COLORADO STATE 
 
 FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ORGANIZED NOVEMBER i 9 TH, 1884. 
 
 c^-&*se 
 
 Arapahoe County. 
 El Paso County - 
 Larimer County-. 
 Weld County 
 
 PRESIDENT, 
 
 EDGAK T. ENSIGN, COLORADO SPRINGS. 
 
 VICE PRESIDENTS, 
 
 G. G. MERRICK Denver. 
 
 GEO. H. PARSONS Colorado Springs 
 
 JAMES CASSIDY Fort Collins. 
 
 RALPH MEEKER Greeley. 
 
 SECRETARY, 
 
 WILLIAM E. PABOR, FRUITA. 
 
 TREASURER, 
 
 A. E. GIPSON, GREELEY. 
 
 BOARD OF MANAGERS, 
 
 W. N. BYERS, W. W. PARDEE, WM. DAVIS, W. D. ARNETT, 
 And the President, Secretary arid Treasurer. 
 
 DENVER, COLORADO : 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 
 1884. 
 
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 
 
 ADOPTED NOV. 19-20, 1884. 
 
 Article 1. This association shall be known 
 as the Colorado State Forest y Association. 
 Art. 2. Its object shall be the preservation 
 and cultivation of trees in this State. 
 Art. 3. Its membership shall consist of 
 annual members, paying an annual fee of 
 one dollar, in advance, of life members pay- 
 ing a fee of ten dollars at one time, and of 
 honorary members, who shall be persons of 
 distinguished merit in forestry, and shall be 
 elected to membership by a vote of the asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Art. 4. It shall hold an annual meeting 
 on the second Tuesday of January, in each 
 year, at Denver, unless otherwise ordered, at 
 the regulur meeting of the association. 
 
 Art. 5. The officers of the Association shall 
 bo a President, a Vice President from each 
 ceunty, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. With 
 the exception of the Vice Presidents, they 
 shall be elected at each annual meeting of 
 the association, and shall hold their office for 
 one year, or until their successors shall be 
 elected. The Vice Presidents shall be ap- 
 pointed by the President. 
 
 Art. 6. The affairs of the Association shall 
 be under the control of a Board of Managers, 
 consisting of the President, ' the Secretary, 
 the Treasurer, and four other members of the 
 Association, who shall be elected at each 
 annual meeting, and shall hold their office 
 for one year, or until their successors shall 
 be elected. They shall have the power to 
 fill any vacancies occurring in the Board be- 
 tween the annual meetings of the Associa- 
 tion, and any, officer so appointed shall hold 
 his office until the next succeeding annual 
 meeting, or until a successor shall be elected 
 by the Association. . * . 
 
 Art. 7. It shall be the duty of th'e Presi- 
 dent to preside at all meetings of the Board^ 
 and Association, call special jrne.}th?;gs;deCiaV 
 all points of order there may arise subject -to 
 customary laws, and have general supervision 
 over the affairs of the Association. 
 
 Art. 8. It shall be the duty of the Vice- 
 Presidents, in alphabetical order of their 
 
 countk is, to preside at all meetings of the As- 
 sociation during the absence of the President 
 or his inability to act; to call conventions in 
 their counties; to form associations for the 
 purpose of carrying out the objects of this 
 Association, &nd to report at each annual 
 meeting. 
 
 Art. 9. It shall be the duty of the Secretary 
 to record the proceedings of the meetings of 
 the Board and the Association, and to take 
 charge of all documents and papers belonging 
 to his office as Secretary; to audit the ac- 
 counts of the Treasurer, certify to the cor- 
 rectness thereof, and present the same to the 
 association annually; to transact all business 
 of the association requiring transmittal by 
 mail and make an annual report to the Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Art. 10. It shall be the duty of the Treas- 
 urer to receive and disburse all moneys of 
 the Association under the direction of the 
 Board, and to submit his accounts, with pro- 
 per vouchers in writing at least ten days 
 previous to each annual meeting to the Secre- 
 tary, to be audited and approved by him. 
 
 Art. 11. If, at any meeting of the Board, it 
 shall appear that the Piesident is absent, 
 then the meeting may choose a President pro 
 tern, as alse in the absence of the Secretary, a 
 Secretary pro tern may be chosen. 
 
 Art. 12. A resolution signed by a majority 
 of the members of the Board of Managers 
 shall be considered valid and in full force, 
 the same as though passed at a regular meet- 
 ing of the Board. 
 
 Art. 13. This Constitution may by amended 
 at any annual meeting of the Association by 
 a two-thirds vote of the members present. 
 
 ARTICLE 14 ORDER OF BUSINESS. 
 
 -1. .Ee&ding and approval of minutes. 
 2. Report of the President. 
 ; 3. Report'of. the Secretary. 
 4. Report of committees. 
 5! "Unfinished business. 
 
 6. New business. 
 
 7. Election of officers and members of the 
 Board of Managers, new members and honor- 
 ary members of the Society. 
 
FIRST DAYS SESSION. 
 
 The meeting for the purpose of forming a 
 State Forestry Association, was convened 
 November 19th, at 10 a. m. at the State 
 House. The attendance was not so large as 
 was expected, but there were a number of 
 enthusiastic and energetic men present just 
 such men as are needed in launching, and 
 perfecting such a,n organization. 
 
 Colonel E. T. Ensign called the meeting to 
 order, read the call, and made a few remarks 
 on the general suject of forestry. 
 
 Mr. W. E. Pabor, of Fruita, moved that 
 Hon. W. N. Byers be chosen temporary 
 Chairman, and the motion prevailed. Mr. 
 Pabor was then made temporary Secretary, 
 aad on motion of Mr. Ensign, the temporary 
 organization was made permanent. 
 
 The meeting was then declared ready for 
 business, and Sir. G. H. Parsons offered the 
 following .resolution: 
 
 ftesol&d, That a Colorado State Forestry 
 Association be formed, and chat a committee 
 of three be appointed by the Chair to draw 
 up a constitution and by-laws, and report at 
 the afternoon session. 
 
 The resolution was adopted, and the Chair 
 appointed the following gentlemen on the 
 committee: Messrs. George H. Parsons, W. 
 D. Arnett and W. W. Pardee. 
 
 The following committee was then ap- 
 pointed on order of business: Messrs. E. T. 
 Ensign, G. G. Merrick and E. G. Perkins. 
 
 A recess was taken for ten minutes, pend- 
 ing the report of the Committee on Order of 
 Business, and when the meeting was again 
 called to order, the committee submitted the 
 following report : 
 
 1. Reading of minutes of last meeting. 
 
 2. Reports of committees. 
 
 3. New business, resolutions, etc. 
 
 4. Unfinished business. 
 
 The report was adopted and the meeting 
 then adjourned until 2 o'clock p. in. 
 
 Afternoon Session. 
 
 At 2 o'clock the meeting was again called 
 to order by Chairman Byers and, for the 
 edification of those who were not present at 
 the morning session, the minutes thereof 
 were read. 
 
 Mr. Parsons, Chairman of the Committee 
 on Constitution and By-laws, read his report, 
 which was adopted seriatim, with few chan- 
 ges. 
 
 The committee having failed to provide 
 by-laws, was instructed to prepare such as 
 were necessary, and submit them at this 
 morning's session. 
 
 OTHER BUSINESS. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Clark of the State Horticultural 
 Society, offered to furnish cloth-bound copies 
 of the report of the State Horticultural So- 
 ciety for the years 1882, 1883 and 1884, to 
 members of the Forestry Association, and a 
 vote of thanks was tendered the gentleman 
 for the courtesy. 
 
 A letter from Mrs. A. L. Washburne, of 
 Fort Collins, containing some suggestions 
 concerning the formation of the Association, 
 was read by Mr. E. T. Ensign and was re- 
 ferred to the Board of Managers. 
 
 Mr. A. E. Gipson was appointed tempora- 
 ry treasurer of the organization, and re- 
 ceived the initiation from those who wished 
 to become members of the organization. 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The following persons paid their initiation 
 and were enrolled as members of the associ- 
 ation : George H. Parsons, Colorado Springs; 
 William N. Byers, Denver; W. E. Pabor, 
 Fruita ; E. T. Ensign, Colorado Springs ; 
 W. W. Pardee, Denver ; Wm. Davis, High- 
 lands ; G. G. Merrick, Denver ; E. G. Per- 
 kins, Colorado Springs; Ralph Meeker, 
 Greeley ; A. E. Gipson, Greeley ; James 
 Cassidy, Fort Collins ; Mrs. Olive Wright, 
 Denver; W. D. Arnett, Morrison. 
 
 The Association proceeded to the election 
 of officers with the following result : 
 
 President E. T. Ensign, of Colorado 
 Springs. 
 
 Secretary Wm. E. Pabor, of Fruita. 
 
 Treasurer A. E. Gipson, of Geeeley. 
 
 Board of Managers W. D. Arnett, of 
 Jefferson county ; Wm. N. Byers, of Grand 
 county ; Wm. Davis, of Bent county ; W. 
 W. Pardee, of Arapahoe county. 
 
 M43377 
 
FIRST DAYS SESSION. 
 
 All the abp-ve officers were elected by ac- 
 
 On taking the chair Mr. Ensign thanked 
 the members for the honor which had been 
 conferred upon him, and spoke of the legis- 
 lation necessary to forward the objects of the 
 Association. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Meeker the Association 
 tendered a vote of thanks to Mr. Byers for 
 the satisfactory manner in which he had 
 presided. 
 
 Mr. Pabor stated that an arrangement 
 had been made with with THE TRIBUNE- 
 EEPUBLICAN to publish the proceedings at 
 a very small cost. He suggested that some 
 one be empowered to attend to the matter 
 for the Association. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Meeker, Messrs. W. E. 
 Pabor, W. N. Byers and Kalph Meeker 
 were appointed a Committee on Printing 
 for this purpose. 
 
 Mr. Pabor moved that the consideration 
 of the bill, which it was proposed to submit 
 to the Legislature, be made the first order 
 after the reading of the minutes at the ses- 
 sion to-day, which begins at 9 o'clock a. m. 
 The motion prevailed and the Association 
 then adjourned until 7:30 o'clock at night. 
 ^ The bills, which it is proposed to con- 
 sider, provide for the appointment by the 
 State authorities, of Forest Commissioners, 
 to look after the forest trees in the State. 
 
 Night Session. 
 
 The night session of the Association was 
 called to order by President Ensign about 
 7:45 o'clock. The reading of the minutes 
 was suspended. 
 
 President Ensign announced that if there 
 was any matter of business that was to be 
 attended to, it would be well to take it up 
 the first thing. 
 
 Mr. W. N. Byers said that as he was com- 
 pelled to leave the city to-day, he would 
 like, if the Association 'would indulge him, 
 to say something on the subject of the bills 
 which are to be presented to the Legislature 
 and which are to be the subject of discussion 
 to-day. 
 
 No objection being offered, Mr. Byers said 
 that the bills apparently contemplated only 
 the preservation of the timber on State anc 
 United States land. He alluded to the man 
 ner in which timber was wasted upon the 
 public domain, and said that he thought the 
 land should be divided into 160-acre tracts 
 or some suitable body, and individuals al 
 lowed to purchase the right to use the tim 
 ber upon the land and to work the surface 
 
 ut leave all the title tp mineral deposits in 
 
 he Government, so that the public might 
 
 ave access to them, and when mineral was 
 
 ocated the damage done to the owner of 
 
 he surface was to be made good by the mi- 
 
 ler. He did not think the present bill 
 
 would serve the purpose intended, but if 
 
 his individual ownership was established 
 
 imber would be protected. 
 
 "TREE PLANTING IN COLORADO." 
 
 Following the remarks of Mr. Byers, Mr. 
 jeorge H. Parsons read a paper on " Tree 
 Planting in Colorado. He addressed him- 
 self to the trees best adapted to growth in 
 his State, and described the character of 
 welve trees which had been found to grow 
 apidly, and which were exceedingly ser- 
 dceable, not only as factors in climatic con- 
 ditions, but in manufactures. These trees 
 were, taking the common name, the West- 
 ;rn Catalpa, the White Ash, the White Elm, 
 he Cottonwood, the Balm of Gilead, the 
 ,sh Leaved Maple, the Honey Locust, the 
 Yellow or Black Locust, the Russian Mul- 
 )erry, the White or Silvery Maple, the Red 
 Cedar, the White or Gray Willow. 
 
 The paper was listened to with great in- 
 terest and at its close Mr. W. E. Pabor read 
 an essay on " Forestry in Colorado." The 
 paper dealt with the uses of forests in mak- 
 ng the country habitable and showed the 
 jlighting effects of denuding land of its 
 woodland growth. The influence of forests 
 on the rainfall in this State was noticed and 
 it appeared from statistics that the rainfall 
 had decreased since the wanton and whole- 
 sale destruction of forests began. 
 
 "THE USE AND BEAUTY OF FORESTS." 
 
 Mr. Ralph Meeker, editor of the Greeley 
 Tribune, followed with a well-written essay 
 on " The Use and Beauty of Forests." The 
 essay considered the manifold uses to which 
 timber is put in civilized lands and dwell 
 at length on the beauty which a fine growth 
 of trees gave to the landscape. For these rea- 
 sons he urged the preservation of the forests. 
 Following this Prof. James Cassidy, of 
 Fort Collins,read a long paper on "Forestry." 
 It was an exceedingly interesting document, 
 showing great scientific research and thor- 
 ough knowledge of the action of the various 
 civilized nations concerning their forests. 
 
 Mr. W. D. Arnett, of Morrison, spoke of 
 the various processes which would make 
 timber more lasting, and said this was a fact 
 which should be agitated. This, he thought, 
 would be a move to preserve the forest trees. 
 The meeting then adjourned. 
 
SECOND DAYS SESSION. 
 
 The second day's session of the Colorado 
 State Forestry Association began Thursday 
 morning at 10 o'clock at the rooms of the 
 Supreme Court. Quite a number of persons 
 interested in the subject were present and 
 the session was very interesting. 
 
 President Ensign called the meeting to or- 
 der, and it was decided to dispense with the 
 reading of the minutes of previous sessions. 
 
 Mr. G. H. Parsons, from the Coi vmittee on 
 Constitution and By-Laws, reported an order 
 of business, which was incorporated as purt 
 of the Constitution and By-laws. 
 
 At the session on Wednesday it was de- 
 cided to make the consideration of a forestry 
 bill, to be submitted to the next Legislature, 
 the special object of the meeting after the 
 reading of the minutes, but this order was 
 suspended so as to permit of the reading of 
 papers which had been specially prepared for 
 the meeting. 
 
 INTERESTING PAPEES. 
 
 The first paper read was by Mr. W. W. 
 Pardee, on the subject of " Suggested Legis- 
 lation Concerning Forestry." The paper re- 
 lated solely to appropriate legislation to pre- 
 serve the forests. 
 
 Mr. Pabor, the secretary, read a paper con- 
 tributed by Mrs. A. L. Washburn, of Love- 
 land, on "A Woman's View of Forestry." 
 
 This was followed by a paper read by 
 President Ensign and written by Posey S. 
 Wilson, of Fort Collins. 
 
 The following excellent papers were then 
 read by Secretary Pabor, ''Tree Planting 
 on Farms," written by J. H. Berry of Fruita; 
 by the President, a letter commenting on the 
 proposed bill for presentation to the General 
 Assembly, written by E. Q. Tenny of Fort 
 Collins ; by the Secretary, "Nut Trees," writ- 
 ten by H. B. Snyder of Colorado Springs ; by 
 the President, letters from David Bpyd and 
 Valentine De Vinney on the subject of for- 
 estry legislation. This concluded the read- 
 ing of papers and communications. 
 
