diminished by unseasonable killing, clubs of squirrel hunters organized
and laws wore enacted protecting beasts and birds with a close season.
The good, the social and intelligent, became members for what there
was in it. These clubs entertained no secrets, and did not pattern
after any of the ancient orders with which the United States appear
overblessed, nor were they given to boasting of their pedigrees. No
one ever claimed King Solomon was “the father and founder,” although
he might have been; and members were satisfied and sanguine that Mr.
Nimrod, the mighty hunter, for a _saint_, was in morals as good as any
of them.
These clubs had also many improvements over ordinary societies. A
candidate for membership was not obliged to ride a goat to get in,
nor with bandaged eyes go down into a dangerous pit to search for
the tables of stone that Moses brought home the ten commandments on.
Neither had the clubs any use for a catechism of secret signs to let
the brethren know when a member had been guilty of something unwelcome
to society, and needed assistance. They were all Squirrel Hunters,
and members recognized each other by the absence of society pins and
want of superlative adjectives at the front end of their names. The
only thing recorded in which these clubs resembled any other order or
society was in having a great many glorious banquets. They cultivated
the social and democratic principles, owing allegiance nowhere, to
no one or any thing, but the government and country covered by the
American flag.
The objects of these clubs were the study of natural history and to
secure and enforce all laws for the preservation of game beasts and
birds, as well as the summer songsters that give life and happiness to
forest and field.
These clubs labored hard to enforce legislative enactments against
pot-hunting and thoughtless destruction of birds, but found it more
difficult to capture the violator and public opinion than to subdue
British and Indians or frighten an army. People generally had embraced
the idea that birds, beasts and trees could never become seriously
decimated, and it was useless to offer them protection, which made it
troublesome to obtain a verdict against offenders by either judge or
jury. The motives of such prosecutions were generally misconstrued, or
plaintiffs made subjects of sport or ridicule.
The following is taken from the records and proceedings of one of the
earliest organized and most worthy game clubs in Ohio. It appears the
offender was a lawyer, who enjoyed fine grounds and an elegant garden,
and amused himself shooting little birds that came to share his bounty,
or obtain a pittance by way of interest for the good they had by nature
rendered. The club gave the lawyer notice and request to desist such
cruelty, or it might become necessary to call the attention of the
officers of the law to the matter.
To this the club received the following reply, worthy of preservation
for its wit, humor, and literary ability:
“_To N---- E----, Secretary of Branch No. 3, Ohio Game Club_:
“MY DEAR SIR--Your esteemed favor of yesterday has been received, and
at an early date I hasten to reply, not knowing just what punishment
would await me should I fail to be prompt in my responses. As to the
‘birds of various kinds’ of which you speak, I move to amend in order
to make more specific and certain, by stating what kind of birds,
what number, when killed, and by what means. If required to plead to
the general charge, I would enter a plea of ‘not guilty.’ Permit me
to say that I only killed birds of _prey_, and I only _pray_ that
I may kill more of them. I always bury all I kill; I _berry_ them
before I kill them, and _bury_ them afterwards.
“I am exceedingly sorry that my fancied misdeeds have rendered
necessary a special meeting of the ‘club,’ or to have been the
innocent occasion of the least trouble to either the officers or
members of that useful and ornamental body. Be kind enough to say,
with my compliments, to the association of which you have the honor
to be secretary, that the doors of the Temple of Justice, like ‘the
glorious gates of the gospel of grace,’ stand open night and day, and
the ‘club’ will please consider itself invited to enter and become
‘involved in the intricate meshes of the law.’
“Allow me further to say that I expect tomorrow morning to be on my
premises, near the city, engaged in my usual and ordinary amusement
of destroying birds of prey; and as it is the ‘early bird that
catches the worm.’ I would suggest to members of your valuable
association, through their secretary, that they meet at an early
hour, say half-past five in the morning, either at Dodson’s store
or at the well-known grocery stand of John L. King, and proceed
in a body, in full uniform, to the premises alluded to in your
correspondence. It might be well to have music, and march to the tune
of ‘Listen to the Mockingbird,’ or such other appropriate music as
your orchestra may select.
“One other suggestion: I am constitutionally and proverbially
careless in the handling of firearms, and it may be well to make that
statement to the members of your organization, so that should a stray
shot fall wide of the mark at which it was aimed, they may feel a
sense of security behind such intrenchments as nature or art shall
have provided. Ice-water and sponges will be furnished free to each
and every member who attends, but no gin cocktails will be given.
“Very truly yours, H----.”
It seems an unanswered question, how the natives preserved the forests
from fires, and maintained the numerical strength of the species of
animals on which they subsisted. The countries in which Indians have
been found subsisting by hunting, are known to have forests undisturbed
by fires for thousands of years, and containing a full complement of
all kinds of game indigenous to the locality. This country, at the
time surrendered, was fully endowed with all the gifts of nature. Love
had preserved the forests from fires, protected the game beasts and
birds, and shown natural wisdom enough not to kill the goose to obtain
the golden egg.
How these wise results were accomplished are unknown to civilization.
But it can be stated as a fact, new countries have never suffered from
forest fires or the destruction of their game at the hands of the
Indian hunter. Even in limited and crowded reservations he manages
to preserve the forests, and in some way to keep on hand a supply of
animals to the full extent the conditions of nature will admit. The
instinct to kill no more than enough for present use, though he may
suffer from hunger the next day, probably has had a favorable influence
on game and its preservation.
While practically a resident of an unsettled Indian country (the
northern portion of Iowa Territory), in 1845, it was noticeable that
there existed no lack of game, nor variety, although pretty densely
populated with Winnebagoes, Sioux and Fox Indian, who derived their
meat chiefly from the yearly increase of game furnished within a
limited territory.
Soon after the close of the treaty with those tribes, made by General
Dodge in the summer of 1845, at Fort Atkinson, the writer, with a
friend, passed through the hunting grounds for more than one hundred
miles, and saw a number of large flocks of wild turkey and larger game
in abundance. We followed the deep-cut channel of the romantic Turkey
river for sixty miles in the Indian country, and during this ride the
young birds were seen flying from bluff to bluff, crossing the river on
their daily round in search of food.
