebrated by a majority of the etate3. The very existence of smch a general celebration in tho fpring of the year is proof of au awakened interest inter-est in tree planting and forestry, and that it has been made to a certain degree de-gree a public school holiday is encouraging, encourag-ing, because this indicates the direction in which such exercises may be made to have a genuine value. Arbor Day is celebrated with appropriate exercises bv the children of hundreds of tho pnohe schools throughout the land, and tree planting becomes a part of their training train-ing and education. Americans, as a people, are not sentimental; senti-mental; but the introduction of a holiday holi-day for the sole purpose of considering trees and tree planting may lead to a more proper appreciation of the value of our forests and their influence tipon the climate and health of the population. On the other hand, the sudden awakening awaken-ing to the peril which threatens the trees of this country may lead to the opposite error which invests the trees with a certain cer-tain sacreduess that is opposed to the true interests of practical forestry. In one of his Bpeeches Mr. Gladstone re-marked re-marked that the popular superstition in Great Britain which invested trees wita a certain sacredness so that felling them was considered a sacrilege was the greatest great-est obstacle to a sound forest policy. There are a few enthusiasts . in this country who view trees in the same way, nnd consider the lumbermen born enemies of the human race; but in reality re-ality tree cutting is just as essential to the forests as tree planting. -- - Since the introduction of Arbor Day forest farming has assumed an ituiior-tant ituiior-tant position in the eyes of the federal and state governments. The elaborate reports and experiments and publications of documents upon the subject have disseminated dis-seminated knowledge of the question so generally that widespread interest is manifested on every side. In"other conn-tries, conn-tries, monarchical and republican, government gov-ernment aid to forest industry is employed on a large scale and with great success. Not only do state and county governments govern-ments resort to it, but societies, and even private estate holders, consider it within their sphere and a proper direction direc-tion of their funds and activities to plant material either free of cost of at nominal nomi-nal prices. In this country, where immediate im-mediate returns from an investment are more frequently looked for tfian in older countries, and where the practice of forest for-est planting and management is not yet established, this kind of government encouragement en-couragement seems most legitimate and, when carried out on a judicious plan, the most feasible way of advancing the interest of practical forestry, , The most noted advance. ist'oxdx--tion in this country has been "V to implication impli-cation of mechanics to tree planting. Practical forestry may receive a new impetus from the invention of a machine ma-chine capable of breaking the ground and setting and planting from 20,000 to 30,000 seedling trees, all in one motion, in one day. This machine was invented as a direct result of the influence of Arbor Ar-bor Day and its celebration. To secure the premium for the greatest number of trees planted by one man, Thomas A. Stratton, of Lincoln, Neb., devised his tree planter and set in the ground 11,200 tree9 on Arbor Day. Since then improvements improve-ments have been made on the machine, so that it will plant more than double that number in such a way that an average of 95 per cent, of them live and thrive well. It is estimated that by the new improvements improve-ments on the machine two men can plant sir acres a day of trees, making practical forestry a reality for the barren, bar-ren, treeless plains of our western states. Arbor Day thus comes around with great significance to the public of every state, and the appropriate exercises in the publio schools which accompany it may be the means of educating the coming com-ing generation to a better understanding understand-ing of the problem of reforestation. The question will mainly affect their interests inter-ests more than those of today; but to save the vast forests and treeless plains from barrenness Yankee ingenuity will have to exert itself before a great while. The invention of the tree planter is but the beginning of the end. O. S. Walters in New York Times. |