 The President announced the appointment 
 of the following Vice-Presidents : G. G. Mer- 
 rick, Arapahoe County; G. H. Parsons, El 
 Paso County; James Cassidy. Larimer County; 
 Kalph Meeker of Weld County. 
 
 The Society then took up the proposed bill 
 to be submitted to the General Assembly and 
 it was fully discussed by Messrs. Ensign, Pa- 
 
 bor, Gipson, Merrick, Pardee and others. The 
 draft of the bill as finally adopted is as fol- 
 ows : 
 
 TEXT OF THE BILL. 
 
 AN ACT Relating, to Woodlands and Forestry; to 
 Establish the Office of Forest Commissioners of 
 the State of Colorado, and to Provide for the 
 Expense thereof. 
 
 SECTION 1. All lands now owned or con- 
 tiolled, or which may be hereafter owned or 
 controlled by the State of Colorado, and which 
 were originally, are now, or shall hereafter 
 be covered with forest growth, or devoted to 
 forest uses are, for the purposes of this act, 
 declared to be woodlands. 
 
 SEC. 2. No such lands shall, after the pas- 
 sage of this act, be leased. They shall not be 
 sold except by the authority of the General 
 Assembly, upon a two-thirds vote of the mem- 
 bers elected to each House. Subject to such 
 laws and regulations as may be provided 
 therefor by the Forestry Commissioners, such 
 timber and wood as can be taken from said 
 lands, consistent with forest preservation and 
 growth, may, at a fair valuation, be sold, and 
 the proceeds of such sales be immediately 
 converted into the State Treasury. 
 
 SEC. 3. By and with the advice and consent 
 of the Senate, the Governor shall appoint as 
 Commissioners three suitable persons skilled 
 in matters relating to forestry, all of whom 
 shall be residents and citizens of this State, 
 and who shall constitute and be known as the 
 "Forest Commissioners of the State of Colo- 
 rado." The said Commissioners shall be 
 taken respectively from different locations in 
 the State, in a manner to best subserve the 
 public interests, and they shall hold office for 
 two. four and six years respectively, and 
 until their respective successors shall be duly 
 appointed and confirmed. Hereafter there 
 shall be appointed in the same manner, every 
 two years, one Forest Commissioner, whose 
 term of office shall be six years; due regard 
 being had to the place of residence of the 
 appointee, as above indicated. 
 
 SEC. 4. Each Forest Commissioners shall 
 receive a compensation of $5 for each day 
 actually employed in service as Commis- 
 sioner, and his reasonable f and necessary 
 traveling expenses. iSueh t Commissioner 
 shall, at the expense of the JState, be pro- 
 
6 
 
 SECOND DAYS SESSION. 
 
 vided with an office at the Capital, where 
 their official records shall be kept. 
 
 SEC. 5. The said Forest Commissioners 
 shall have the care and custody of all wood- 
 lands now owned or controlled or which may 
 be hereafter owned or controlled by the 
 State. They shall cause all such lands to be 
 located and duly recorded, and shall make 
 aad publish reasonable rules and regula- 
 tions for the prevention of trespass upon paid 
 lands, for the prevention and extinguishing 
 of fires thereon, and for the conservation of 
 forest growth. They shall also, so far as 
 possible, promote the gradual extension of 
 the forest area, encourage the planting of 
 trees, and preserve the sources of water sup- 
 ply. They shall attend to the selling of 
 timber and wood from such lands, whenever 
 such selling shall be deemed expedient, and 
 shall make due account of such sales and the 
 proceeds aris-ing therefrom. On or before 
 the 15th day of December in each year, they 
 shall report to the Governor their official 
 action during the preceding year, and such 
 information as may be useful in preserving 
 the forests of the State and maintaining the 
 supply of water. 
 
 SEC. 6. In addition to the powers and 
 duties attaching to the offices of County Com- 
 missioners and Road Overseers in the coun- 
 ties of ta? is State, sach Commissioners and 
 overseers shall act as conservators of wood- 
 lands in their respective localities, and shall 
 enforce the laws and regulations made for the 
 protection and preservation of such woodlands. 
 Said County Commissioners shall, also, to the 
 extent of their power, encourage the planting 
 of trees along water courses and irrigating 
 ditches and in other proper places: shall fur- 
 nish information to the Forestry Commis- 
 sioners as they may from time to time re- 
 quire, and report their official actsj to them 
 on or before the first day of December of each 
 year. 
 
 SEC. 7. It is made the special duty of all 
 forest officers of the State to exercise the ut- 
 most care and vigilance in the prevention anu 
 extinguishment of fires within the State 
 likelv to endanger or destroy forest growth, 
 and to apprehend any persons who may be 
 guilty of causing such fires; and in the per- 
 formance of their duties, such officers may 
 call to their aid such person or persons, with- 
 in the State, as they may deem necessary. 
 All forest officers and all peace officers within 
 the State are empowered and required to ar- 
 rest any and all persons found trespassing 
 upon the woodlands of the State, or by un- 
 lawful cutting or destroying timber thereon, 
 or setting fire in a manner to endanger such 
 woodlands; and shall cause actions to be in- 
 stituted in courts of proper jurisdiction to 
 punish violators of the forestry laws of the 
 
 State. In all matters pertaining to wood- 
 lands and forests, the district officers shall be 
 subject to the county forest officers of their 
 respective counties, and all shall be subord- 
 inate to the Forest Commissioners of the 
 State, in their individual or collective ca- 
 pacity. 
 
 SEC. 8. For the time actually occupied in 
 the performance of duties imposed by this 
 act, the said County Commissioners shall re- 
 ceive additional pay in the same manner and 
 at the same rate per diem as is allowed by 
 existing laws. The said Road Overseers, for 
 services rendered under this act, shall be 
 paid.by their respective counties at the rate 
 of $3 per day. 
 
 SEC. 9. No person who is directly or indi- 
 rectly engaged in the manufacture of lumber, 
 or railroad ties, or telegraph poles, or any 
 business which requires a large consumption 
 of growing timber or wood, shall be qualified 
 to serve as a Forest Commissioner under this 
 act. 
 
 SEC. 10. The sum of - - dollars, or 
 
 so much thereof as may be necessary, is 
 hereby appropriated for the purposes of this 
 act. , 
 
 Sec. 11. All acts and parts of acts incon- 
 sistent with the provisions of this act are 
 hereby repealed. 
 
 Sec. 12. It is the opinion of the General 
 Assembly that an emergency exists, there- 
 fore this act shall take effect and be in force 
 from and after its passage. 
 
 The Association then adjourned until 2 
 o'clock p. m. 
 
 Afternoon Session. 
 
 The Association was convened again at 2:30 
 o'clock, President Ensign in the chair. 
 
 Mr. Parson's moved that the bill drafted 
 by the Association be referred to the Board' of 
 Managers, with the following instructions, 
 proposed by Mr, Pardee: "That tae Board 
 of Managers be instructed to present to, and 
 urge upon the next General Assembly of the 
 State, the adoption of the Forestry. Act pro- 
 posed by this Association this day, and the 
 passage of such other act or acts as will sub- 
 serve and carry out the objects of this Asso- 
 ciation; and to also urge upon Congress the 
 enactment of such laws as will give Colorado 
 the control of the woodlands in Colorado be- 
 longing to the General Government, or such 
 legislation by Congress as will protect the 
 forests of the public domain in Colorado 
 from destruction and waste, and will encour- 
 age the planting and cultivation of trees in 
 this State," 
 
 FORESTRY DOCUMENTS. 
 
 The Secretary announced that he had 
 
SECOND DAYS SESSION. 
 
 written to Senator Hill for documents on for- 
 estry, published by the Department of Agri- 
 culture, and the Senator had secured a quan- 
 tity of these documents which he would fur- 
 nish to members who would call on him at 
 his office, in the Cheesman block. 
 
 A communication from a German Forester 
 was referred to the Secretary for incorpora- 
 tion in the minutes as he saw fit. 
 
 Mr. Pardee moved that when the Associa- 
 tion adjourn, it be to meet in Denver on the 
 second Tuesday in January, 1885. 
 
 The motion was adopted and Messrs. Par- 
 dee and Davis of the Board of Managers 
 were instructed to make such arrangements 
 for the meeting as were necessary. 
 
 COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 Mr. Merrick introduced a resolution re- 
 quiring the Secretary to prepare instruc- 
 tions for the guidance of persons organizing 
 Forestry Associations in the various counties 
 in order to secure uniformity in these orga- 
 nizations. The resolution was adopted. 
 
 Mr. Parsons introduced a resolution which 
 was adopted, requiring the Vice Presidents 
 appointed in each county to circulate peti- 
 tio'ns urging the Legislature to pass the for- 
 estry bill drafted by the State Association. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Meeker, a vote of thanks 
 was tendered to Secretary of State Edwards 
 and Superior Court Clerk Miller for the use 
 of the court room for the sessions of the As- 
 sociation. 
 
 The body then adjourned until next Jan- 
 uary. 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY. 
 
 CONCERNING TREE PLANTING. 
 
 [By Geo. H. Parsons, of Colorado Springs.] 
 The science of forestry is divided into two 
 branches forest preservation and tree cul- 
 ture. Of these divisions the former is with- 
 out doubt the most important, and of vital 
 importance to the people of Colorado. The 
 most generous planting of tress will never 
 compensate for the hundredth part of the 
 forest that is now being destroyed by acci- 
 dent or for commercial purposes. At the 
 same time forest preservation is a most com- 
 plex problem, difiicult of solution, and has 
 practically baffled all efforts heretofore made 
 to carry it to a successful issue. At the Ameri- 
 can Forestry Congress, held last September at 
 Saratoga, it might well have been expected 
 that some practical method for preserving 
 the forests would be suggested. But there 
 was not. In fact, very little of value was 
 contributed to human knowledge on this 
 subject. Tolerably familiar facts were well 
 emphasized, but no remedy suggested. There 
 
 may be no remedy. The United States Gov- 
 ernment may not be able or willing to take 
 any action, and the State Governments may 
 be too ignorant or indifferent. The people 
 themselves may lack sufficient intelligence 
 or be unwilling to stir themselves in matl srs 
 which do not directly affect their po cts 
 and comforts. But I am more hopeful. 
 
 WHAT*CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 The people can be educated to see the 
 necessity of decisive action, and can force 
 their Legislatures to frame suitable laws and 
 garry them out faithfully. The States can so 
 unite as to compel the central Government to 
 adopt energetic measures for the preservation 
 of their forests. All this will require much 
 work and many years, but it must be always 
 remembered as the main object of this Asso- 
 ciation, whose efforts should be continually 
 exerted to this end, until the plains are 
 dotted with groves and the mountains covered 
 with forests. 
 
 Until this great problem of forestry is 
 solved, the only means of making good our 
 losses to any degree is by tree-culture. 
 This is a subject plain, straightforward 
 and simple, easily understood and practiced 
 by all. It has attracted much attention in 
 all the States, but less in Colorado than any 
 other, although its need is perhaps greater 
 on our plains and mountains than anywhere 
 else. Trees are needed here to check the 
 rapid evaporation from the ground, and to 
 protect it from the dry scorching effect of the 
 sun at this altitude; to increase the humidity 
 of the atmosphere; to break the force of the 
 heavy destructive winds that sweep over the 
 plains, and to keep up the flow of our 
 streams in the dry season. Our climate 
 would be warmer in the winter and cooler in 
 summer, and crops more easily raised, if 
 the plains were well supplied with trees. 
 I believe nothing can be now done which 
 will benefit Colorado more than tree culture; 
 and, in the furtherance of this good cause, 
 each land owner can do his part, and has his 
 duty to perform. I say duty, because that is 
 the highest prompter of any action; to forget, 
 and even sacrifice, our own interests, that 
 our children, and our children's children, 
 may be benefited. Government, as the trus- 
 tee of future proprietors, is bound to take all 
 action, which may be necessary, to. secure 
 them their rights, among which is the enjoy- 
 ment of their inheritance, with its product- 
 iveness wholly unimpaired. But the people 
 are primarily the Government of this coun- 
 try, and it is their duty it is the duty of 
 each individual, io the highest sense to so 
 employ his stewardship, that future genera- 
 tions may bless, not curse him. 
 
 Besides this duty that rests heavily upon 
 each landholder, there are also the more self- 
 
8 
 
 SECOND DAYS SESSION. 
 
 ish motives of profit aud pleasure. Of these 
 little need be said here. Much has he lost 
 who never felt the pleasure of watching the 
 growth or sat under the shade of a tree he 
 has planted. Many are the proofs of the 
 greac economic and hygienic value of trees, 
 as shown and published in various ways. 
 
 PEOFIT IN TREE PLANTING. 
 
 The direct profits of tree planting may be 
 easily and conclusively shown to be 10 to 20 
 per cent, per annum. It is as profitable as 
 any crop of farm or garden, but has the one 
 objection insurmountable to most people of 
 ty ng up capital without returns for many 
 years. These three great reasons for tree 
 planting, duty, pleasure and profit, cannot be 
 gainsaid. But some will say : I want all my 
 irrigable land for agriculture ; I cannot afford 
 any for the slow returns of trees." Look 
 about carefully. Are there no wet places or 
 water holes which are too wet to crop, but 
 where trees will grow ? Are there no corners 
 where a tree can be planted and irrigated? 
 Is every foot of your land utilized ? It is an 
 old commandment : "Seek and ye shall find." 
 
 Plant masses around your dwellings and 
 out buildings. Plant rows along each side of 
 your irrigating ditches; plant trees along 
 your fences, and on the edges of your fields, 
 wherever water can be carried for them. In 
 this way, no extra irrigation is needed, and 
 the cost of their growth is nothing, while the 
 good they do is incalculable. 
 
 One of the greatest uses for trees is for 
 wind breaks, especially on the prairies, 
 where the winds are sudden and devastating, 
 doing more harm to all vegetation, with 
 their dry, scorching effect, than is generally 
 credited. It is a settled fact that the only 
 corn raised in Central Kansas, in the year 
 1874, was grown where it had the protection 
 of forest shelter. 
 
 CLIMATIC EFFECTS. 
 
 In this peculiary dry climate and at this 
 great altitude all vegetation is subject to 
 many vicissitudes. The chief obstacle to the 
 growth of trees is not the lack of water. If 
 it were we could grow all hardy trees with 
 irrigation. It is rather the altitude. ' The 
 rare atmosphere, with .scarcely any humidity, 
 and presenting little obstruction to the 
 scorching rays of the sun, produces so great 
 an evaporation from all parts of the tree, 
 that often the machinery cannot 'keep up 
 the circulation necessary to a healthy con- 
 dition. On the plains in winter the cold dry 
 winds, with a hot scorching sun often 
 draw all the life from the tree. The thawing 
 of a tree during some of our warm winter 
 days is more injurious than the greatest 
 amount of freezing. In the parks and 
 canons among the mountains the same obsta- 
 
 cles to vegetable growth are found, but to a 
 less degree. The trees are there more shel- 
 tered from sun and wind, and the atmosphere 
 is nioister. 
 
 To overcome these evil effects a tree must 
 possess, besides hardiness, strong, rapid and 
 robust growth. It must have machinery ac- 
 customed to sudden calls upon it for rapid 
 action and will run smoothly without fric- 
 tion. ID must have the power of pushing 
 out its roots with rapidity and vigor, pene- 
 trating for its food, and quickly assimilating 
 the food and moisture in the ground. 
 
 Trees may be divided into two classes for 
 use and for ornament. In making these di- 
 visions I do not wish to be understood as rep- 
 resenting that any tree is not ornamental; 
 but some trees are of economic value, while 
 others have no reason for being planted be- 
 sides that of their beauty. In choosing a tree 
 for either purpose we would have different 
 objects in view. I will confine myself to trees 
 for use. 
 