And we believe it is true: No game laws enacted by white man can prove
as effective in the protection of game as those enforced by Indian
hunters. The red man never scares game from the region in which he
hunts. He steals upon the deer or wild turkeys with the soft tread of
moccasined feet, and dressed in accord with the tints and tones of
plain and forest, the animals are satisfied with trying to avoid his
presence without quitting the region selected as their home.
[Illustration: Turkey River, Iowa, 1845.]
An old-time hunter in the West makes the statement that ever since the
general adoption by Indians of firearms for hunting, it has not been
found that game has diminished in regions where the white man is an
infrequent visitor. It is when white hunters invade their haunts, with
the tread of booted feet, their clothes alien to surrounding nature and
with dogs and bluster, that all kinds of game are bound to be killed or
driven away. And as Sir Samuel Baker, the explorer, asserts of African
game and predatory creatures: “Animals can endure traps, pitfalls,
fire, and every savage method of hunting, but firearms may be used
to clear them out from extensive districts.” Still, under prudent use
known to Indians only, game of our forests and plains may be preserved
indefinitely and in abundance of all kinds.
TREES.
“Half the mighty forest
Tells no tale of all it does.”
“Individual avarice and corporate greed will soon cause all the mineral
lands to be stripped of their forests.... Wealthy companies have been
organized, mills erected, and the most valuable timber accessible
is being rapidly cut off. That which is every one’s property is no
one’s care, and extravagance and waste are the natural consequence of
negligent legislation.”[21]
The increasing destruction of the timber belts of this country is
certainly enough to alarm the nation. The Census Office prepared for
distribution a bulletin bearing upon this subject for the consideration
of the people of the United States. The lumber production--which means
tree destruction--in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the last
decade increased twenty-nine per cent in quantity and seventy-five per
cent in value, and according to the eleventh (last) census, the capital
invested in the milling business in the three states named shows an
increase of one hundred and fifty-seven million five hundred and
thirty-one thousand dollars.
United States Senator Henry M. Rice, who spent considerable time in
Northern Minnesota treating with the Indians, says: “This timber
cutting is going on for fifty miles up the Baudette, North and South
Fork rivers, and that the Indians declare that it has been going on for
more than a dozen years by Canadian lumbermen.” It is stated on good
authority that more than two hundred million feet were floated through
the Lake of the Woods in 1894. And Senator Rice says: “So bold have
these timber robbers become that they have built dams in the tributary
streams for the purpose of backing up the water and floating out their
logs.”
When these extensive thieving operations were conveyed to the
authorities, one lone “timber inspector” was sent up in this vast
district and made his headquarters in the wilderness one hundred and
fifty miles from the nearest point from which he could obtain any
assistance, and it is generally believed, in Minnesota, that the
“timber inspector” failed to “hold up” several thousand Canadian
robbers, who were engaged in floating American timber across the line
and filling their pockets with gold.
The Minneapolis Journal has done much to call the attention of the
people of that state, and the Nation, to the unparalleled destruction
of this greatest gift of nature, and quite recently says:
“The reservations which have been ceded by the Chippewas in this
state to the government embrace the heaviest white pine forests now
available as a source of lumber supply. These forests are largely
contributory to the retention of the moisture which feeds the streams
and lakes that make the sources of the Mississippi river.
“Already there is much said about the great commercial value of
these pine lands, and there is not the slightest doubt that as soon
as the region is opened by the government the work of destruction
will commence, which will speedily lay bare the soil and subject
it to the drying influences of the sun and wind, or to the forest
fires, which will kill every young growth which appears, and destroy
even tree seed, which has been borne there by the winds. The result
of this will be the diminution of the sources of the supply of the
Mississippi, which will be felt by every water power company from
Itasca to Fort Snelling.
“These are grave consequences, and the question is: Shall the
denudation of this new region be allowed to go on without some
regulations as to cutting and forest renewal? There would seem
to be a good opportunity to bring to bear the world’s experience
in forestry. This reckless cutting and selling the forests will
bring temporary gain to the lumbermen, but will ultimately destroy
agriculture and water-power interests as well as the healthful
conditions of the country.
“In France, whole communities were ruined by the denudation of
their lands; and obliged the government to enter upon the work of
restocking this ruined section of country with young trees at a cost
of many millions of dollars; all to regain what had been lost through
indifference. But how is it now? The region of the Landes, which
fifty years ago was the abandoned country of little value, inhabited
by a few sickly shepherds, who wandered over the country with their
meager flocks, is now the most prosperous part of France. It has been
made so by the planting of forests, and has now saw-mills, charcoal
kilns, turpentine works, thriving towns, and fertile agricultural
lands, and a growing and increasing valuation, and the net gain to
the government by the expenditure amounts to over two hundred million
dollars.
“Not until the sheltering influence of trees has disappeared, the
climate made variable with sharp and sudden changes of temperature,
successions of thaws and freezings; not until springs and brooks
become dry in summer, and a failure of all kinds of crops and plants,
does the improvident ask or even wonder what the matter is.
“_Every reserve of timber in this country ought to be sacredly
guarded by the government_, and timber cutting be put under stringent
regulations, looking to the continued protection of the streams.
_Unless this is done the Mississippi river will surely change its
character._ It will become a shallow, sluggish stream, unable to
carry off impurities, and useless for navigation or water-power.
It will not take very long to effect this change, if the forests
are destroyed in the northern part of its source. A present gain
in lumber will mean very great injury to all other material
interests.”[22]
A special from St. Paul says--“From Rainy Lake to the Lake of the
Woods, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, the entire country
is covered with a heavy growth of timber and is mostly pine, and is
totally uninhabited save by scattering bands of Chippewa Indians. That
these two great lakes are connected by Rainy Lake river, one of the
finest navigable streams in North America; and on which its branches
and the Lake of the Woods, no less than twenty steamers and tugs ply
from early spring to late in the fall, conveying stolen timber from the
United States to Rat Portage, Keewatin, and even to Winnipeg, where it
is manufactured and sent wherever a market can be found.
“Keewatin and Rat Portage are the centers of the timber depredations
and act as a base of supplies for the depredators. Nearly all the
numerous fleets of steamers plying on the lake find their home in
these two towns. The Dominion Government considers its side of the
line important enough to demand a station at Hungry Hall, on the
Canadian side of the mouth of Rainy Lake river, as well as at several
other points between the Red river of the North and the head of Lake
Superior, but the United States Government, though knowing the amount
of valuable timber in the district desirable, has no port between St.
Vincent and Lake Superior.