 The selection of trees strictly for use is 
 governed by three objects profit from the 
 wood, value of the fruit, and their use for 
 protection and windbreaks. Tree planting 
 in this State h^s been as yet little 
 practised, and the comparative value 
 of trees for forest culture has not 
 been well established. For this we sorely 
 need forestal experimental stations through- 
 out the State, and I trust in some way they 
 may soon be established. On account of this 
 lack of knowledge the following list of trees 
 may be much changed by further experience. 
 In preparing it I have been governed chiefly 
 by my own observation and that of others in 
 this State. I have chosen twelve trees, which 
 I consider best suited for successful and prof- 
 itable growth in Colorado, and will name 
 and desciibe them in the order of their 
 merit. 
 
 BEST TWELVE TREES FOR USE. 
 
 Catalpa speciosa (Western Cacalpa) Height 
 60 to 80 feet, with trunk 2 to 4 feet in diam- 
 eter. Growth very rapid, especially when 
 young. Wood light but close-grained, of a 
 beautiful color, and susceptible of a fine pol- 
 ish; very durable, and valuable for fence 
 posts, railroad ties and similar purposes. In 
 the Government stoskade at San Antonio it 
 is perfectly sound, after being in the ground, 
 it is asserted. 200 years. It is easily grown 
 from cuttings, should be planted close, and is 
 entirely exempt from insects. Its great dura- 
 bility, its tenacity of life, and the ease with 
 which it is propagated and transplanted, 
 make it the most profitable tree for 
 forest growth on the plains south of 
 latitude 43 degrees. It was much 
 used by the Indians for canoes because of its 
 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 durable quality, and because it is not liable 
 to crack. It is very ornamental with its 
 round head, warm colored foliage, large, fan- 
 like leaves, and showy clusters of flowers in 
 spring, somewhat like those of the horse- 
 chestnut. It must not be confounded with 
 the more tender Eastern catalpa, Catalpa 
 bignonioides, which has a less erect habit of 
 growth, and smaller flowers, appearing earlier 
 in the spring. 
 
 Fraxinus Americana (White Ash) Height, 
 seventy to eighty feet, with straight, clean 
 trunk, growth rapid, wood light, but very 
 tough, hard and elastic, and in great demand 
 for agricultural tools, machines, carriages, 
 oars, barrels, tubs, etc. It is also much 
 sought for by cabinet makers, and is coming 
 into use quite extensively for the interior 
 finish of dwellings; it is called for wherever 
 strength, stiffness and lightness are desira- 
 ble. Very ornamental with its broad, round 
 head and handsome foliage. The Green Ash 
 (Fraxinus viridis) is of slower growth and 
 forms a smaller tree, but is valuable on the 
 plains. 
 
 Ulmus Americana (White Elm) Height, 
 80 to 100 feet, growth medium, wood brown, 
 very tough in young trees, light and moder- 
 ately strong in old; always difficult to split; 
 extensively used in the manufacture of hubs 
 and ship blocks; bears well exposure to the 
 atmosphere, and is of high fuel value. One 
 of the most ornamental of trees, with its 
 lofty sweeping gothic forms of great elegance 
 and grace. The red or slippery elm (ulmus 
 fulva) is a smaller tree than the white elm, 
 but of a more rapid, vigorous growth, with 
 reddish, hard, exceedingly durable wood, 
 much used for fence posts and .rails. It may 
 do better in this climate than the white elm. 
 Juglaus nigra (Black Walnut) Height70to 
 90 feet, with a very erect, straight stem, 4 to 
 6 feet in diameter; growth slow for the first 
 three or four years, but rapid and vigorous 
 afterwards; wood of a dark, rich brown color, 
 rather hard and firm, but susceptible of a high 
 polish, and probably more extensively em- 
 ployed for first-class cabinet wood than 
 any other. It is also extensively 
 used for gunstocks, handrails, floors, stairs 
 and inside furnishing generally. It has a 
 long tap root, which is an advantage in this 
 country, helping it to find water at a great 
 depth, but makes it difficult to transplant. 
 Therefore it should only be grown from seed 
 planted where the seed is to grow, in good 
 rich soil. The nuts are gathered in the fall, 
 mixed in soil or sand, and left in heaps ex- 
 posed to frosts during the winter. In the 
 spring they are planted in rows and covered 
 with an inch or two of soil. The bJack wal- 
 nut may be considered the most valuable 
 tree we have, though of rather difficult 
 
 growth in this climate. It should be planted 
 with soft-wooded trees to shelter it. It forms 
 a noble tree, very ornamental with its round 
 spacious form spreading grandly with age, 
 and of marked beauty. 
 
 Populus Monolifera (Cottonwood) Height, 
 80 to 100 feet, with trunk 4 or 5 feet in 
 diameter. Growth most rapid. Wood soft, 
 light, burning rapidly when seasoned, and 
 much used in manufacturing brick. It 
 makes excellent lumber, particularly for 
 inside purposes, not exposed to weather ; for 
 shingles, only pine, cedar and walnut are 
 superior. It is stated that old steamboat and 
 mill men prefer half-seasoned cottonwood to 
 any other, claiming they can get more steam 
 by it. It grows well from cuttings. Al- 
 though it is a short-lived tree, and the wood 
 is comparatively poor, this native tree is so 
 well adapted in every way to this climate that 
 it is more profitable than many other trees of 
 much finer qualities. As a nurse tree it is 
 peculiarly valuable, and should always be 
 planted in a grove with slower growing sorts 
 and gradually cut out as the other trees ma- 
 ture. It is quite ornamental, with its large, 
 glossy foliage, but is too coarse to plant on the 
 lawn or near the garden. All the populars 
 are very valuable for planting in this climate 
 because of their rapid, robust vigorous 
 growth. Besides other native species there 
 is the silver poplar or Abele tree (Populus 
 Alba), which is large and very orna- 
 mental, with silver foliage, and Populus 
 grandidentata a large tree with handsome 
 large foliage, also populur balsamifera, balsam, 
 tacamahsc or balm of gilead, a tall tree much 
 planted on account of its odoriferous buds. 
 Acer negundo, ash-leaved maple or box elder, 
 height 40 to 60 feet, with trunk two feet in 
 diameter; -growth very rapid especially when 
 young; wood, moderately fine, white and 
 makes good fuel when well seasoned. It has 
 a saccharine sap, from which syrup and sugar 
 are made, and in this can be made a substi- 
 tute for sugar maple, which does not grow 
 well here. A very ornamental tree of irregu- 
 lar spreading form and light green foliage. 
 One of the most desirable of lawn trees for 
 this climate, gleditschia triacanthos. Honey 
 locust or three- thorned acacia, height 40 to 60 
 feet; growth, very rapid; wood, heavy hard and 
 rather coarse-grained, and valuable for many 
 purposes; equal to either catalpa or black 
 walnut in construction requiring strength, 
 and for fuel and railway ties; it shrinks but 
 little in seasoning, and contracts and ex- 
 pands but little under atmospheric influences 
 of moisture or dryness. Its clean, healthy, 
 vigorous condition is conspicuous, and it 
 adapts itself readily to any soil or altitude. 
 Thorns appear on all parts of the tree, and 
 very large ones protrude from the main 
 
10 
 
 PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 stem and the large branches; these, when 
 they fall off, become dangerous to animals 
 and persons frequenting the ground. Be- 
 cause of these thorns it is specially adapted 
 for hedges and live fences, but in forest cul- 
 ture it is better to use the thornless 
 variety (Gleditschia croscanthos mernus) 
 which, however, cannot be grown from seed 
 with certainty; valuable for ornament on 
 account of its elegant foliage and long ra- 
 cemes of white and very fragrant flowers. 
 
 Robinia psendacacia (Yellow or Black 
 Locust) Height 60 to 80 feet, with trunk 2 
 to 3 feet in diameter; growth rapid; wood 
 white or greenish yellow, very hard and 
 close-grained, very durable, especially when 
 raised on rather poor land; no other wood 
 will bear a greater strain; especially valua- 
 ble for fence posts, resisting decay better 
 than any other wood except cedar and catal- 
 pa; much sought after for tree-nails for 
 ships, and for floors of vessels. Owing to its 
 peculiar foliage, grass will grow under its 
 shade more freely than any other tree, and 
 cattle may be pastured in locust woods. . It 
 stands the drouth, and will succeed under 
 careless management better than perhaps 
 any other tree. In some localities it cannot 
 be grown on account of the borers which in- 
 fest it, but in this climate no fear of insects 
 may be entertained. Very ornamental with 
 its soft, graceful foliage and abundant ra- 
 cemes of white, fragrant pea-blossom flowers. 
 
 Morus alba tartarica (Eussian Mulberry) 
 Height 50 to 60 feet, with trunk 3 to 5 feet 
 in diameter. Growth rather slow in 
 light, sandy soil, but very rapid 
 in heavy, low, wet places; in Ne- 
 braska it makes a better growth than 
 cotton wood. Wood hard, elastic, close- 
 grained and susceptible of a fine polish, used 
 largely in the arts and in cabinet! work, mu- 
 sical instruments, farming implements, 
 building, etc. As a fence-post it is almost 
 equal to catalpa and red cedar. It can be 
 grown from cuttings, is easily transplanted, 
 and has proved very valuable for fuel, wind- 
 breaks and hedges. Its fruit is large and 
 very abundant, appearing on very young 
 trees. The leaves are also valuable for silk- 
 worms. Ornamental with its handsome foli- 
 age and spreading top. The original species, 
 morug alba or white mulberry, is 
 also very valuable for timber and ex- 
 tensively slanted; also the red mulberry 
 (morns rulva) of which the wood is yellow, 
 very heavy and durable, and much used for 
 tools. 
 
 Acer dasycarpum (White or Silver maple.) 
 Height eighty to 100 feet with trunk three 
 to four feet in diameter. Growth very rapid 
 in almost any soil. Wood white, fine grained, 
 rather light and soft, but takes a fair polish, 
 
 and is used much for purposes where a very 
 iiard surface is not required; occasionally a 
 ;ree yields the accidental form known as 
 urled or birds-eye maple. The sap is sweet 
 and sugar can be made from it. It makes 
 good fuel, and forms a good windbreak with 
 its abundant flexible branches. Very orna- 
 mental with large spreading top and silvery 
 foliage. 
 
 Juniperus Virginiana (Red Cedar) Height 
 thirty to fifty feet. Growth medium. Out- 
 side wood white and heart wood of reddish 
 color and very durable. Largely employed 
 for cabinet work, pencils, fence posts, etc. Its 
 dense growth renders it valuable for wind- 
 breaks. This coniferous tree is found in 
 almost every State in the Union and is one 
 of the most valuable of all forest trees for 
 timber, windbreak or ornament. It is 
 abundant on the foot-hills of this State. Its 
 tapering and symmetrical form and bright 
 rich evergreen foliage make it very orna- 
 mental. The White Cedar (Jo Communis 
 Alpina) is a smaller tree, native 
 of our mountains, especially on 
 the western part and makes a very valuable 
 wood, but not so desirable as red cedar, being 
 less durable. 
 
 Salix Alba (White or Gray Willow) Height, 
 sixty to eighty feet with trunk three to five 
 feet in diameter under favorable conditions. 
 Growth very rapid. Wood light, tough and 
 elastic and does not split easily; it is much 
 used for house and ship floors and for car- 
 riage and cart bodies; also for bowls, trays 
 and other vessels and for turned goods of 
 various sorts; it has a great durability under 
 vvater and when much exposed to its action, 
 and is therefore very valuable for the floats 
 of paddle-wheels and the buckets of 
 mill wheels. It is very useful 
 for fuel and can be specially recommended 
 for windbreaks. All willows have very large 
 masses of fine fibrous roots that penetrate the 
 soil to a great depth, and will push to a great 
 distance in search of moisture. The yellow- 
 twigged willow (salix alba vitillina) is very 
 valuable for baskets, and also very orna- 
 mental with its yellow twigs. The diamond 
 willow (salix cerdata vestita) is a variety 
 lately found on the Missouri River north of 
 the Yellowstone, and is said to be as desira- 
 ble for posts as red cedar. 
 
 PROCESSES OF PLANTING. 
 
 And now a few final words about planting. 
 The processes of planting here are not differ- 
 ent from those required in any other part of 
 the world. It should be done in the spring, 
 and if possible only those trees should be 
 planted which have grown a year or two 
 here and have become acclimated. They are 
 much more sure to succeed than those brought 
 a long distance from a totally different cli- 
 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION, 
 
 11 
 
 mate. Young trees should be invariably 
 planted, the younger the better. They are 
 less expensive and more sure to live. In 
 transplanting from the shady canons, great 
 care is required, and the tree protected from 
 the sun as much as possible for some time 
 after it is planted. One of the most import- 
 ant parts of the successful growth of trees is 
 fall and winter watering; often trees are lost 
 from want of water during the winter. They 
 should be thoroughly watered just before 
 the ground freezes up in the fall and again 
 during the dry, warm spell that generally 
 comes in the early part of February. 
 
 It is better for the inexperienced to plant 
 at first only a few of the better-tested sorts of 
 trees. The work is t.aus simplified and 
 better performed. When experience is gained 
 and an intelligent interest in trees estab- 
 lished, the planter may, at his own pleasure, 
 experiment with less common tree-j, testing 
 their value and adding them to his planta- 
 tion as he finds them to serve, his purpose. 
 His tree-planting now becomes a source of 
 constant enjoyment. The trees are his 
 friends and he delights to widen his ac- 
 quaintance among them. 
 
 I will conclude with the words of Sir 
 Walter Scott to his forester: "Be aye stickin' 
 in a tree; it will be growin' when ye're 
 sleepin'." 
 
 FACTS ABOUT FORESTRY. 
 
 BY WM. E. PABOR, OF FRUITA. 
 
 Only a tree! 
 
 But think of it something that Nature 
 takes peculiar pride in and endows with a 
 longevity equal sometimes to seventy genera- 
 tions of mankind. What solemn and strange 
 thoughts must enter the mind of a pilgrim 
 who, traversing the island of Ceylon, stands 
 at last in the shadow of that sacred fig tree 
 whose age, historically determined, fixes the 
 date of its planting 288 years before the 
 Christian era dawned upon the world. In 
 the year 414 this same tree was seen and de- 
 scribed by a Chinese traveler, who found it 
 an object of adoration and worship. In later 
 centuries the earliest Europeans who visited 
 the country gave testimony as to its venerable 
 age. It still flourishes, a holy tree in every 
 sense of the word to the Budhists who worship 
 about its rugged trunk and under its gnarled 
 limbg. Even in our own land, among the 
 redwood forests of California, there are trees 
 whose size indicate an age equal and perhaps 
 superior to the fig tree of Ceylon. What, 
 then, is the life of man compared to the life 
 of a tree? Well might this noble object of 
 Nature have had a peculiar sanctity in 
 
 Egypt and Greece, which feeling was fostered 
 by imposing and impressive rites and cere- 
 mo ales connected with their Deities. The 
 oak was consecrated to Jupiter, the joy io 
 Bacchus, the olive to Minerva and the laurel 
 to Apollo. As Kendrick says in his Ancient 
 Egypt: "Their susceptibility to atmospheric 
 influence may have invested them with a 
 prophetic virtue in regard to changes of 
 weather." Their longevity may have caused 
 them to be regarded as emblems of divine 
 power and duration and to be invested with 
 something of that mysterious awe which at- 
 taches to everything that has witnessed ages 
 and generations long passed away. 
 
 But man can be cruel, though his life be 
 so brief, and the ax in the sturdy work- 
 man's hand can destroy in a day the beauti- 
 ful temple that the earth and the air, the 
 sunshine and the rain have combined to 
 build into a lofty structure whose roots pen- 
 etrate deep into the very heart of nature, 
 and whose brow is lifted high into the arcana 
 above us. 
 
 It is because man has been, and still is, 
 thus cruel, that we have met to take counsel 
 together to devise some means by which the 
 trees of the forest may be spared from whole- 
 sale destruction. We learn from the census 
 reports that the consumption of wood as fuel 
 for the census year of 1880 amounted to 140,- 
 537,439 cords, valued at $306,950,040. In 
 addition to this use of wood for domestic 
 purposes, railroads, steamboats, mines and 
 manufactories used 145,778,138 cords, having 
 a value of $321,962,273. So that, in one year 
 only, have the startling figures of over six 
 hundred million cords of wood consumed, 
 representing a value of over seven hundred 
 million of dollars, about one-third of the 
 national debt of the United States. This 
 use is domestic and industrial and therefore 
 legitimate and justifiable; but what shall we 
 say when we come to consider the area of 
 forests that the igniting of a single match in 
 the hands of a careless hunter or tourist may 
 sweep out of existence? Can language too 
 strong be used in condemnation of such care- 
 lessness or maliciousness ? Can our words be 
 too plain or too loud in our appeal for some 
 meamre of restraint strong enough to stay 
 the destroying touch ? 
 
 A few years ago Dr. E. E. Edwards, then 
 President of our Agricultural College, pre- 
 pared an address on the Utility of Trees, and 
 delivered it at different institutes held by the 
 farmers in various parts of the State. In 
 January, 1880, he delivered this lecture at 
 Monument, on the Divide, in a section where 
 the trees, for the last twenty years, have suf- 
 fered most from the destroying hand of man. 
 Here are some of the significant words he 
 
12 
 
 PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 used: "We want these trees in the valley 
 and on the plains, along our water-courses 
 and on our mountain slopes. Once destroyed 
 j'-rt's will not replace them. They are already 
 passing away. A few years ago, when I firs 
 visited the State, their death-fires gleamed 
 like the camp-fires of an avenging enemj 
 along the eastern slopes of the snowy range 
 and every year they are burning. What the 
 fire spares the ax destroys. Whoever makes 
 war upon these forests, makes war upon our 
 civilization, our prosperity, our happiness 
 They are cutting off our supply of water, dry 
 ing our fountains, blighting our forests. * 
 
 "The mountains are our strong and mighty 
 friends. From them proceed all fertility of 
 soil, and all healthfulness of climate. Their 
 red granite and gray limestones, and sand- 
 stones, crumbling, make the soil of these 
 plains. They are a shelter from storms. In 
 their sunset shadows, we find rest. They 
 temper the heat of our summers, moderate 
 the cold of our winters. They are camped 
 along our western horizon, like the white 
 tents of an army. Their banner is the cloud 
 They are the breastworks of our land. They 
 *.re full of treasure, rich in silver and gold 
 But there is a treasure as great as these, in 
 the snow, folded, like a mantle, around their 
 shining summits. But for this, all of the 
 land would be as desolate as a field of death. 
 In the snow are the wheat,, and the corn, and 
 the fruit of the vine. It holds the golden 
 harvests that are to wave on the plains be- 
 low. And the trees are the protectors, the 
 guardian spirits, of the snow. Therefore, we 
 repeat, protect the trees.'' 
 
 Could Doctor Edwards be with us here, to- 
 day, there would be no more earnest advocate 
 hi behalf of a State society for the protection 
 of our forests. 
 
 Years ago a President of the New York 
 State Agricultural Society, in an address be- 
 fore that body, said: "Has the wholesale 
 destruction of forests nothing to do with 
 this sweeping over and beyond us, of the 
 heavy rain clouds? Can we continue to 
 sweep away all our growth of timber in 
 every arable district and even denude our 
 rocky hillsides and mountain tops without 
 incurring the penalty? Can we expect to 
 escape the operations of a universal law that 
 has produced uniform results in all countries 
 and in !! ages? Wherever this law has been 
 violated, sooner or later, the lands have be- 
 come desolate and the cities have perished. 
 Palestine and Syria, Egypt and Italy and 
 Spain and even France, bave seen their 
 most fertile and prosperous regions turned 
 into forsaken wildernesses and their most 
 productive lands into arid, sandy deserts." 
 Well may we echo the question put in 1868 
 
 to the California Soate Horticultural Society 
 by a speaker who quoted the above language: 
 "If New York, which has naturally a moist 
 climate, is so soon beginning to experience 
 the deleterious effects of a destruction of her 
 forests, what will we be, years from now, if 
 our people go on as they have for the past 
 fifteen years, recklessly sweeping the timber 
 before them as they settle up the country or 
 even in advance of such settlement?" 
 
 Let us, here in Colorado, heed the lesson 
 before it is too late. Let our newspapers take 
 up the subject and discuss it in the interest 
 of the general welfare of the State and not 
 be doing, as did a Boulder County paper 
 four years ago, be boasting of the 20,000 acres 
 of mountain sides in one vast forest, whose 
 tall trees were being cut down for a saw- 
 mill, and extolling the enterprise of the 
 men who were doing what at the same time 
 Dr. Edwards was so severely condemning. 
 The editor forgot, in his pride of local 
 enterprise, that he was nursing a viper to 
 sting the community in the years when the 
 St. Vrain and the Boulder a'nd the Big 
 Thompson Creeks were to run dry in sum- 
 mer because this very 2,000 acres of forest 
 had been destroyed. Nature gives us enough 
 to contend with here, without our own 
 hands adding to the burden. We have dry 
 and rainless summers. We have hot winds 
 that drain our valley soil of moisture, that 
 sponge out of existence the water of ^ , . 
 mountain streams, and the admonition comes 
 to us, in language that we cannot mistake, 
 that we must arrest the destruction of our 
 forests or be ourselves destroyed. 
 
 It is the theory of many persons that the 
 natural rainfall of Colorado is increasing, 
 and that the time is coming when but little 
 rrigation will be required for the growth of 
 ;rops. Never was theory so fallacious, and 
 he who builds upon it builds upon the sands 
 f error. What are the facts, taking the rain- 
 all of the last ten years in Colorado, in the 
 vicinity ef Denver, as a basis? Here is the 
 ecord : 
 
 Inches. 
 874 13.451879 
 
 875.. 
 
 876 20 12 
 
 17.251880 9.58 
 
 877. 
 
 878 15.51 
 
 16.381882 14.49 
 
 Total 82.71 
 
 Average inches... 16.54 
 
 Inches. 
 . 10.86 
 
 1881 12.79 
 
 1883 19.49 
 
 Total 67.21 
 
 Average inches... 13.44 
 
 Does this not show an aver?,ge decrease of 
 >ver three inches yearly ? To what can we 
 ook as the cause, unless it be in the denud- 
 ng of our vast timber ranges. 
 
 The rain record of Idaho tells a similar 
 tory. From 1873 to anc* including 1877, the 
 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 13 
 
 average rainfall was 22.63 inches. For the 
 five succeeding years, ending with 1882, th 
 average yearly rainfall was 22.63 inches 
 showing a loss per year of over four inches 
 In Utah the decrease is still more plain 
 During these same periods an average o: 
 22.63 has dropped to 14.85, showing a loss o 
 one-third. 
 
 In Arizona the 13.85 average for the firsi 
 five years is lowered by two inches annually 
 for the five that follow. 
 
 To what are these attributable at a time 
 when General Hazen, in his Signal Service 
 notes on variation of rainfall west of the 
 Mississippi Eiver, announces as one of the 
 conclusions arrived at during three years of 
 observation, that "the gradual increase in 
 rainfall during the years 1880, 1881 and 1882 
 is noticeable over a large extent of coun- 
 try." 
 
 The question then comes back to us, What 
 shall we do to preserve our forests? Not 
 only to preserve what we already nave, but 
 to increase their area ? 
 
 It may be of interest to know what action 
 foreign nations and some of the States of the 
 American Union have taken in the interest 
 of forestry, before presenting our own. The 
 forest codes of the Old World are extensive, 
 and various governments exercise almost 
 arbitrary control over private estates by 
 right of eminent domain. In some instances 
 they own immense bodies of land over which 
 theyj exercise the strictest surveillance. 
 Schools of Forestry abound in the German 
 empire, some of them over 100 years old, 
 where forestry is made a study equal to 
 agriculture under university organization. 
 Austria has its High Schools of Forestry, 
 maintained at State expense. Switzerland 
 supports a Forestry division in its Federal 
 Polytechnic School. France has a school of 
 Forestry at Nancy, established 'for the sole 
 purpose of preparing agents for the State 
 Forestry service. During the last fifty years 
 it has educated over a thousand persons for 
 this special work. Italy created a school of 
 Forestry by royal decree in 1869 upon the 
 plan adopted by France. Spain has its 
 special school of Forest Engineers under the 
 direction of the Ministers of Agriculture. 
 The General Institute of Agriculture of Por- 
 tugal embraces in its course Sylviculture and 
 Forest Engineering. Eussia has its Forestal 
 school, and Sweden its Forest Institute aided 
 by government under the management of 
 directors appointed by the King. Others 
 might be named, but these will answer to 
 show tiiat the protection of forest trees, not 
 alone for their supply of timber, but for the 
 climatic influence they exert, is world-wide 
 in its work. 
 Nearer home, in our sister Eepublic of 
 
 Mexico we find that particular attention is at 
 present being paid to tree planting; not 
 alone by t^ie owners of estates, bjit by the 
 Government, which has lately entered into 
 contract with parties for the planting of 
 2,000,000 trees in the Valley of Mexico with- 
 in four years. These trees are to consist of 
 such varieties as ash, willows, poplar, euca- 
 lyptus, cedars and acacias, and are to be in 
 plantations of from 50,000 to 100,000 each. 
 These groves, in the years to come, cannot 
 fail to have a beneficial effect upon the cli- 
 mate of Mexico. 
 
 Concerning State laws upon the subject, I 
 have grouped together, very briefly, some of 
 the laws upon the statute books, as follows: 
 
 California A penalty of not more than 
 $1 ,000, or a term of imprisonment not more 
 than one year is imposed for willfully setting 
 fire to any wooded country or forest belong- 
 ing to the State or the United States, or to 
 any place where fire would communicate to 
 such forests. 
 
 Dakota Parties planting trees along pub- 
 lic highways may occupy and use one rod^ in 
 width of such highways for the purpose" of 
 cultivating the growth of timber and trees 
 thereon. 
 
 Illinois Counties are allowed to offer as 
 bounty to persons planting forest trees and 
 car> ying for them three years, any sum not 
 exceeding $10 per annum for three years for 
 each acre so planted. 
 
 Iowa Exempts from taxation the real and 
 personal property of each taxpayer who 
 plants and cares for one or more acres of 
 forest trees, the sum of $100 per acre for ten 
 yews. 
 
 Kansas In 1868 had a law giving a boun- 
 ty of $2 per acre for planting any kind of 
 forest trees except black locust, to continue 
 for twenty-five years. This was amended in 
 1872 requiring at least 160 trees to the acre. 
 Two years later this act was repealed, and 
 one enacted providing penalties for kindling 
 ires upon lands not owned and occupied, 
 leaving the pame unextinguished. 
 
 Maine Exempts from taxation for twenty 
 years lands from which the primitive forests 
 have been removed, that are reset to trees. 
 
 Minnesota An annual bounty of $2 per 
 Acre and a like annual bounty for every half 
 mile of trees along the public highway, to be 
 paid out of tie State treasury. 
 
 Missouri A. similar law exists, except that 
 he bounty is paid by the county in which 
 he trees are planted. 
 
 Nebraska An exemption of $100 per year 
 or five years on each acre planted and a 
 urther provision that the increased value of 
 ands by reason of live fences, fruit and for- 
 $st trees gr'wn thereon shall not be taken 
 nto account in the assessment thereof. 
 
14 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Nevada An annual bounty of $10 per acre 
 and $10 per half mile, along a public high- 
 way, for twenty years, paid by the county, 
 and such planting not to add to or increase 
 the taxable value of said land. This act does 
 not apply to willows or cotton woods planted 
 along canals for the protection of the banks. 
 New York Allows overseers of highways 
 to give a rebate of $1 for every four trees set 
 out along the highways. 
 
 Wisconsin Exempts from taxation lands 
 set to belts of trees until they attain a 
 heighth of twelve feet; afterward the owner 
 of such tree belts is entitled to an annual 
 bounty of $2 per acre. These tree belts, it is 
 provided, shall be on the west and south side 
 of tracts of land, and not less than thirty 
 feet wide for each five acres of land. 
 
 Colorado Our State Constitution contains 
 sections giving the General Assembly power 
 to enact laws in order to prevent the destruc- 
 tion of, and to preserve the forests, upon the 
 lands of the State; and to provide that the 
 increase in value of lands by reason of 
 orchards, hedges, etc., shall not be taken into 
 account in assessing for taxation. In 1881 
 an act was passed providing that for ten 
 years such exemption should exist, dating 
 back from 1876, so that this expires in two 
 years. Also, providing a bouncy for tree- 
 planting along public highways. Fines are 
 also imposed for the careless setting on fire 
 of timber. But no laws have as yet been en- 
 acted covering the preserv ation of the forests 
 within the borders of the State. These 
 being the property of the United 
 States Government, are not legitimately 
 the subject of legislative action, save 
 by memorial to Congress; and this Conven- 
 tion should see to it that such a memorial, 
 asking, in the language f the State Consti- 
 tutional Convention in its memorial of 1875 
 upon the same subject, that Congress "put 
 the respective forests and waste forest 
 grounds in regions where irrigation has to 
 be used for agricultural purposes, under the 
 control of the respective Territorial and 
 State governments." The reasons that ex- 
 isted for such a memorial ten years ago are 
 more clear and decisive now than then; and 
 here let me quote from Mr. F. P. Baker's 
 preliminary report on the "Forestry of the 
 Mississippi Valley," published by the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture in 1883, in which he 
 comments upon the spoilage of Government 
 lands in Colorado in the following vigorous 
 language: "In regard oo the forest lauds 
 still the property of the United States, the 
 question has arisen, shall they he protected 
 for the benefit of the country and of genera- 
 tions yet to come, or shall they be reducec 
 to desert wastes for the private oeuefit of 
 speculators and corporations? Take the 
 
 case of the Government forest lands in Colo- 
 rado. Twenty-four years ago the slopes of 
 the Eocky Mountains were covered with the 
 untouched forests sufficient, if properly cared 
 'or, to supply the reasonable needs of the 
 settler and miner, as contemplated by the 
 aw, till the end of time. In the 
 shadow of these forests rose the headwaters 
 of the Eio Grande, Platte and the Arkansas, 
 and the snow in the deep woods melting 
 slowly, the rise in. the streams was gradual 
 and uniform for a long period. To-day these 
 mountains are being left peeled and bare. 
 The mountain side is being converted into a 
 3ald, bleak desert; the springs are drying up, 
 and the Kio Grande, Platte and Arkansas now 
 rise with sudden violence, and then sink as 
 suddenly in their dry and diminished beds. 
 In other words, the people of Colorado, New 
 Mexico and Kansas are having inflicted upon 
 bhein incalculable injury, and a wrong is be- 
 ing done which, if not arrested, will disas- 
 rously affect generations yet unborn." 
 