“When it is realized that all this timber belongs to the wards of the
United States, the Indians, or to the Government itself, it is hard
to see on what principle the states can so neglect this great timber
belt. Not a foot of this timber can be sold or in any way disposed of
until it has been appraised and surveyed. And it was asked that the
Minnesota delegation in Congress take steps at once to have Congress
pass a measure authorizing the placing of a revenue cutter on the
Lake of the Woods, and equipping two posts, one near Rainy Lake, and
the other directly across from Hungry Hall, where one lone timber
inspector is supposed to be. But has any thing been done? The State
Senatorial Committee of Minnesota, in an investigation of frauds
against the state, found the _timber pirates_ responsible for most all
the calamities from fire which have befallen the timber lands of the
state. After stealing millions of dollars worth of timber belonging
to the state, in order to cover the theft, have started fires which
have resulted in those terrible losses of life and property. Firing
the lands they had fraudulently cleared in order to render the
measurement of stumpage impossible, and thereby shut off any suits a
commission might attempt to bring against them. In putting the torch
to the ‘toppings,’ every thing is destroyed--stumps, young trees and
frequently valuable timber, to the amount of many million dollars.”
In all the pine belts in the western country there is a loud demand
by honest citizens, that the manner of cutting timber be severely
regulated. It has been clearly shown from time to time that this forest
destruction in the United States without restitution, is still going on
at the enormous rate of over ten million acres annually, and must soon
land the country in all the ills due to forest famine.
Senator Paddock, of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, reports
that the United States Government retains somewhat less than seventy
million acres of public domain, which is designated as timber or
woodland, mostly situated on the slopes and crests of the western
mountain ranges. The above estimate may be too low, but if not, the
entire forests of the Government are scarcely sufficient of themselves
to supply the vast demands of the country another decade.
In 1889, it was estimated that Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming contained
fifty-three thousand square miles of forest--Colorado and New Mexico,
thirty thousand; and that other portions of the public domain were
covered with large and valuable belts, and of which the Hon. Secretary
of Agriculture says in his reports: “We are wasting our forests, by
axe, by fire, by pasturage, by _neglect_. They are rapidly falling
below the amount required by industrial needs, by our water supply, by
our rivers, by our climate, by our navigation and agriculture. It is
high time to _call a halt_. The devastation of the axe will probably go
on in the forests owned by private parties. Other forms of devastation
_can and should be stopped by vigorous measures on the part of the
Government_.”
“_Our only hope_,” says Secretary Rusk, “_is to save what forests we
have still in public possession, ... not allowing them to be cut except
under such conditions as will insure ample reproduction_.”
Six years have passed since the above important declarations were made,
still nothing has been done to deter the thieves or ward off a pending
calamity.
For future forest supplies the people of the United States must look
to the general government which controls the national domain, holds
the keys of the public treasury, and is responsible for this source of
national wealth.
From various authentic sources, it is stated of the once-timbered
countries in Southern Europe, Northern Africa and from the Russian
Empire to South India, which are now uninhabited barren wastes, has
been due to changes of climate, soil and water-fall, from the loss of
forests. The once fertile valleys of Syria, with springs and brooks,
and fields of grain and grass, are as parched and dry, and water as
scarce as it is on the desert or staked plains--summer suns have
scorched the unprotected soil--hot winds absorbed the last vestige of
moisture--the air is filled with clouds of loose dust, and the naked
mountains stand as monuments of departed glory, of the Roman provinces
from the Caucasus to the archipelago.
Look at the wasted peninsulas of Southern Europe. What has reduced
to skeletons the inhabitants of the garden lands of the nations of
classic antiquity? Greece has become a barren rock, and Sicily, “the
pearl of the Mediterranean,” a hospital of famine, typhus and purulent
ophthalmia!
Has not the desolation in each been due to one and the same cause?--the
destruction of forests.
Why then should history repeat itself on this subject in America?
As early as 1832, the wisdom of Mehemet Ali saw the cause of the
poverty and distress, and applied the only remedy that ever has or ever
will restore life-sustaining conditions, and commenced re-establishing
forests on the sand plains of upper Egypt--Abyssinia and the slopes of
the mountains--at the rate of one hundred thousand acres annually.
Trees, like beasts and birds, at one time existed in such vast and
apparently incalculable numbers that it seemed improbable their
presence could be diminished sufficiently to give them importance or
value. To have trees removed by any means was looked upon by the owner
of the soil as a favor; and those having charge of the public domain
felt pretty much the same way. But to the man of three-score and ten
years it is astonishing how soon the great forests have disappeared,
or become so valuable and inviting as to tempt the mercenary to steal
and the rewarded public official to permit. Trees have a value to
every form of life--a value above the lumber they may produce or the
moneyed wealth they may bring the possessor. It has for thousands of
years undergone practical demonstration that forests determine the
climatic conditions of any given country, and for this reason forests
form an indispensable basis for agriculture, manufacture and commercial
industry. They also bear a near relation to the health, wealth and
prosperity of a nation.
These facts being so universally admitted, it may seem strange that
a government which has from its inception been so interested in the
welfare of its subjects, and which has assisted and encouraged in
various ways so many sources of wealth and industry, should have
overlooked the forests, from which the nation is drawing larger
amounts than from all other natural sources combined.
The government has ever been devoted to the interests of agriculture
and manufacturing; and by premiums, by exemptions, by protections, by
model farms, by grants, by bounties, by patent rights, by technical
schools, and by introduction of superior animals and improved
machinery, has fostered well these industries. It has not been at
fault, either, in donating large sums in the construction of canals
and railroads and for the improvement of rivers and harbors. It has
even taken an interest in the clam and oyster, and has stocked the
rivers and lakes with young fish, that the devastation of these
natural sources of wealth may be compensated thereby, and perpetuated
as a national trust; while the springs and brooks and streams, the
climatic causes of disease, the necessary conditions for national
wealth and national health--in a word, the importance of forests for
the nation, for the land, for agriculture, for the perpetuation of
rivers--has received little or no official recognition. Few persons are
so destitute of foresight as not to see that the fires and thieves,
and increasing consumption, if continued at the present rate, can not
fail to make this a treeless waste, a desolate, uninhabitable country,
at no very distant date. Is there no way by which the remaining
beasts and birds and trees can be preserved? Must the civilization
of the North-west permit the pirates of destruction to take and hold
possession of all its natural endowments? The clubs have been after
the pot-hunter with legal enactments, and have crippled, but never as
yet have they succeeded in exterminating him. He is still destroying
the remnants of game, and is at large in the public domain, seeking
something to devour.
The general government should no longer postpone a definition of its
policy regarding _forests_, _rivers_, and its _millions of acres of
arid lands_. The American people have been slow to realize the drifting
of this country toward a forest famine and its destructive results.
On the subject of forestry, until recently, representatives have been
politically dumb, and, no doubt, would have remained so much longer
had it not been for the inspiration of a few men. In January, 1872,
ex-Secretary Morton presented a resolution before the Agricultural
Society of Nebraska to set apart one day in each year and consecrate
it to planting trees. This day was christened “Arbor Day,” and is now
observed by law and proclamation in thirty-one states; has entered our
schools and colleges, and forestry forms part of the curriculum.
Wherever Arbor-Day has been observed it has awakened a sense of
inquiry; has taught the children the names, nature, and usefulness
of trees, with a lasting admiration and love for them. From the
influences of Arbor-Day, Nebraska has more than a million acres of
planted forests, and Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, and other
Western States fast following the good example. With laws, plantings,
and premiums; with books, schools, and colleges; with the hearts of
workers in it, forestry has built up a healthy public sentiment that
must be felt. The Eastern States are also awake and glistening with
law officers to protect their woods from fires and thieves; and by
large premiums and exemptions from taxation, have greatly promoted the
interest of forestry in their respective states.
Even the state that sold her birth-right--one hundred and fifty billion
feet of standing forest for nine hundred million dollars--is not
without influence for good. All these noble acts of the states and of
the people will be heard in time; for the government of the nation is
not given to disregard the will of the people, and has ever shown a
readiness to take the front and co-operate with the states in every
good work. But there is something more required of a government--the
representatives of the people must do more than simply respond to
petitions. In a free republican government the people are both
sovereigns and wards, and they expect those who assume legislative
and executive powers of the nation to understand political economy
sufficiently to manage correctly the finances and the natural wealth
of the nation with intelligence and superior wisdom. And in this
direction it would certainly prove a most laudable act to withdraw
from sale or entry for a long period, if not perpetually, _all_
remaining forests and all arid lands where the rain-fall is below
twenty inches, and place the same under the management of the Secretary
of Agriculture, with ample powers and appropriations to build up a
grand system of forestry, surpassing in extent and wealth all similar
institutions belonging to the monarchies of Europe combined.
Governor J. J. Stevens, in his final report of surveys for a railroad
across the Rocky Mountains, called the attention of the government, in
1855, to the arid lands west of the Missouri river, between parallels
forty degrees and forty-nine north latitude. He compared it in extent,
climate, rain-fall, and other features, to the Steppes, which occupies
about one-fifth of the Russian Empire, and quotes the “Commentaries of
the Productive Sources of Russia” to sustain his statements:
“Among other peculiarities of the Steppes a very prominent and
distinctive one is the absence of timber, ... and opinions differ
greatly as to the possibility of wooding it anew.”
Since 1855, the Russian Government has arrived at one conclusion, and
adopted a policy of reforesting this two hundred and forty thousand
square miles worthy of imitation.
Let the Government of the United States do as Russia has been
doing, and the steppes from the Missouri river to the mountains
will be reclaimed and made to “blossom as the rose.” According to
geological surveys there are seven hundred and fifty million acres
of arid, treeless lands, incapable of successful cultivation without
irrigation--but where trees can be grown--for experiments have shown
that trees will grow where the rain-fall is insufficient for grain or
grass.
According to J. W. Powell, director of the United States Geological
Survey, on the water supply in the arid regions, it would seem if all
the water run off could be impounded and appropriated to irrigation it
would be insufficient to supply one-tenth of the arid districts. And it
might be asked if the arid land in the Dakotas, Montana, Washington,
Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas,
Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Indian Territory, only about “one
hundred million acres” can be irrigated and made productive, what is to
be done with the remaining six hundred and fifty million acres?
Could the area entire, or any part of the arid lands be made productive
on the most economic plan yet devised by irrigation enterprise in this
country, the cost of such lands and their products could never become
profitably utilized in commerce so long as the vast area of cheap
productive soil of the United States, or even that of the North-west
lies out doors, ready to receive the showers of Heaven.
When we recount the miseries and misfortunes of the eight hundred
million people that meagerly subsist on the products of irrigated,
treeless lands, it makes an irresistible hope that the government
of this nation may never be induced by ingenious descriptions of
co-operative systems of economics, nor less perceptible but more
powerful influences of _speculators in western water-ways_, to adopt a
policy that will make any part of this country and nation, a Spain, a
China, an India, or an Egypt, for want of forests.
Every country should have a just proportion of the total area in timber
to make it healthful and productive. It is far better to have a portion
in timber than to have all the country clothed with herds or covered
with corn. It is the order of nature, the necessity of civilization,
and the only true basis for a happy, powerful and independent
population.
As the source for national revenue, it is an interest ranking first
in importance, even in dollars and cents; and certainly, if for no
other reason than for the wealth there is in it, the subject demands
the attention of the government sufficiently to enforce protection
and perpetuation. Every year it comes--“Once more the forests of the
far west are aflame,” and it is not only the loss in money, but such
sections of country are ruined for all purposes beyond the power of
generations to repair.
It may seem expensive to maintain an army of officers and employes
to protect and perpetuate the forests of the public domain. But
notwithstanding it would require large appropriations, it would repay
the outlay many thousand times in national wealth, for this great
army would not be idlers. Nothing short of an organized department
of forestry can protect and maintain this source of national wealth.
The appropriation for this department in France has been five million
dollars, and is returned with good interest.
Austria, not larger in extent of territory than the States of Illinois
and Iowa combined, maintains thirty-two thousand forestry officers
or employees and receives a large net income from this source; and
reports show that Germany has an annual income of fifty-seven million
dollars from an area of thirty-three million acres of timber, and it
is estimated that no more is harvested each year than is compensated
by growth and reoccupation of wasted ground. For, forest preservation
does not mean that trees shall not be cut down, but that they shall
be used, while all the conditions for their reproduction are steadily
maintained from year to year, using if necessary, an amount equal to
the production by growth. This requires planting, and tree-planting and
forestry mean labor in this country as it does in Europe. The United
States without Alaska, is, I believe, about nineteen times larger in
area than Germany, and to be proportionately equal with this foreign
power, the United States should have under control of the government
an area of _six hundred million acres as a reservation for timber to
supply the public necessities of the near future_. And it should be
done without delay; the arid lands and forests along the streams and
lakes that make the sources of the Mississippi and other navigable
streams, should be dedicated forever to the cultivation of timber.