 Mr. Baker advocates Government Forest- 
 ers, schools of forestry and experimental 
 farms where the methods of irrigation as ap- 
 plied to forest culture should be thoroughly 
 tested. But we can hardly expect National 
 legislation of such character as yet. If, by 
 concert of action we can secure some law by 
 which the States and Territories of the great 
 Rocky Mountain range most directly inter- 
 ested in the preservation and enlargement of 
 the forests that are now so rapidly being de- 
 stroyed under the "liberal" interpretation of 
 the "domestic use" privilege in the law now 
 existing, we shall be accomplishing much and 
 making rapid strides toward the end we aim 
 at. The State of Colorado is entitled to and 
 is now selecting through its Board of Land 
 Commissioners, about 90,000 acres to com- 
 plete the quota of its various grants. If, in 
 selecting lauds wholly agricultural, it could 
 be allowed to select wood-lands, these might 
 be secured in localities where it would 
 be desirable to make efforts to pre- 
 serve forest growth, or at least to 
 carry on experimental work whose 
 value to future generations we are not able 
 now to properly estimate. This is thrown 
 out merely as a suggestion. We are so much 
 in the dark as to our ability to act, and in 
 what direction, that any faint gleam of light 
 thrown on our path may lead to clearer vis- 
 ion. At least, and surely, we can have a 
 Memorial Comittee, representing various sec- 
 tions of our State, whose duty it shall be to 
 prepare and circulate an appeal to our Gec- 
 eral Assembly, convening next January, for 
 a memorial to Congress; securing signatures 
 in such numbers as shall convince both the 
 General Assembly and Congress that we are 
 in earnest in this matter, as indeed we 
 need be if we do not desire drouth, desola- 
 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 15 
 
 tiou and disaster to follow upon this 
 wholesale destruction of the forests of Col- 
 orado. 
 
 THE USE AND BEAUTY OP 
 FORESTS. 
 
 BY RALPH MEEKER, OF GREELEY. 
 
 It has been said that the earth would be 
 uninhabitable were it not for its trees. How- 
 ever true or false this may be, it is a fact that 
 no product of the soil enters so large. 1 y into 
 the industries of the world as timber. The 
 table on which we eat, the bed on which we 
 sleep, the floor on which we walk, the roof 
 that shelter us, the chest that contains the 
 relics of a generation, the car on the railway, 
 the ship on the ocean, the house, the barn, 
 the plow, the reaper, the fence in fact 
 nearly everything made with tools for the 
 use of mankind is more or less indebted to 
 our forests for its existence. 
 
 Coal mines may become exhausted, oil wells 
 may cease flowing, but trees will grow and 
 flourish while the earth remains habitable. 
 Practicably considered, our forests are neces- 
 sary to civilization. JUsthetieally consid- 
 ered, trees ic their way are as beautiful as 
 the ocean or the mountains or the sky. 
 
 The man who rears his family in the 
 center of a, township of black prairie, six 
 miles from a school house, and sells corn for 
 ten cents * bushel, may see no benefit in the 
 beauty of the forest, which all the poets from 
 Homer to Shakespeare have immortalized. 
 Byron says, "There is pleasure in the path- 
 less woods;" and Bryant speaks of the groves 
 as God's first temples. 
 
 But we need not go to the poets for 
 authority on this subject. Our trees speak 
 for themselves. The Cedars of Lebanon, that 
 bowed their heads in ancient Palestine, so 
 deeply impressed the people with their sol- 
 emn grandeur and stately magnificence, that 
 their names were used as figures of speech in 
 all the great writings of that day. 
 
 Any object of nature that purifies a man's 
 thoughts or awakens his reverence is of as 
 much benefit as a teacher, a poet or 
 evangelist, so far as its influence extends. 
 There can be no doubt that beautiful groves 
 and long shaded avenues soften rugged 
 natures as they modify the climate in which 
 men live. A great writer has said that "Im- 
 agination rules the world." Inhabitants oi 
 a wooded country are undoubtedly more 
 given to sentiment and imagry of a higher 
 character, than those living in mud-flats and 
 low countries. 
 
 It is fashionable in this age of machinery 
 to speak lightly of schemes for expending 
 money in beautifying land that one does no 
 own. It is with diflaculty that the Yellow 
 stone Parks were set aside for public uses 
 
 The Adirondacks have been the subject of 
 egislative discussions for years, but still the 
 work of destruction goes on. Niagara Falls, 
 hat marvelous combination of the sublime 
 ind beautiful, is treated as if it were a circus 
 obe viewed for so much a head, while its trees 
 nd lovely natural shrubbery are mutilated 
 ind destroyed. In our own State of Colo- 
 rado, we see the mountains robbed of their 
 green covering every year. Careless hunters 
 and woodsmen leave their fires to blacken 
 ind deface the finest scenery in the world. 
 The spirit of vandalism is becoming a char- 
 acteristic of the American people, and the 
 iterrture (the dime novel literature) most 
 read by our young people, is in keeping with 
 ;his vandal spirit. A reverential regard for 
 the beautiful things on eari h exists only in 
 sentiment among comparatively few people, 
 [n Germany, where the strongest feeling is 
 ? or the Fatherland, trees literally cover the 
 great Empire. Groves crown every hill-top, 
 and shadow the humblest dwellings. The 
 phrase ("Unterder Linden") "Under the Lin- 
 len" has become a household word throghout 
 Europe. All the parks and gardens which 
 are open to the public are as much respected 
 as if guarded by soldiers. The flowers and 
 trees of Germany are the themes of song and 
 poetry. A child is taught from its youth to 
 revere the forests; and the same is true, to a 
 great extent, of France and England, both 
 countries celebrated for the beauty of their 
 wooded parks. What is the result ? Every 
 line of Chaucer and Wordsworth breathes a 
 spirit of affection for the trees of that land. 
 In Germany the love of country amounts to 
 a passion. It is there and in Switzerland 
 (similar iu all respects to Garmauy), that 
 patriotism is most heroically defined. The 
 best of literature is read and every boy is 
 familiar with Schiller and Goetae, while the 
 common music sung in the schools and 
 around the hearthstone is recognized as 
 classi c throughout the world. Large appro- 
 priations of money have been made by 
 the governments of those countries for the 
 protection of their forests. It is generally true 
 the best laws and the deepest patriotism are 
 founded on sentiment. In the old countries 
 wanton destruction of timber is punished by 
 law a0d condemned by all good citizens. In 
 this country the great forests are lookod 
 upon as public property, and every man who 
 can wield an ax does not hesitate to chop a 
 tree. In fact, the most popular event in the 
 life of Washington was the cutting down of 
 his father's cherry tree. The story has been 
 repeated to every child, until the ruling am- 
 bition in life is to destroy a tree without 
 lying about it. Of course we must have 
 lumber and trees to make it from; but there 
 is no reason why other trees should not be 
 planted to take their places. 
 
16 
 
 PAPEES READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 A few years ago Clear Creek, Boulder and 
 the other canons were tilled with forests. 
 To-day their naked rocks present melan- 
 choly pictures of desolation. On the west 
 side of the range it is different. There one 
 imagines he is in another country. The 
 scenery is the most beautiful in Colorado. 
 Lofty trees cover the mountains, and the 
 traveler can easily believe himself in the 
 loveliest portion of Switzerland. Colorado 
 has sixty-three million acres of land. A few 
 years ago it was said that three million acres 
 could be irrigated. Now the estimate is re- 
 duced to two million acres. Fully one-half 
 the entire State, especially that portion de- 
 voted to mining, can never be cultivated 
 nor used for stock raising except to a 
 limited degree. The timber now on it 
 should be protected. If the mountain 
 timber were burned and all the trees grow- 
 ing along the rivers and foothills destroyed 
 precious few tourists would remain here be- 
 yond a few weeks. The hunting would be of 
 little-value, the rainfall would decrease, and 
 the mountain districts would become as un- 
 attractive as the broken wastes of Syria. Vis- 
 itors to Colorado cannot make any visible 
 use of trees. They cannot eat them nor carry 
 them away as souvenirs. They can only ad- 
 mire their beauty, and appreciate their use- 
 fulness in breaking the monotony of the land- 
 scape, and in shading the water-courses. The 
 Great American Desert can be made as beau- 
 tiful as any of the Eastern countries. With 
 alfalfa to keep the soil moist, comparatively 
 little irrigation will be required to nourish 
 trees. The groves of Greece, and those 
 lovely wooded parks of England, can be re- 
 produced here in Colorado. If the trees in 
 Denver and Greeley were burned their real 
 estate would depreciate 10 per cent. 
 
 It is not claimed that the cottonwood 
 shade trees in Colorado towns add to the 
 length o^ human life, or the healthfulness of 
 the climate. It is their beauty that is 
 
 Srized. The man who walks to his friend's 
 ouse, under arching trees, is conscious of a 
 charm that neither architecture nor impos- 
 ing walls can give. The tired traveler, who 
 has seen nothing more inviting than th.e 
 shade of his mule, during his journey across 
 the plains, at last reaches the bank of some 
 swiftly-flowing river, where, weary, and be- 
 grimed with dust, he throws himself on the 
 ground, beneath the overhanging trees. 
 Does he stop to consider whether they are 
 maples, or elms, or cottonwoods? He only 
 looks at the blue sky, through the fringes of 
 their foliage, and, closing his eyes, in grate- 
 ful repose, thanks Heaven for the beauty 
 and shade around him. 
 In regard to the uses and influence of 
 
 beauty there ought to be but one opinion. 
 Beauty is one of the elements of civilization. 
 There is an indescribable charm about trees 
 that awakens the best side of one's nature. 
 We instinctively associated beautiful faces 
 with beautiful surroundings. The well-kept 
 lawn and deep-shaded avenue generally be- 
 tokens a man of intelligent refinement. The 
 drapery which clothes the earth is as benefi- 
 cial to mankind as the decorations and carv- 
 ings in our houses. A shiftless, worthless 
 man, always in debt, with a swarm of ignor- 
 ant, sore-eyed children about him, lives in 
 bare walls, with no vines around his gate, no 
 glass in his yard, no shade to welcome the 
 visitor who comes to his door. What is a 
 tree to such a man? Corn and pork are his 
 life. 
 
 How beautifully Bret Harte writes of the 
 forests of California. It was the poet-spirit 
 of reverence for trees that made the early 
 fathers worship in the groves of Britain and 
 Germany. 
 
 It was this spirit that lead the masters of 
 the artistic centuries to make cathedrals like 
 the aisles of the forests. In this way we 
 know that Gothic architecture was created, 
 and those who have walked with uncovered 
 head under the arches of Westminster Abbey 
 realized the sacred beauty of the place. Man 
 does best when he follows most closely after 
 nature. Who has not been moved by the 
 eloque ice of the trees. What a history have 
 the pines on our mountains. The rings 
 date them back to the French Eevolution. 
 What august events have transpired since 
 their young boughs first swayed in the 
 wintry storms. The contemplation of beauti- 
 ful nature is medicine for the mind. Phi- 
 losophers and poets have found inspiration 
 beneath their favorite trees. 
 
 What lessons of innocence and beauty come 
 on the wings of the whispering winds from 
 the trees. Columbus was in despair until he 
 saw drift-wood floating on the tide. It was 
 a branch of the olive tree that brought joy to 
 the ark. 
 
 In the far-away land of Circassia and Geor- 
 gia, where the lofty peaks of the Caucasus 
 lift vast forests above the clouds, the world is 
 as beautiful as a dream. Such scenes would 
 make Colorado a paradise. The beauty of 
 the people is celebrated, and their costumes 
 an admiration of Paris to-day. Even the im- 
 perial garments of the Czar's household are 
 fashioned after the wardrobes of Circassia. 
 It is there that beauty in nature and beauty 
 in the human face blend like imagery of a 
 poem. Here in Colorado we have mountains, 
 plains, rivers, valleys, and the skies of fair 
 Persia. All we need is verdure. "With ver- 
 dure clad," sings the chorus in the oratorio 
 
PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 17 
 
 of the Creation. "With verdure clad" shall 
 be these everlasting plains and mountains, 
 and then the beauty of the thoughts within 
 us shall agree with the beauty of our centen- 
 nial heritage. 
 
 THE LAWS ON TREE CULTURE 
 
 BY POSEY S. WILSON, OF FT. COLLINS. 
 
 It having been granted that our rivers 
 and rainfall and forests are, within certain 
 limits independent, and that legislation to 
 preserve the latter is needed, it is next in 
 order to consider the limits and bearing of 
 the question as indicated by our State Con- 
 stitution, and by the land laws of the United 
 States; and with them in view, to deliberate 
 upou what laws may be practicable or capa- 
 ble of being administered in the case. 
 
 It occurs to me, as I survey from where I 
 write, the traces of a recent destructive for- 
 est fire, that little good might be done by 
 adding to enactments against setting fires, << 
 penalty for leaving unextinguished camp 
 fires. A policy that will force the timber 
 cutter to first use the fallen timber will do 
 much to save living trees, especially from 
 fire. Slight additional good may be derived 
 from a total repeal by Congress of the duty 
 on unplaned lumber $2.00 per "M." Also, 
 appeals might be made to railroad companies 
 to grant the lowest rate of freight on Eastern 
 lumber that is consistent with their own 
 present and particular interest considered 
 with reference to their general interest in 
 the public welfare, and so render us inde- 
 pendent of our own forests so far as possible. 
 
 To induce the absolute prohibition of fenc- 
 ing public lauds, save in cases where actual 
 settlers have filed on homestead or pre-emp- 
 tion claims; to forbid the destruction of 
 young trees, and perhaps to secure the with- 
 drawal from settlement, sale, or use of all 
 the living timber within a given distance 
 from the banks of every living, stream. 
 
 Because of the strong currents of air which 
 move in all this elevated region, it is possi^e 
 that actual raiufa 1 ! is influenced, in a mini- 
 mum degree, by our forests; but there can be 
 no doubt that their benefits are boundless, in 
 storing snow, and preventing its too rapid 
 melting, and flowing away in freshets, at a 
 time in advance of the farmers' needs. 
 
 So much am I radical in the matter of pre- 
 serving the forests, that I would go so far as 
 to endeavor to secure for the State of Colo- 
 rado, temporarily, -at least, and as an experi- 
 ment, complete control of the foreets within 
 her borders, or the most necessary part of 
 them, without the power either of conveying 
 
 them, or the exclusive use of any part of 
 their area as such. Then I would provide 
 for a permit system, involving the officials 
 of the several counties, preventing the citi- 
 zens the use at will of forests, and discrim- 
 inating between dead and living trees (wholly 
 preserving the young trees), according to the 
 citizen's need, or as the officials mignt deem 
 best for the general welfare. 
 
 We must not expect too much resignation 
 of privilege on the part of a living genera- 
 tion in behalf of unborn generations, but 
 there may be a golden mean which we can 
 follow, to the good of both ourselves and pos- 
 terity. 
 
 The action of other governments in pre- 
 serving their forests, as well as in encourag- 
 ing the planting of groves, should teach us 
 the limitless value of our forests. The zeal 
 of the German Government in behalf of its 
 forests a.ud groves is carried to the degree of 
 forbidding the owners of trees to cut them 
 down without its consent. Only within the 
 last thirty years was the method of preserv- 
 ing forests through the organization of For- 
 estry associations proposed. The first, I be- 
 lieve, at least the first in England, was held 
 in 1851, at the suggestion of the Prince Con- 
 sort. The Queen herself, as well as other 
 members of the Eoyal Family, was among 
 the leading patrons of the International For- 
 estry Exhibition held at Edinburgh in July 
 last. 
 
 The British Secretary of State sent circu- 
 lar letters to all of that nation's representa- 
 tives in foreign countries, asking them to se- 
 cure the co-operation of foreign powers. 
 
 There were in attendance representatives 
 from the governments of France, Japan, 
 Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Germany, 
 the United States, Belgium, Holland, India, 
 Siam, Morocco and most of the British colo- 
 nies. 
 
 It is for us, also, in our humble way, to 
 consider the question in all its bearings, both 
 the conserving of our groves and the found- 
 ing of new ones, and to recommend, perhaps, 
 that a School of Forestry be added to the 
 Agricultural College at Fort Collins. 
 
 It is possible that control of the timber 
 lands within the State may be secured, as an 
 experiment, from the General Government, 
 and so managed to obtain revenue from it 
 equal to the minimum price of Government 
 land, and so enable the State to pay the Gov- 
 ernment "at least all that it is likely to 
 realize from them. 
 
 It should be the aim of Forestry to hus- 
 band the resources of the forest, and yet not 
 stand in the way of the great mining indus- 
 tries, and to render, so far as is possible, the 
 benefits of our woodlands permanent. 
 
18 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 In the subjoined newspaper scrap is 
 pointed out the possibility of income from 
 the forests. Not yet, perhaps, but still so 
 rapid is the forward sweep of settlement 
 not far off, in time, the waste of forests may 
 be made to yield a return equal to the cost 
 of caiing for the trees: 
 
 "A naper prepared by a M. Mathieu, a 
 French chemist, who has made a success of 
 an apparatus devised by himself for the 
 distillation of wood, appeared to offer a 
 practical solution of the vexed question of 
 what to do with the debris of logging. The 
 device consists of a number of iron retorts 
 set in a brickwork frame in such a way that 
 they can conveniently and safely be filled 
 with wood, chips, sawdust, etc. The pro- 
 ducts obtained from a cord of hard wood are 
 reported to be on the average: 
 
 62 bushels charcoal at 6c $ 3 72 
 
 4*k gallon^ wood alcohol at 85c 3 82 
 
 160 pounds acetate of lime at l^c 2 40 
 
 10 gallons tar at 4c 40 
 
 $10 34 
 
 Deduct for labor, lime, use of material 
 and interest 3 00 
 
 Balance $ 7 34 
 
 From yellow pine the results are per cord : 
 
 63 bush els charcoal at 6c $ 3 78 
 
 12 gallons pine tar at 7c 84 
 
 11 gallons turpentine at 35c 3 85 
 
 1 gallon wood alcohol at 85c 85 
 
 4o pounds acetate of lime at l^c ... , 60 
 
 Deduct for labor, lime, etc. 
 
 9 92 
 2 50 
 
 Balance. 
 
 ...? 7 42 
 
 "Norway pine yields 'ess turpentine than 
 yellow pine, and white pine more alcohol' 
 and less turpentine. The charcoal is valua- 
 ble for blast furnaces, rolling mills, gas, etc. 
 The volatile products are in demand in a 
 vast variety of arts and mechanical pro- 
 cesses, and new use for them is constantly 
 arising. Wood alcohol, e.g., is used in many 
 kinds of varnish or for any use for which 
 common alcohol is used, except for a bever- 
 age, and its unfitness for the latter purpose 
 exempts it from the excise tax. The acetate 
 of lime is used in making acetic acid for em- 
 ployment in white lead manufacture, in 
 print works, dyeing, tanning, paint, etc. 
 ^"M. Mathieu ha3 devised an apparatus for 
 use in logging camps, which would be port- 
 able. There are several large plants already 
 at work; one of fifty -six retorts at St. Ignace, 
 Michigan, in connection with the Martel fur- 
 nace; one of fifty-six retorts at Newberry, 
 Michigan, conn acted with the Vulcan Works; 
 another of twenty-four retorts is at Port 
 Leyden, in Northern New York, connected 
 with an iron company. There are others in 
 
 Ontario, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania and 
 Alabama." 
 
 SUGGESTED LEGISLATION 
 CONCERNING FORESTRY. 
 
 BY W. W. PARDEE OF DENVER, COLORADO. 
 
 Even in a country where the rainfall is 
 sufficient to produce abundant crops, the 
 protection of the forests is for the public 
 good; but in a country like Colorado, where 
 agriculture can only be carried on by means 
 of irrigation, the question of preserving the 
 natural forests and cultivating artificial ones, 
 is of paramount importance to the public, 
 because the mountain forests are the great 
 natural generators of moisture, which gives 
 birth to our mountain streams, and these 
 streams afford means of irrigation. 
 
 Agriculture in Colorado has grown to its 
 present proportions only by means of irriga- 
 tion, and we seek to extend it; and yet, while 
 we seek to extend it, we are, by denuding 
 our mountains of their natural forests, grad- 
 ually but surely cutting off our water supply. 
 Either the wholesale destruction of our moun- 
 tain forests must be stopped, or agriculture in 
 Colorado will be stopped. The combined in- 
 dustries of Colorado are rapidly stripping our 
 mountains of our timber. If this course is 
 pursued for a generation, our forests will be 
 gone, our mining interests will be seriously 
 depleted, and our agricultural interests will 
 be cut off. Stock raising on our plains may 
 prosper to some extent, but the home market 
 for that industry will be largely lost. 
 
 It is the work of this association to modify 
 the destruction of the forests, and to encour- 
 age their growth and preservation; to point 
 out ways and means whereby new and arti- 
 ficial forests may be created. 
 
 The woodland of Colorado is owned in 
 part by the State, by private individuals and 
 corporations, but largely by the General Gov- 
 ernment. To accomplish the objects sought 
 by this association, we must secure legisla- 
 tion by the State and the Nat.'onal Govern- 
 ment. The State and National Government 
 should only allow the large and mature for- 
 est trees to be used, and should afford every 
 means to encourage the growth of the 
 smaller trees. Irrigating ditch companies 
 should be held to be common carriers of the 
 public water, and the State should stipulate 
 on what terms and conditions they should be 
 operated. 
 
 Large reservoi s for storing irrigating 
 water should be constructed among the foot- 
 hills or on land sufficiently high for the pur- 
 pose of irrigating the farm land below. When 
 
PAPERS HEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 19 
 
 there is a scarcity of water, ditch companies 
 should be required to only let water flow 
 when and where needed. 
 
 Said ditch companies should be required to 
 plant and maintain a row of forest trees along 
 the line of such ditches. The State should, 
 by suitable laws, grant substantial and 
 adequate inducements to all persons 
 within the State who will plant and cultivate 
 forest and other trees. The State could 
 afford to reward such persons, because by 
 cultivating trees, they assist in maintaining 
 artificial forests, and hence become public 
 benefactors. The General Government was 
 wise in providing the Timber Culture Act 
 the only fault witn it is that it does not offer 
 sufficient inducement to those who take 
 public land under it. The person who takes 
 public land under said act, gets no more land 
 than he who takes a homestead ; and yet the 
 government asks him to expend in time, 
 labor and money, in cultivating ten acres in 
 timber trees more than $1,000 before he gets 
 a patent to said land. And yet said ten acres 
 of newly made forest, to be kept up and 
 maintained by him, by expensive irrigation 
 and cultivation, is in fact for the benefit of 
 the general public. The law should be so 
 amended as to set apart a certain portion of 
 the public domain that can be irrigated 
 to be planted and cultivated in forest and 
 other trees, at the public expense T.hen the 
 whole country would be benefited. The at- 
 tempt by Congress last session to repeal the 
 timber culture act was uuwise, to say the 
 least. The General Government has ex- 
 pended large sums of money in sinking ar- 
 tesian wells, to no purpose. Now let it enact 
 wise and liberal laws which will protect and 
 preserve the forests of the Rocky Mountain 
 range and thus maintain the present water 
 supply for the arid plains. This matter 
 should be urged upon our representatives in 
 Congress. 
 
 A WOMAN'S VIEWS OP FOR- 
 ESTRY. 
 
 BY MKS. A. L. WASHBURNE OF LOVELAND. 
 
 I regret exceedingly that circumstances 
 over which I have no control (a polite name 
 for "hard times") prevents my attendance at 
 this your first convention. I hope to be 
 present at your first annual meeting in 1885. 
 for I foresee a great work before you, and one 
 which calls for a permanent organization. 
 
 There is certainly "cause for action." Al- 
 ready our mountain sides present a bare and 
 uninviting appearance compared to the dark 
 wooded slopes of twenty years ago; and 
 destruction of their beauty has, as is almost 
 
 always the case, kept pace with that of their 
 utility. The beautiful nines which once 
 formed for the eye of the lonely emigrant 
 and settler so agreeable a contrast to the 
 gigantic rocks which lifted their seamed and 
 scarred surfaces to the sunlight have been 
 mostly destroyed by fires wantonly set or 
 carelessly neglected. 
 
 The use of the house-logs and fencing of 
 the scattered settlers are but as a drop in the 
 bucket to the loss by fire. But lamentations 
 are vain; the question now is how best to re- 
 pair the damage of the past and to replace 
 our beautiful and useful forests. While to 
 many minds this question will pre- 
 sent itself in a purely finan- 
 cial light, involving the loss and 
 the replacement of millions of dollars' 
 worth of lumber, cordwood, ties, fencing and 
 charcoal, to me there is also a moral aspect 
 to be considered, reminding us of the Golden 
 Rule, and the perpetual obligations of moral 
 beings to work for the "greatest goo to the 
 greatest number." The higher law, which 
 keeps each within the sphere of his own per- 
 sonal rights and teaches us to as carefally 
 abstain from infringing on those of others, 
 must be applied in daily practice to the tim- 
 ber question, and would do much to put an 
 end to the terrible conflagrations which have 
 denuded our hillsides of their verdure, for 
 even a mountain fire of six weeks' duration, 
 extending over many miles of forest, began 
 somewhere in a tiny flame which might 
 in most cases have been extinguished in a 
 moment if the unselfish will were present. 
 The love of trees and the intimate know edge 
 of their individual characteristics should be 
 taught to the young. There is no study of 
 nature more enchanting. It is a study which 
 lures one on and on after the attention is 
 once directed to it. I have seen a class 
 charmed and interested while a teacher spoke 
 of the different trees in their school yard 
 their habits of growth, their smooth, shiny 
 leaves or those beautifully notched or scal- 
 loped, all so similar that each tree was recog- 
 nized at a glance, and yet so diverse that of 
 the thousands or millions of leaves on one 
 tree, no two were alike. 
 
 And from their own trees to those in their 
 neighbor's yards, from the hill to the river 
 bank, from the plain to the mountain, each 
 native tree fitted to its own location, and 
 each one of foreign origin adapting itself, as 
 best it may, to its new surrounding. An oc- 
 casional question brings forth surprising re- 
 plies from the children, some of the bright 
 ones showing unusual powers of observation 
 and original thought. From their appear- 
 ance, natural situation and habits, children 
 are easily led to consider, the uses of trees, 
 
20 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 whether as ornaments in a rural landscape, 
 for shade or for application in the thousand 
 and one arts where wood is used; and thus, 
 as we cherish what we love, the rising gener- 
 ation will for love of the trees and of each 
 others welfare preserve the forests. And, 
 further, as we cannot truly love even a tree 
 or bush without becoming more gentle and 
 refined, the improvement of character and 
 consequent multiplication of kind acts and 
 the ameneties of life will be in time the 
 work of this association, and future bene- 
 ficiaries of your present wise and unselfiish 
 action will murmur: ''They builded better." 
 
 TREE-PLANTING ON FARMS. 
 
 BY J. H. BEERY OF FRUITA. 
 
 The preservation of the timber on the 
 mountains will no doubt require State or na- 
 tional legislation, but if tree-planting in the 
 mountains is to be a success, which in course 
 of time it may be, a great point will be gained 
 by having the lower valleys planted first. To 
 gain this end it would be very necessary to 
 get the farmers to understand that it would 
 b<- to their interest to grow trees on their 
 farms. Why should not the farmers in the 
 valleys have a belt of trees round their 
 farms, and where the fields are divided have 
 a row of trees? If they don't want to plant 
 forest trees such ss ash, elm, maple, sycamore 
 and such large trees, why let them plant 
 fruit trees, such as apples, pears, apricots, 
 peaches, etc. They will beautify the country 
 and at the same time help to fill their own 
 pockets, besides supplying the family with 
 all the fruit they want to use. 
 These rows of trees spread 
 across the valleys will act as a 
 shelter to the field by breaking the force of 
 the strong, dry winds that at certain seasons 
 of the year sweep over the valleys and carry 
 away the last particle of moisrure there is in 
 the ground. Everyone who has lived for a 
 few seasons in these valleys knows how dry- 
 ing these winds are. Now, if those valleys 
 were protected by rows of trees stretched 
 across their whole breadth, evaporation would 
 go on much more slowly, and consequently 
 there would be less necessity for so much ir- 
 rigation with cold water, and the crops would 
 be all the better, as the water in the early 
 part of the season is apt to chill the ground 
 and consequently retard growth. 
 
 To keep the trees growing there is always 
 an abundant supply of water running in the 
 ditches at all necessary seasons, so that irri- 
 gating them would be no extra labor 
 or expense. If this plan were carried 
 out as far back towards the moun- 
 
 tains as the highest ditch, of course 
 time would be required, but if only once 
 fairly started and a little patience exercised, 
 these valleys could be made to look lovely 
 and more than pay for all the expense in- 
 curred, aid be an ornamont to the State and 
 form a splendid contrast to the mountains in 
 the vicinity. Such will be the resulc in a 
 few years if each farmer will lend a hand; 
 every little town sb.ows a good example. The 
 streets *,re scarcely laid off when up start 
 rows of trees as soon as a drop of water can 
 be had, even if it has to be hauled from the 
 rivers. Why should the country people be 
 so far behind where shelter and shade is so 
 much wanted? 
 
 The quantity of cotton wood seed annually 
 carried down by the wa^er in the main 
 ditches will soon have the banks one mass of 
 these trees, but what is wanted is a better 
 class of timber; could not some of the enter- 
 prising owners of these ditches see that it 
 would be their interest to plant some of the 
 hundreds of miles of the banks of their 
 ditches wioh some good fo est trees, say 
 catalpa, ash, elm, maples of different kinds, 
 sycamore, tulp poplar, and hickory and Wal- 
 nuts. Cedar, spruce and pine would also grow 
 there, and by so doing, in a few years they 
 would save enough on evaporation alone to 
 pay f >rthe work, and stiengthen their ba? ks 
 and have the timber getting ready for use. 
 
 As far back as this the planting and grow- 
 ing of trees would be comparatively easy and 
 sure from the first start. Now we come to 
 the foot-hills, where irrigation is necessary 
 as a rule, but where water is scarce when 
 wanted. Of course in eaily spring thrre is 
 rleuty rain fall most seasons, and trees pi anted 
 as early as possible in spring may get enough 
 moisture to keep them growing till July, at 
 which time they can have a good hold of the 
 ground. After that time the rains are uncer- 
 tain, and success would depend mainly on 
 the hold the roots had got in the ground and 
 whether there was any vegetation to shade 
 the ground. Higher up in the mountains, 
 with the exception of the moist valleys, suc- 
 cess would be very uncertain, K,sthe quantity 
 of seeds that annually fall from the trees and 
 find no place to vegetate amply shows. 
 
 ABOUT NUT TREES. 
 
 BY H. B. SNYDER OF COLORADO SPRINGS. 
 
 As fall is coming on leaves and nuts will 
 begin to fall; and this reminds me that 
 something may profitably be said on the sub- 
 ject of planting nut trees. It seems to me 
 that an effort should be made to supply that 
 which has been denied this section of the 
 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 21 
 
 country for perhaps a million of years, when 
 palm trees, Brazil nuts and other tropical 
 growths flourished in this section - a fact of 
 which there is abundant evidence.. 
 
 Undoubtedly the best way to procure good 
 seed is to send to friends in the East for wal- 
 nuts, butternuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, also 
 black oak, white oak seeds, etc. Have the 
 nuts gathered with the hull on and packed 
 in moss or damp leaves, and sent by express 
 and immediately planted where they are 
 wanted to grow. Cover the seeds with 
 leaves, which can be gathered when 
 the cottonwoods shed their foliage. The 
 nuts can be had of seedsmen, but few 
 of them will have been properly 
 cared for, and the balance will not 
 grow. When they fall from the trees, nuts 
 are immediately covered with leaves. The 
 frost and sun burst them open during tho 
 winter and they shoot up in the spring. 
 Young trees can be obtained from the nur- 
 serymen, but these have the tap-roat cut 
 back, which makes them undesirable for our 
 dry climate. All nut-bearing trees throw 
 down into the earth a taproot as deep 
 as the tree grows, unless in very moist 
 places. The chestnut grows well in 
 rough places and mountainous regions. 
 