And here the labor question is solved. Every government that is able
to sustain itself, must have something for idle hands to do. The
increasing supply of labor has alarmed many thinking people. _Labor
is wealth_, but how can all find employment? Which means _bread_. And
various suggestions have been made simply to furnish _subsistence_. But
in forestry there is something better--a necessity, a demand for labor,
giving profitable employment to a vastly greater number than any other
public necessity; for the labors of a department or bureau of this kind
would be as immense as indispensable; and could end only with the end
of the race.
A forest of six hundred million acres, thoroughly organized and
officered under the Secretary of Agriculture, would sink the
post-office department and its patronage into insignificance, and would
be the brightest star in the civil service solar system to those who
elect a life in the service of the country. But this is not all--it
would make the climate more healthful, the rain-fall more regular and
abundant, the soil more productive, and in due time would exceed all
other sources of revenue combined.
The immensity of the consumption of forest supplies can not be measured
accurately; but some idea can be formed of its vastness, when it is
known that the one hundred and eighty-seven thousand miles of railroads
and one hundred and thirty-seven thousand miles of telegraph lines in
this country consume each year the annual growth or a forest equal to
_one hundred and fifty million acres_. And nothing short of a large
area of well-managed forest will prove adequate to _future_ demands.
What else can the nation expect when at present statistics show the
annual consumption, or crop, exceeds in value seven hundred million
dollars?
This is more than the yield of all the gold-mines and silver-mines,
coal, iron, copper, lead, and zinc combined; and if these are added
to the value of all the steamboats, sailing vessels, canal-boats,
flat-boats, and barges in American waters, the sum would be still less
than the value of the forest crop by an amount sufficient to purchase
at cost of construction all the canals, all the telegraph and telephone
lines in the United States. The value of the forest income exceeds the
gross income of all the railroads and transportation lines, and is
an interest ranking in importance far above all others in the United
States.
If this country ever becomes a Dalmatia--changed from a healthful,
fruitful and salubrious habitation to a sterile, sickly waste, with
decayed cities and crumbling greatness, history will not say “the
Romans did it.”
Man should ever remember prevention is better than cure. The worst of
evils is prevented by the removal of the cause. And when the apathy and
improvidence which now threaten the destiny of a rich and prosperous
nation are removed, then, and not till then, can it truly be said that
the lost Paradise of the Eastern Continent has been regained in the New
World of the West. The people should understand, also, the inspired
influences of living forests--trees--those musical mutes, upon those
who breathe their sweet ennobling influence.
The finest agricultural climate, perhaps, in the world, fell to the lot
of Ohio. But this state will soon be obliged to do something to offset
the destruction that is still going on with the little groves. When
it came into the Union, it presented the grandest unbroken forest of
forty-one thousand square miles that was ever beheld on this continent.
A forest interspersed with hills and valleys, springs, brooks, and
rivers; with a soil most inviting to the aspirations of agriculture.
The natural conditions of things were such that the possessors of this
inheritance soon desired occupation of the soil, and looked upon its
trees with less favor than they did upon those who disputed their
titles with the tomahawk. Indians could be induced to move out of the
way, but trees were all disposed to stand their ground and take the
consequences. Both were considered too numerous for easy advancement of
civilization, and in the contest both got the worst of it.
Forests may flourish independent of agriculture, but the latter can not
prosper without the former. This was not so evident, however, to the
early inhabitant, who felt he had thrust upon him more than his share
of perpetual shade, and every owner and occupant of the soil combined
with his neighbor in a warfare of destruction upon trees, and millions,
the best of their kind ever produced were killed by cutting a circle
around the trunk and left to decay. These deadenings were to be seen
all over the country, as fast and as far as settlements were made or
contemplated. And now, in less than a hundred years, more than eighty
per cent. of this great forest has disappeared, and only small clumps
in agricultural sections can be seen in any part of the state.
The older trees that occupied their places in these remnants of woods
have nearly all fallen by the hand of the axman, and the younger
growths are being appropriated for various purposes, greatly in excess
of possible reproduction to the remaining stock; and the time is not
far distant, if things continue without change for the better, when
the salubrious climate, with summer showers and productive soil, will
become changed to one of uncertainty. The entire North-west is now on
the very border of forest limit. Still thousands of portable saw-mills
are moving over the states, destroying the remaining needful trees, and
the rural districts will discover, when too late, that private interest
is insufficient to protect forest lands in quantity enough to maintain
climatic and sanitary influences without the aid of state government.
Some years ago the legislature of Ohio passed a law, now in force,
which lost the state many millions of growing forest trees that stood
on the public grounds. The act reads: “Supervisors shall cut down _all
bushes_ growing within any county or township highway, the same to be
done within the months of July and August of each year.” Thus a clean
sweep was made of every tree, bush and plant, as the word “bushes” was
legally defined to mean places “abounding in trees and shrubs.” Trees
of all kinds, sizes and ages, bordering and within the legal limits of
the highways, met their doom under this act. And every growing scion
that dared since to raise its head along the border lines of Ohio roads
has met a similar fate in the months of July and August of each year.
If laws can be enforced to destroy trees along the borders of public
highways, it is reasonable to suppose laws may be made and enforced
to restore and protect them in such locations. Ohio has approximately
forty thousand miles of good public highways and ways that could
well subserve the use of trees along their borders, at sufficient
distances to give them room and opportunity to grow. A tree on either
side at thirty feet distant would make in the aggregate a forest of
ordinary distribution of several million trees, that could be owned,
cultivated and protected by law. At the same time, an act of this kind
would maintain the lawful width of roads and prevent encroachments by
adjoining land-owners, and make all highways and byways avenues of
beauty, health and pleasure.
A fraction of a mill added to the tax assessment as a “forestry fund,”
and expended in planting and protecting trees, would soon accomplish
the work. Trees similarly arranged along railroads, canals and
water-courses, and around district school-houses, with a law exempting
from taxation all lands devoted exclusively to woods, would, in the
combination, form an important factor in preserving the true ratio
of timber to farming lands, the humidity of the atmosphere, and the
healthful condition of the country.
Trees are to be prized for many reasons, and admired for their
longevity. There is, perhaps, no limit to the life of a tree. No
inquest has ever rendered a verdict “_caused by old age_.” They are not
dependent upon the heart for their systemic vitality. The potency of
the living principle lies near the periphery and most distant roots and
branches from the surface of the ground; and grow on and on, subject
only to accidents that may end life. The expression may have seemed
extravagant for even an enthusiast, when that slip from a cypress
tree of Ceylon was planted, to say it would “_flourish and be green
forever_.” It is now the historical and sacred Bo-tree of two thousand
one hundred and eighty-three years, and still green and growing.
While the Bo-tree is perhaps the oldest tree found in human records, it
is not likely by any means, that it stands at the head in longevity.
For trees keep their own books, and write their own history, in which
may be found an account of passing years, from the beginning to the
ending of life--a true autobiography--the eucalyptus of Senegal, the
chestnuts at Mount Ætna, the oaks of Windsor, the yews at Fountain
Abbey, the olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, or the mammoth trees in
California are much older, making it quite probable that some of the
first seedlings that grew after the last remodeling of the earth took
place, are still green and growing.
[Illustration: Sequoia Park.]
It is stated on good authority that one of those ancient Jumbos blown
down at Sequoia Park, California, was forty-one feet in diameter and
showed six thousand, one hundred and twenty-six annual rings, or yearly
growths.
In the explorations and surveys, under act of Congress, 1853 and 1854,
Dr. J. M. Bigelow, in his report says: “It required five men twenty-two
days,” with pump augers, to get one of these Sequoia Gigantea
down--costing for labor at California prices, $550. “A short distance
from this tree was another of larger dimensions, which, apparently,
had been overthrown by an _accident_ some forty or fifty years ago....
The trunk was three hundred feet in length; the top broken off, and by
some agency (probably fire) was destroyed. At the distance of three
hundred feet from the butt, the trunk was forty feet in circumference,
or more than twelve feet in diameter, ... proving to a degree of moral
certainty that the tree, when standing alive, must have attained the
height of four hundred and fifty or five hundred feet!
“At the butt it is one hundred and ten feet in circumference, or about
thirty-six feet in diameter. On the bark, quite a soil had accumulated,
on which considerable-sized shrubs were growing. Of these I collected
specimens of currants and gooseberries on its body, from bushes
elevated twenty-two feet from the ground.”
Ohio abounded in large forest trees of many varieties--the sycamore,
oak, poplars, chestnut, black walnut, etc. The writer made partial
notes at the time, of a large yellow poplar that was cut down in 1844,
and taken to a saw mill, receiving from it over eleven thousand feet
of lumber, which was sold at the mill for one hundred and two dollars.
The tree was large at the base, measuring three feet above the ground,
forty feet in circumference. The axemen built a scaffold twelve feet
in height to stand upon, and by means of the axe and saw, they made
a stump fifteen feet in height. Some distance above this point the
center was decayed and when down, ten feet was discovered as unsuitable
for boards. Four sound logs of ten feet each were cut below the two
branches, and each branch made also a good saw-log. The four logs cut
from the trunk of the tree were, on the average over seven feet in
diameter, and were obliged to be quartered in order to handle them, and
consequently there was more than ordinary waste at the mill, as well
as where the tree stood. The outside appearance of the tree bore no
evidence of decay and those who had taken the contract to cut it down
were greatly rejoiced to find over four feet of the diameter useless as
support.
Many coon-hunters had followed tracks in snow for miles to bring up at
this tree, which was selected for safety or other _instinctive reason_;
probably from its long standing it became a favorite resort or stopping
place for traveling raccoons. A portion of both main branches of the
tree was hollow. One was occupied by coons and the other by “the little
busy bee.” But neither the bee-hunters nor hunter for coons could be
induced to cut the tree for what it contained, and for forty years it
defied the axemen of the surrounding settlement.
Another of the first crop of trees that has passed away without mention
is a sycamore that stood on the banks of the Scioto, in Pickaway
county. It became quite noted and familiar to generations of hunters,
who used the interior for camping purposes on hunting excursions for
nearly half a century. It was also known and visited by others, from
the fact, in 1872, a newly married couple commenced housekeeping in
its spacious quarters, and enjoyed the seclusion amidst a forest of
other mammoth trees. July 4, 1855, the dimensions of this sycamore were
taken, which showed--Circumference three feet above ground, forty-five
feet, and diameter of the hollow chamber, fourteen feet; door-way,
three feet wide at base, terminating in a point seven feet above.
The large trees existed in abundance in many portions of the state,
showing ages of four to five hundred years. Trees sometimes are found
in such close proximity as to be termed “wedded,” as those shown in the
following page, which are near the line of the towing path of the canal
in Miami county--an elm and sycamore--girt six feet from the ground
measures twenty-four feet.
[Illustration: Conflict in Pre-Emption Claims.]
One of the surveys of the Military District, in Pickaway county, is
known as the “Seven Oaks.” In 1793, while Nathaniel Massie was making
surveying tours in the country yet covered by hostile Indians, his
assistant, Duncan McArthur, ran around a tract located in Pickaway
county, covered it with warrants, and named it, “The Seven Oaks.” The
trees were said to be large one hundred years ago and still growing.
From measurements made June 21, 1895, the circumference of the main
undivided trunk, three feet from the ground measured twenty-five feet
ten inches; height of common trunk, three feet six inches. At the top
of the common trunk is an opening eighteen inches wide into a circular
inclosure, with a floor thirty-six inches in diameter, formed by main
trunk and surrounding trees. The four trees, forming the west and north
portions of the circle, remain united for ten feet, while those forming
the south and eastern portion separate at six feet from the ground.
Each of the seven trees is one hundred feet in height, and measures a
little over eight feet in circumference at bisections.
“Grandeur, strength, and grace,
Are to speak of thee. This mighty oak--
By whose immovable stem I stand and seem
Almost annihilated--not a prince,
In all that proud old world beyond the deep,
E’er wore his crown as loftily as he
Wears the green coronal of leaves with which
Thy hand has graced him.”