 These nut trees are more desirable for 
 wood or lumber than the cottonwood, are 
 cleaner, and bear something for the benefit 
 of man. It requires a much longer time for 
 the nut-bearers to mature, but it pays on the 
 long pull. 
 
 The writer of this planted walnut four 
 years ago, in hard abode ground, and the 
 trees are now four feet high. After the first 
 year they commenced growing in good 
 earnest. 
 
 FOREST CULTURE IN COLO- 
 RADO. 
 
 BY ALBERT BORCHERDT OF DENVER. 
 
 In regard to the importance of the matter 
 to be deliberated to-day by your honorable 
 Board, I take the liberty of presenting my 
 opinion about forest culture, being as well a 
 theoretical as a practical forester. 
 
 Through science and literature we learn 
 that the character of' a land, being deprived 
 of its trees, changes entirely, the climate be- 
 coming a rougher one, the fogs getting 
 scarcer, the springs of the rivulets drying up; 
 thus a once fertile country is turned into a 
 desert; further we read, that a tree of middle 
 size evaporates from ten to twenty tons of 
 moisture per year, which we receive as rain, 
 snow or dew. The rainspouts taking place 
 from time to time excepted, no fog will be 
 
 perceived in a country where there are no 
 trees, and in such region the avalanches 
 prove to be exceedingly disastrous, as no 
 stems weaken their vehement course. 
 
 It is the highest time for the citizens of 
 the State of Colorado to stop the nefarious 
 devastation of timber, that takes place un- 
 molested, or it will be impossible to nurse 
 any more frees, because the rain-spouts men- 
 tioned above are bound to wash away the 
 stratums where formerly the wood stood. 
 
 We cannot deny that pinus pivea and pinus 
 abies yet thrive at a high altitude, but we 
 must take into consideration that the roots 
 of the older trees get their nourishment 
 through the crevices of the rocks, young 
 plants needing positively a stratum. 
 
 The Spanish Government tried several 
 times to nurse young forests on the strata of 
 the Pyrennes cleared from wood; this proved 
 no success, as the rain-spouts and storms had 
 removed the stratum from the rocks. We 
 are bound to witness the same result in our 
 country, if the culture of forests should be 
 neglected, further on. 
 
 For a rational culture of forests, to start 
 with, nurseries have to be established, well 
 fenced, so that they are protected against 
 cattle as well as against great game. The 
 seed is put in riUs, having an interval of 
 three inches the one from the other. Should 
 any weeds make their appearance wiohin a 
 nursery, they ought to be removed at once. 
 After a period of three or four years, 
 the young plants may be moved and re- 
 planted there where they have to form a forest 
 later on. Pines especially have to be treated 
 thus. In saying more about the culture of 
 forests, I would lay claim in too high a de- 
 gree on your patience, anyho v let me state 
 that the culture of forests cannot be carried 
 on except by an expert. 
 
 Culture of forests wants a strict law for the 
 protection of birds, as all kinds of them assist 
 us in performing this useful work. 
 
 The birds feasting upon insects save many 
 plants, because, besides various other scara- 
 bus, they devour the bark scaraf, the worst 
 enemy of the forest to be found. Those tak- 
 ing the seed for nourishment are useful by 
 planting trees, so we find often young plants 
 where there is no tree in the neighborhood. 
 The seed has been carried thereby our winged 
 friends. More useful a being than all others, 
 the jay bird (garratus onstatus) proves to be in 
 this regard. 
 
 The birds of prey, especially the owls, need 
 protection. They are the ones that kill the 
 moles, the common rats, etc., that undermine 
 the fresh cultures and gnaw the growing 
 plants. 
 
 If those birds do any harm on a farm-, 
 
22 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 yard, they ought to he shot, but on the fields 
 they always will be useful to the farmer. 
 
 Hence the Legislature should protect the 
 birds by ordering a bill, prohibiting the kill- 
 ing of any bird, grouse, prairie chickens, 
 wild geese, ducks and suipe exoepted, and by 
 ordering a bill that forces every man willing 
 to hunt to procure a license, and such license 
 should not be issued for less than $5, minors 
 per se excluded, as they always have proved 
 to be the birds' worst enemies. 
 
 FORESTRY IN COLORADO. 
 
 BY PEOF. JAS. CASSIDY, OF THE AGRIC'L COLLEGE. 
 
 I cannot indulge in the hope that what I 
 may say to you to-day will have the novelty 
 of freshness, but I content myself with the 
 reflection that it is often profitable to re- 
 view again principles and facts in nature 
 that may have been once familiar, and es- 
 pecially important I deem it, assembled as 
 we are here in convention, for the purpose of 
 impressing public attention with the import- 
 ance of the Forestry question in its several 
 aspects, to the citizens not alone of this State, 
 but to the people of the United States at 
 large. The word Forestry is as yet a new 
 one to many people. This is but natural, 
 inhabiting, as we do, a country wealthy in 
 timber resources, to which, until recently, 
 we felt there was no limit. Forestry is the 
 application of science and skill to woodcraft. 
 It is the result of long continued observation 
 and study of all that relates to the planting, 
 treatment, disposition and utilization of 
 trees produced on lands especially set apart 
 for them. Its subject matter is so volumin- 
 ous and varied that it has been found neces- 
 sary to classify and subdivide it into five 
 separate divisions, i.e., sylvaculture, conser- 
 vancy, utilization and organization the 
 history, laws and political economy of forest 
 administration. 
 
 Without stopping to inquire into the rela- 
 tions forestry bore in earlier times to hunt- 
 ing and the chase, we may for the present 
 awume that for us forestry has special refer- 
 ence to the conservancy, utilization and 
 organization of existing public forest lands, 
 by means of an efficient State Forestry De- 
 partment. 
 
 Our tree-planting on the plains may be 
 more appropriately termed woodlands than 
 forests. Planted in lines of one or of several 
 rows of trees, intended to break currents of 
 air, they constitute hedge-rows, wind-breakes 
 and shelter-belts. 
 
 In all ages of the world's history man has 
 been a destructive agent rather than a con- 
 server of the gifts of nature, in fitting the 
 
 earth for his continued occupancy on a high 
 plane of civilization. The pages of history 
 exhibit abundant evidence of this in the 
 progress of man up to the present day, ex- 
 hibititing as it does his ability and desire to 
 investigate the physical condition of the 
 earth, and to estimate the past, present and 
 prospective result of his own labor, as it has 
 helped shape these conditions to suit his own 
 purposes. 
 
 As man multiplied and extended his agri- 
 cultural industry, he naturally trenched on 
 the forest, which once covered the greater 
 part of the earth's surface. In the removal 
 of the forests, with all their vast conse- 
 quental influences, we are brought to realize 
 men's ability as a transforming power, seen 
 in the changed condition of earth and clini- 
 ate. Countries once densely peopled are 
 now a vacant and bleak wilderness, brought 
 about, we know, by the slow and sure result 
 of man's own improvidence. And as we 
 look at the evidences of a high civilization 
 that showed once a dense population over 
 the present thinly inhabited districts of 
 Western Asia, Northern Africa and Southern 
 Europe, we may apply to this vast region 
 our present theory of cause and effect, and 
 in the gradual diminution of the forest 
 area, a corresponding change in 
 climate, and a diminished productiveness 
 of soil. Such physical changes in this once 
 garden of the world extended over vast 
 epochs of time, but owing to the advanced 
 condition of science and art at this time, 
 these, people were enabled to conceive and 
 execute gigantic works of irrigation, by 
 which the mountain streams were spread 
 upon the thirsty land and so prolonged man's 
 occupancy of these fair fields. It is indeed 
 lamentable to compare the present physical 
 condition of these countries with the ac- 
 count given us by the ancient historians of 
 heir glorious agriculture of the past; their 
 luxurious fields of cereals waved over hill 
 and dale, and every accompaniment of a suc- 
 cessful system of agriculture was theirs. All 
 this wealth, however, the, cumulation of ages 
 of toil, has been surrendered to desolation, 
 and extensive districts are now with- 
 out commerce, art or agriculture. Their 
 forests are a thing of the past; 
 the virgin earth, the cumulations of ages, 
 has disappeared, the once fruitful meadows 
 are unproductive, because the water supply, 
 ;he reservoirs, have dried up. Eivers like 
 ;he Jordan fail to reach the sea and the trees 
 that shaded and protected their banks have 
 disappeared; the rivulets cease to exist in 
 summer* but in spring are roaring torrents. 
 And all this the result of man's selfish disre- 
 gard of the laws of nature. While man may 
 
PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 23 
 
 for a time fight oppression and the destruc- 
 tive forces of inorganic n ture, he eventually, 
 however, after a contest more or less ex- 
 tended, yields the fields he has -won from 
 primeval nature to ruin and. desolation. And 
 so on do^n to modern times has man's evil 
 abuse of nature been extended, until to-day a 
 halt is called on this great continent that we 
 may avert the threatened ruin. It is but a 
 few years ago that this country awakened to 
 a realizing sense of the situation, to the 
 necessity of restoring the disturbed har- 
 monies of nature, whose well-bal- 
 anced influences are so propitious 
 to all her organic offspring, repaying to our 
 mother earth the debt which the improvi- 
 dence of former generations has left us as a 
 legacy. The value of forests must be meas- 
 ured solely by their usefulness to man in 
 some form or other, and as the chief wealth 
 of any nation is its population, so the forest, 
 as well as many other things, has had to give 
 way to that, but notwithstanding the recog- 
 nized importance of the preservation of a due 
 proportion of the land in forest growth, it is 
 indeed but seldom that a civilized country 
 has ever seen fit to preserve a proper propor- 
 tion of its surface in forest growth. 
 
 The art of forestry must grow in impor- 
 tance as the world grows older and becomes 
 more populous the needs of a growing pop- 
 ulation must be met. Sylvaculture here 
 steps in and provides the remedy, for it aims 
 at the culture in the smallest practicable area 
 of the greatest number of the most desirable 
 forms of trees, best adapted \o our local wants. 
 In earlier times, for obvious reasons, the re- 
 moval of the forest caused no uneasiness. 
 But in course of time unfavorable results be- 
 gan to manifest themselves, and led to the 
 framing of many laws at an early period in 
 the history of many nations; and even where 
 no laws were passed, indications are not 
 wanting lo show that the waste of trees by 
 ignorance or cupidity was not unnoticed. 
 Among ancient nations we find the forests 
 were placed under officers of high rank in 
 the State. In Japan, an ancient law pro- 
 vides that wnere a tree was cut down another 
 must be planted in its stead. The ancient 
 Germans framed laws for the marking of 
 trees to be felled, and in certain cases pun- 
 ished with death infractions of these rules. 
 But in spite of all laws, man's ignorance, sel- 
 fishness and want of forethought, combined 
 to waste and ruin forests which should have 
 been preserved as an inheritance for future 
 generations. 
 
 So intimately connected are plants and ani- 
 mals, that if we interfere with a species we 
 cannot tell what results will ensue. The 
 mere enclosure of a piece of land to exclude 
 
 cattle from it, induces great changes, as was 
 frequently noticed by Darwin. By cutting 
 down our forests indiscriminately we destroy 
 a number of species of plants that eannot 
 live in a dry climate, and with "these go a 
 number of insects, which depend upon these 
 plants exclusively for their food. Again, the 
 change in the insect fauna effected by the 
 abolition of the forest, will probably have a 
 marked effect upon the birds of the district. 
 The latter are the natural protectors of 
 plants. Insects are Nature's cheeks upon 
 plants to prevent their too rapid increase, for 
 if the former were te increase too rapidly 
 certain plants would disappear altogether. 
 To obviate this contingency the smaller birds 
 are given us as a check upon insects, and 
 that the later shall not increase unduly, the 
 smaller birds of prey hold them in check, 
 and so all created things have an indirect 
 connection with one another, and the result 
 is that the most perfect harmony is the law 
 of Nature. To man is given the power to 
 modify these conditions, either for or against 
 his interests, as he will; too often, indeed, 
 the latter, due no doubt in large measure 
 to his ignorance of those laws, by which the 
 whole universe is goverened, and ly which 
 the most perfect harmony in Nature, not- 
 withstanding its diversity, is maintained. 
 It follows, then, from the close inter-depend- 
 ence that obtains throughout all Nature, that 
 many plants, and animals, are dependent for 
 their continued existence, upon circumstan- 
 ces created by trees, particularly when 
 grouped as forests. In man's case, there is 
 no necessity, there is no possibility, of exag- 
 gerating this obligation; for man himself is 
 absolutely dependent upon plant life for his 
 existence. Except salt, and water, and air, 
 there is not a mineral substance which ani- 
 mals can use directly as food. Their food 
 must be organic; and forest growth, in com- 
 mon with more humble vegetation, serves to 
 link together the animal, the mineral, and 
 man, the 'clod of the field. 
 
 But it is gratifying to know that a knowl- 
 edge of the powers of Nature, its elements, 
 and manifestations, so indispensable to the 
 welfare of the whole people, is so rapidly 
 gainiog ground among us; as, upon a right 
 use of this knowledge, so much is dependent. 
 The health of the forests is the health of the 
 people. Our Nation, after slumbering 100 
 years, is beginning to open its eyes. The 
 reason of the profound sleep is that, till a 
 little while ago, nobody knew what air, wa- 
 ter, and earth were made of, how plants 
 grew, or whether their growth had any rela- 
 tion to animal life, or not. 
 
 By promoting forests we shall preserve the 
 streams. Fountains and purling brooks 
 
24 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 can only gladden our summer by having a 
 sufficiency of forest growth to protect the 
 land from the pitiless sun. What does our 
 civilization amount to if it cannot preserve 
 and increase the conditions of the highest 
 health for the human race and its auxiliaries? 
 Truly ''there are hooks in trees," and in 
 every leaf a tribute to him who planteth 
 them. 
 
 From the foregoing examples we may read- 
 ily infer the gravity of the situation to our- 
 selves. This country is no exception to the 
 laws of nature. Why should, it be? Many 
 portions of this country already feel the first 
 symptoms of that general deterioration of the 
 eartn, which is nature's retribution lor the 
 disturbance of her harmonies, evidenced in 
 uncertain climate, floods ever increasing in 
 number and direful consequences, streams no 
 longer to be relied on, savage winds against 
 whose violence there is no barrier, blighting 
 vegetation, intensifying disease, inducing de- 
 rangement of the seasons, and in the old, set- 
 tled States ending in the abandonment of 
 lands once fertile. It is, indeed, to be feared 
 that we will not in this country recognize 
 the value of the forests until the advent 
 of calamities, which thoughtful con- 
 sideration of the subject would avert. 
 And as the Old World holds out the beacon 
 light of danger ahead, so must we look to 
 her for the remedy. The care of the forests 
 in all European countries is now a matter of 
 governmental concern. But six of them now 
 possess more than 25 per cent, of land in for- 
 est growth, and only four of them, Norway 
 and Sweedea, Russia, Germany and Belgium, 
 yield more than they consume. The leading 
 governments of Europe to-day are tree- 
 planting on an extensive si-ale, endeavoring 
 to protect especially the forest growth at the 
 head waters of the principal strearrs, and to 
 introduce in every way possible the most 
 economical management and reform. In 
 some of the United States there is now less 
 land in forest growth than the rule of the 
 Duke of Burgundy required, one-third to the 
 hunter, two-thirds to the husbandman, The 
 rule of William Penn, one acre in woods for 
 five acres in tillage, exclusive of the wooded 
 hills and mountain forests, is not as yet, per- 
 haps, materially lessened. 
 