Great trees and great men and women are too numerous to obtain
more than a mention. Every thing in Ohio has shown a tendency to
superiority. It may seem almost fabulous, though true, a grape-vine
near Frankfort, in Ross county, was cut down in 1853 that measured
sixteen feet in circumference, ten feet from the ground; twenty feet
up it divided into three branches, each measuring eight feet in
circumference; height, seventy-five feet, and spread one hundred and
fifty feet; and when cut up made eight cords of fire-wood.
[Illustration: Chillicothe Elm.]
It has been shown by actual measurements that the “big elm” of
Walnut street, Chillicothe, Ohio, is much larger than the famous
Boston elm, or any one at Cambridge, New Haven, or the great tree at
Wethersfield. The Chillicothe elm measures twenty-eight feet six inches
in circumference three feet above ground, with boughs covering an area
of fifty-five square rods. As late as 1840 the remnants of this olden
forest crop could be numbered by the dozen on an area of almost any
square mile of woods. They were left because it meant work to get them
off their pre-emption claim. But an advance in lumber and improvements
soon diminished the number having a lumber value, leaving those
unfitted for boards to the destruction of campfires and girdling, or to
be utilized as houses of various kinds and purposes. A large, hollow
sycamore in Pike county, near Waverly, made a commodious blacksmith
shop and horse-shoeing establishment for many years.
[Illustration: The Logan Elm.]
“The Logan Elm” is the most interesting historic tree in Ohio,
testifying of thrilling incidents in colonial times--military
achievements of Lord Dunmore, unsurpassed ability of the red man, and
the trying period of the earliest pioneers--each giving great interest
to the spot where stands this living monument.
During the fall of 1774 Lord Dunmore fitted out an expedition of three
thousand men, hoping to destroy the Indians and their numerous towns
along the Scioto valley. His army moved westward in two sections. The
larger division, commanded by Dunmore in person, crossed the mountains
by way of the Cumberland Gap, and arrived at the Ohio river near where
Wheeling now stands, and the smaller corps, under command of Colonel
Andrew Lewis, followed the Kanawha to its confluence. Before reaching
the villages of the plains and along the borders of the Scioto river,
in Pickaway county, the divisions had planned to form a junction.
Colonel Lewis arrived on the Ohio river at the point designated October
6th, and encamped on the grounds now occupied by the town of Point
Pleasant, awaiting dispatches from Lord Dunmore. After remaining three
days without intrenchments or other works of defense, he was, on the
10th, attacked early in the morning by one thousand chosen braves of
the tribes belonging to the confederacy, under the great chieftain,
“Cornstalk,” hoping to destroy his enemies before they should have an
opportunity to unite their forces. The battle lasted all day and ended
with the cover of night. The Indians felt they received the greater
disaster, having two hundred and thirty-three killed and severely
wounded. Here Colonel Charles Lewis lost his life, with the lives of
half of the commissioned officers.
Chief Cornstalk felt the failure, and to save the towns and people of
the Scioto valley, something must be done immediately, and hurried
to Lord Dunmore with petitions for peace. Previous to this, and in
ignorance of the bloody battle, Dunmore had transmitted orders to Lewis
to move on and enter the borders of the enemy’s country on the Scioto.
Elated with the idea of slaughtering the “redskins” in their camps and
country, the enraged Virginians marched eighty miles through a rough,
trackless wilderness, without bread or tents, and on the 24th day of
October encamped on the banks of Congo, under the spreading boughs of
the historic tree, and within less than four miles of the great town
of the Shawnees, located on the west bank of the Scioto river, now
known as “Westfall.” Chief Cornstalk had been scouting Colonel Lewis’s
movements, and he, with the chiefs of other tribes, were beseeching
Lord Dunmore to stop Colonel Lewis and save their towns and women and
children.
[Illustration: _LORD DUNMORE’S CAMPAIGN._]
Thrice had Lewis received orders to halt, but on he went; and when near
the Indian town, he was intercepted by Dunmore, who drew his sword
upon Lewis and threatened him with instant death if he persisted in any
further disobedience, and marched the army back to Camp Lewis, where
the treaty went on to a satisfactory conclusion, in the presence of two
thousand five hundred troops and all the confederate chiefs and their
warriors.
There was one chief absent whom Dunmore much desired present--Logan,
the great warrior of the Mingoes--who felt his people had been very
unfortunate in their attempts at peaceful relations with the whites;
and in order to secure his presence, John Gibson, an interpreter and
friend of Logan’s, was detailed as messenger with dispatches to the
chief, who resided at Old Chillicothe (Westfall), about four miles
distant from Camp Lewis.
Of this matter Captain Gibson says, under oath, he found Logan at
his home, but refused to attend the council, and that at the chief’s
request they walked out some distance into the woods and sat down.
Logan appeared much affected, and after shedding many tears and showing
other manifestations of sorrow, told his pathetic story in reply to the
request from Lord Dunmore, and which Gibson translated into English and
delivered to Dunmore in the council assembled under the boughs of this
noble tree on the banks of the Congo--and was read as follows, to wit:
“I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan’s cabin
hungry and I gave him not meat; if ever he came cold or naked and I
gave him not clothing.
“During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained
in his tent, an advocate for peace. Nay, such was my love for the
whites that those of my countrymen pointed at me as they passed by
and said, ‘Logan is the friend of the white man.’ I had even thought
to have lived among them, but for the injuries of one man--Colonel
Cresap--who last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all
the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There
runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This
called on me for revenge--I have sought it. I have killed many. I
have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the
beams of peace. Yet do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of
fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his
life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.”
The authorship of this message has been doubted and disputed by reason
of its greatness. But it is well known that many of the native men of
America have shown an ability for expression of thoughts surpassed by
no people or nation in the world. Who could have thought it--who could
have said it so effectively, by every gesture and living fiber--as
it was expressed by Tecumseh, after finishing a speech at Vincennes
holding, contrary to the United States Government, that no one or two
tribes could make treaties conveying away lands without the consent
of others equally interested? When done speaking, an aide of Governor
Harrison, pointing to a vacant chair, said to Tecumseh, “Your father
requests you to take a seat by his side.” Drawing his mantle around
him, the chief proudly exclaimed: “My father! The sun (pointing upward)
is my father, and the earth my mother; on her bosom I will repose,”
and seated himself on the ground where he had been standing. And it is
unusual, at least, that one with learning and general acquaintance with
the high standard of natural ability of the Indian, and after so many
years, should enter into a voluminous correspondence to prove that he
(Jefferson) did not write “Logan’s reply.”
Some years since, a partial investigation of the papers of Lord Dunmore
was made. While the original Gibson translation was not discovered,
there was much to confirm the statements here given.
The expedition of Dunmore with an army of three thousand men into the
heart of an Indian country, with mountains and wilderness hundreds of
miles between him and supplies, at that early date, with that existing
animosity between the Indians and his Virginia soldiery, makes it
appear now, as it did at the time to many of his soldiers, of singular
significance. When the military expedition reached the point of
destination it found the enemy praying for peace. And while the chiefs
were entertained in council, and the braves and soldiers were listening
to Virginia oratory, small bands of maddened and vicious troops stole
away and murdered Indian women and children, fired their towns, and
with stolen horses discharged themselves from the army and fled the
country.
The Indians were helpless, and the treaty fixing the Ohio river the
boundary line went on, while the soldiers put in the time making
speeches and passing resolutions. The following should be ever
preserved as the thoughts of men in a far country, by a captain:
“GENTLEMEN--Having now concluded the campaign, by the assistance of
Providence, with honor and advantage to the colony and ourselves, it
only remains that we should give our country the stronger assurance
that we are ready at all times, to the utmost of our power, to
maintain and defend her just rights and privileges.
“We have lived about three months in the woods, without any
intelligence from Boston, or from the delegates at Philadelphia. It
is possible, from the groundless reports of designing men, that our
countrymen may be jealous of the use such a body would make of arms
in their hands at this critical juncture. That we are a respectable
body is certain, when it is considered that we can live weeks without
bread or salt; that we can sleep in the open air without any covering
but that of the canopy of heaven; and that we can march and shoot
with any in the known world. Blessed with these talents, let us
solemnly engage to one another, and our country in particular, that
we will use them for no purpose but for the honor and advantage of
America, and of Virginia in particular. It behooves us, then, for
the satisfaction of our country, that we should give them our real
sentiments by way of resolves at this very alarming crisis.”
Thereupon the committee presented the following resolutions, which
carried, and ordered printed in the _Virginia Gazette_:
“_Resolved_, That we will bear the most faithful allegiance to His
Majesty, King George the Third, while His Majesty delights to reign
over a brave and free people; that we will, at the expense of life
and every thing dear and valuable, exert ourselves in the support of
the honor of his crown and the dignity of the British Empire. But as
the love of liberty and attachment to the real interests and just
rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve we
will exert every power within us for the defense of American liberty,
and for the support of her just rights and privileges--not in any
precipitous, riotous or tumultuous manner, but when regularly called
forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen.
“_Resolved_, That we entertain the greatest respect for his
excellency, the Rt. Hon. Lord Dunmore, who commanded the expedition
against the _Shawanese_, and who we are confident underwent the great
fatigue of this singular campaign from no other motive than the true
interests of the country.
“Signed by order and in behalf of the whole corps.
“BENJAMIN ASHBY, _Clerk_.”
All of which shows political and personal resolutions have maintained a
due degree of hypocrisy to the present, without material change.
Captain John Boggs and family located on this place in 1798, before
the lands were surveyed or in market. And from Captain Williamson, an
officer under Lord Dunmore, Captain Boggs procured many important facts
in regard to Camp Lewis, Logan, and the noted tree. This large and
valuable tract of land, on which the tree stands passed from the United
States into the hands of Captain John Boggs, and is still owned by his
descendants.
[Illustration: Monument of the Boggs Family.]
In memory of the family settlement and historic events of the spot,
John Boggs the third erected a handsome monument where stood the
cabin in which three generations were born. The monument is within
one hundred and fifty feet of the Logan Elm, is of pure granite,
twelve feet square, base six feet, shaft fifteen feet, tapering. On
each side are cut letters in commemoration of events connected with
that spot. On one side is firmly set in the granite a bronze tablet,
thirty by fifteen inches, bearing the picture of the capture of Captain
Boggs’ son, William, in bas-relief. The figures depicted represent a
thrilling and vivid scene which on that spot actually once occurred in
view of the agonized family.
[Illustration: Indian Raid.]
The landscape is an exact representation of the surroundings. In the
left-hand corner is a log cabin, at the corner of which is the figure
of an Indian with a gun to his shoulder; to the left, and fronting the
cabin door stands an Indian. At the right of this is a field of wheat
surrounded by a rail-fence. Several panels have been thrown down in the
night, and the cattle are in the field eating the grain. Near the fence
is seen a boy running up a slight ascent, making his way to a palisade
on the elevation beyond--after him are two Indians in hot pursuit.
The Indians, under cover of darkness, had torn down the fence and
turned the cattle upon the growing grain; then secreted themselves for
events that might occur in the morning. The decoy was successful. The
boy, awakening early, found the destructive scene, and, unsuspecting
the authors of the mischief, proceeded at once to drive out the herd
and to restore the fence. Suddenly an apparition of a hostile foe rises
before him. He at once retreats toward the cabin, but there too he sees
a redskin awaiting his approach. He turns, and, with the speed of dying
fright, vainly endeavors to make the palisade on the elevation; but his
course is beset with increasing pursuers on all sides, and at length,
exhausted, is overcome and made captive to Indian cunning.
All this time, Captain Boggs stood sentinel at the cabin’s corner,
guarding the family, while the son is relentlessly pursued by the
hostile enemy. The whole is depicted and for the time preserved in
bronze and granite; and as generations of the future stand before
this consecrated record, it will extort thoughts of the pioneer--his
pleasures and his sufferings--with venerated admiration for those whose
lives marked out the pathway of our civilization.
Every nation, every country, and every town has historic trees. They
are not without influence on the destiny of individuals, societies,
and nations. They are objects of reverence--works of time--homes of
generations--and the manifest wisdom of creation. In the _tree_ is
beheld in perfection an enduring living principle, exceeding all
other forms of life--beginning in the morning of creation and ending
only with the end of time. When moth and rust have corroded memorial
in bronze, and years of the unseen future have crumbled the granite
to dust, there will still be standing noble, historic trees, with all
their lessons fresh and green.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] Barr’s Buffon, Vol. VII, page 175.
[19] Stevens’s Report.
[20] Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio.
[21] Hon. J. M. Rusk, Secretary Agriculture Report, 1889.
[22] Minneapolis Journal.