 The feature most essential to the efiicient 
 working of these forest departments of State, 
 as well as perhaps most striking to Ameri 
 cans, is the system of forest schools. There 
 are thirty-five of these schools in Europe. In 
 these continental schools the student may 
 learn how to draw from the forest the quick- 
 est returns, and how to replace, in the most 
 certain and quickest manner, what these 
 forests should produce annually; he will 
 
 likewise learn how to build up the scarifie 
 hillside with a growth of trees and shrubs; 
 how bare and desolate plains may be re- 
 clothed with verdure, and impoverished soils 
 so treated as to support a successful system 
 of agriculture. 
 
 England, owing to her insular position and 
 a variety of natural advantages, has been en- 
 abled to destroy her forests with impunity to 
 accomodate the wants of a growing popula- 
 tion, and yet she feels no inconvenience 
 therefrom. She has in their stesd, however, 
 all the accompaniments of a diversified agri- 
 culture. She has magnificent parks, every 
 variety of tree growth, magnificeatly devel- 
 oped and arranged, her green valleys and 
 leafy knolls are pleasing to the lover of 
 natural and artistic beauty, but she has not a 
 single forest in the continental accceptiou of 
 the term. The Britisher must look to 
 England's Colonial possessions to learn how 
 to manage forest property. But in India, 
 Britain has the finest forestry system in the 
 world. 
 
 In France and in Germany the care of the 
 forests constitutes a department, the magni- 
 tude of whose operations may be inferred 
 from the fact that besides the work in the 
 Alps' provinces and elsewhere, a forest, 150 
 miles long and ten miles wido, has been 
 formed along the sand dunes of the western 
 coast, by which millions of acres were re- 
 claimed and made arable. Looking at home, 
 we find that very little has been done to 
 preserve and restore forest lands; and worst 
 of all that total ignorance of the interests 
 involved is well nigh universal. ' The forest 
 lands of the United States amount to less 
 than one-fourth of the entire are*. The 
 proportion of wooded area is less than in 
 Eastern, Northern and Central Europe, and 
 is very unequally distributed. Norway has 
 two-thirds of the area wooded, Sweden six- 
 tenths, Kussia one-third and Germany one- 
 fourth. Spain is the only European 
 country that makes no provision 
 for its forests. The Spaniard's hatred 
 of a tree is proverbial, and they have re- 
 duced their once beautiful and fertile coun- 
 try to one renowned for its extreme aridity. 
 Generally speaking, the American views this 
 question in one of two aspects: First, as 
 affording means for great and rapid profit; 
 and, second, as obstacles to the culture of 
 the ground. Yet a broader knowledge of 
 such matters is beginning to bear its inevit- 
 able result. We may diagnose two phases of 
 growing interest in the matter. In the older 
 States, the once-grandly woode i hills being 
 deforested, and the people being awakened 
 to the serious consequences resulting there- 
 from, considerable efiort is being put forth 
 
PAPERS HEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 25 
 
 to make new plantations, and to save what notions as appeal to individuals; of these the 
 already exists. In the treeless regions of the j most powerful is self-interest. Let it be 
 West different motives are at work. The known that it pays a man to preserve his 
 pressing necessity for protection against woodland, or to plant out trees for profit, and 
 wind, as well as the great difficulty of procur- j the future of our forests is assured and se- 
 ing fuel, has led Legislatures to encourage 
 the planting of tree belts and groves 
 by liberal grants of land, by remission 
 of taxes, by payment of bounties, 
 and by setting apart one day in each year for 
 the purpose of tree planting. Arbor Day 
 
 originated in Nebraska through the State | pecuniary interest. This argument success- 
 Board of Agriculture petitioning Che Legis- i fully applied to any subject will commend it 
 lature to set aside one day for tree plantiag. - to the public ear, endear it to the public 
 This Board of Agriculture annually awards i heart. The f .ct that rnor^e money is involved 
 liberal premiums for the greatest number of j the tree question than in any other inter- 
 trees, cuttings and seeds permanently planted est in our country, should clearly enlist pub- 
 lic sympathies in favor of arbor culture. 
 
 cure. Notwithstanding the importance 
 which a philanthropist or general economist 
 may give to the arboreal industries in a 
 money getting country and among a mining 
 people, there is still an argument more po- 
 tent, in fact, all powerful the argument of 
 
 on that day. Later ths idea was taken up 
 by the Forestry Association of Minnesota 
 and later still by the people of Kansas, Iowa, 
 Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Dakota. The 
 idea, too, has been looked upon favorably by 
 some foreign countries, and lastly our own 
 State has taken her position in behalf of this 
 cause. Very much has been said and written 
 about tree planting for posterity, and a capi- 
 tal sentiment it is, but I must record the fact 
 that the average American citizen cares but 
 little for the generations yet to come. What 
 exercises him most in this connection is will 
 the trees he plants benefit men in his time? 
 Future generations he expects to provide 
 their own shade. The forestry problem in- 
 this country is indeed a serious one. There 
 now remains in the United States but oue 
 vast tract of timber yet untouched, that of 
 Oregon and Washington Territory. The 
 nature of our General Government precludes 
 the possibility of such action as would be ef- 
 fective and possible under the paternal forms 
 of European governments. In a republic it 
 is an extremely difficult matter to secure the 
 attention of the masses of the people in fa- 
 
 Here is work for practical horticulturists 
 all over this land, and here is work, too, for 
 the State, the Nation, and the municipalities. 
 Our agricultural population is not easily con- 
 vinced of the necessity for tree planting^ Its 
 benefits are too vague, the profics too pros- 
 pective, to cause them to look with enthusi- 
 asm on what seems a doubtful undertaking. 
 Still, in this respect, too, it is a pleasure to 
 note that public opinion is fast changing, ex- 
 periments in sylvaculture are being made on 
 a sufficiently broad scale to promise the most 
 gratifying results, and it is highly probable 
 that at no distant day, when its benefits are 
 understood, this b anch of agriculture will 
 receive at the hands of farmers the attention 
 its importance demands. 
 
 A great deal of influene has been ascribed 
 to trees in relation to atmospheric moistuie, 
 but the opinion is now gaining ground that 
 this influence has been much exaggerated. 
 
 The truth probably is that trees favorably 
 effect the earth's surface and the sub-^oil. 
 Forests may influence the rain-fall in two 
 ways: First By constant evaporation 
 
 vor of any great and wholesome ^innovation, i through their leaves they may have a ten- 
 Our State Legislature readily concede the I dency to bring air in their immediate vicin- 
 importance of the Fishery question and the ity. nearer to the point of saturation, and so 
 water power, but they rarely recognize the j induce a saturated air-current to yield its 
 importance of the forestry question, which moisture, if any difference 'n temperature 
 underlies both those and all other industries, occur between the two currents. Second The 
 We believe this question of the protection of [ leaves being covered by evaporation of water 
 our Eocky Mountain forest resources comes I present a surface that would readily attract 
 exactly within the purview of legitimate moisture from passing air, and thus secure 
 legislation. Of course private ownership is | water for that portion so covered by forest, 
 and must ever be the rule, and we would not 
 tolerate, much else would we de- 
 sire, such interference with individual 
 
 liberty as the fostering governments of Eu- 
 rope exercise. But it is to be regretted that 
 monarchies alone are competent to guard and 
 preserve physical nature, so that it may yield 
 its sustenance in one unbroken round. Evi- 
 dently our principle reliance is upon such 
 
 But forest growth, if it doesn't influence 
 the rainfall in a general or local way, has a 
 marked influence in regulating in availabil- 
 ity for the needs of agriculture. The foliage 
 of the trees of the woodland certainly miti- 
 gate the force of the wind storm by breaking 
 it up into currents of lesser force, compelling 
 the rains to percolate gradually through the 
 moss and leaf-covered humus, to be gradually- 
 
26 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Driven oft* by retarded evaporation, the sur- 
 plus finding its way to swell the volume of 
 the great rivers. On the open . vlains the 
 rain storm descends on a surface already im- 
 tactcd by previous rains and the fervid heat; 
 of the sun. Water will not penetrate such a 
 surface, but rushes madly down its slopes to 
 swell the brooks and rivers, and instead of 
 being & blessing to the earth, is a very demon 
 in scarifying and wasting it. In reflecting 
 for a moment it is easy to see how forests are 
 a preventive of floods. Practical foresters 
 ktiow that woods generate springs, and that 
 the soil in woods is often dry when the same 
 ground in the open would be swampy. Trees 
 produce both these con trad ictofy effects by 
 means of their roots boring into the soil, and 
 so enabling water to reach lower 
 level whence springs take their 
 rise, and. again by continually 
 absorbing quantities of water by their roots, 
 they act as subsoil drains and keep the surface 
 from becoming sodden. In forest countries 
 the cbanges of temperature are greatly modi- 
 fied by the presence of timber, and the effect 
 upon water and the development of the fish 
 industries is even greater. Forests regulate 
 the flow of water as well as purify it, which 
 fact has been frequently noticed in Australia 
 whe*j streams have been polluted by the 
 wool cleansing industry. Such streams, after 
 passing through a dense forest, will appear 
 as clear as it was above the wool wash. 
 
 The office of trees in relation to terrestrial 
 and atmospheric moisture may be summar- 
 rized as follows: 
 
 First Tb^y help counteract the effects of 
 lonir summer droughts, by the transpira- 
 tion of water through their leaves, and by 
 their foliage and branches protect decaying 
 vegetation which acts as a mulch to the 
 earth's surface. 
 
 Second They prevent dangerous floods by 
 holding the gentle rain in abeyance until it 
 has had time to penetrate the earth's sur- 
 face. 
 
 Third The water thus reaching a lower 
 level by means of the boring power of the 
 roots, collects, and forms springs. 
 
 Fourth -Some trees absorb vast quantities 
 of water, as the eucalypte, and thus act as 
 sub-soil drains. 
 
 Fifth By preventing the accumulation of 
 bodies of water on the earth's surface the re- 
 moval of valuable soil is prevented; and, last- 
 ly, as wind breaks and shelter belts, especially 
 in large quantities, they equalize temperature, 
 both in summer and winter, and at the same 
 time add to the value of any farm so protected. 
 And this is not all, much more can be said 
 of the relation trees bear to the economy of 
 nature. Trees are intimately associated with 
 
 the welfare of their fellow plants of the 
 lower animals and of man. There is proba- 
 bly no way in which the farmers of this 
 State could more easily or more rapidly in- 
 crease its agricultural product ihan by 
 planting shelter belts to the north and west 
 of their farms. They would, of course, be too 
 limited in extent and too widely scattered to 
 have any general influence on our 
 climate, or the flow of the water 
 courses, but as a means of direct profit it does 
 not seem unreasonable to predict that each 
 protection to our fields would increase the 
 profits of tlieir culture fully 20 per cent. 
 Orchards thus protected would have their 
 conditions measurably improved, and all 
 horticulturists know that plants generally 
 supposed to be too tender for an open, airy 
 situation will thrive when planted under the 
 protection of a wall or' among trees. What 
 garden walls are to the horticulturist these 
 plantations ought to be and would be to the 
 farmer. The subject of the proper distribu- 
 tion of fruit trees in their relation to climate 
 may well engage the attention of the agri- 
 culturist, for although in the main his suc- 
 cess depends upon the action of forces which 
 he cannot control, the distribution of 
 moisture is dependent upon conditions 
 which he may determine to a limited extent, 
 according to his will. Excess of forest in 
 some parts of our country ana. their en- 
 tire absence in others are alike unde- 
 sirable. The early explorers might well 
 call these plains the American Desert. 
 It is susceptible of proof, however, 
 that its limits are gradually receding 
 with the advance of civilization, the break- 
 ing up of the prairie soil, and the gradual 
 planting of timber trees and shrubbery. All 
 the evidence that can be obtained goes to 
 show that the grass covered area is getting 
 larger; the cactus, artemisia and buffalo grass 
 are surely disappearing. This very fact of 
 the tall grasses taking the place of the short, 
 crisp and dense buffalo grass, explains why 
 our American Desert is so rapidly disappear- 
 ing, and why grateful showers reward the 
 labors of the husbandman. Small as this 
 change in the herbage may seem to some, it 
 is not without its significance to the observer 
 of the phenomena of nature. As to general 
 climatic changes that need not concern us at 
 this moment, it is enough for us to know that 
 we can measurably ameliorate our local sur- 
 roundings by plantations of trees, and this is 
 what is most desired, that every landholder 
 mn,y protect himself and his possessions from 
 the untoward influences of wind and weather. 
 The functions that the forests perform in the 
 economy of nature are many ' and varied. 
 They are the great fertilizers of the soil,while 
 
PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 27 
 
 "their value to us for economic purposes can- 
 not be overestimated; they are, in fact, the 
 foundation of every industry. The ancient 
 philosophers had an axiom which the pro- 
 gress of time and scientific thought has not 
 disproved, that "Nature abhors a vacuum." 
 Wherever man has adopted such agricultural 
 methods as have resulted in the sterility of 
 his land, and his own forced abandonment 
 thereof is the consequence, we see Nature en- 
 deavoring by means of the humble lichen, 
 the sedge and myriads of similar auxiliaries, 
 which soon set in, and in their successive 
 growth and decay, establish a nidus by which 
 the development of the mighty oak is ren- 
 dered possible. This is the round 
 of organic life (if conditions be fav- 
 orable) so often observed, and is suggestive 
 to us of th is much that in the successive growth 
 and decay of plant life we must recognize 
 the salvation of the soil from sterility. In 
 re-pect to the profitableness of tree culture 
 in most of the prairie States so many facts 
 could he adduced, established by actual trial, 
 as to convince the most skeptical. In this 
 State we are too young in forest planting, as 
 yet to have determined more than a few 
 years' growth, but even this is quite encour- 
 aging, as what has been done on a small 
 scale may surely be accomplished on a much 
 larger one. We know but little as yet of the 
 possibilities of these plains for the produc- 
 tion of tree growth under improved methods j 
 of culture. Yet it is worth much to us to j 
 know I hat we don't. Some men know it all I 
 in the various branches of human knowledge, 
 though perhaps some may be suffi- 
 ciently modest to admit that they 
 are 'iot quite thoroughly versed 
 in matters that concern the pursuits of others. 
 It will indeed have been happy for us in this 
 new field of investigation if we can have 
 progressed to this point safely; that taere are 
 some things in regard to forestry generally, 
 but especially oa these plains, that are as yet 
 a sealed book to us; and further it is hoped that 
 we shall set about finding out from this day 
 on what that new field is about which we are 
 so ignorant in the premises, and this can- only 
 be accomplished by the heartiest ''ndividual 
 and collective efforts. First, there is work 
 here for and by the people; second, there is 
 work here too for and by the Agricultural 
 Colleges; and third, there is work here for 
 and by the State through the Legislature, 
 Colorado is but a young State, but she has a 
 full complement of young, men who will fol- 
 low your lead in this matter of tree planting, 
 and thus early secure an interest in them; 
 and we may thus rest assured of success. 
 The best laws remain dead, the best coun- 
 sels are preached to deaf ears if the youth of 
 
 the land be not enlisted in favor of every 
 good and wholesome innovation. 
 
 Every person should be familiar with the 
 appearance of trees under all circumstances, 
 in summer and winter, standing erect or 
 prostrate on the ground; or when worked up 
 by the artificer int'> any of the secondary 
 and ultimate forms to which trees may be 
 applied. All trees a^d plants possess pecu- 
 Ifarities of trunk, branch, stem, twig, buds 
 and seeds, and we should know the by 
 their peculiarities. Thers is a broad field 
 here for investigation, through the intricate 
 labyrinths of which we may wander at will, 
 always finding something to excite our de- 
 sire 'for knowledge. From the meanest 
 weed to the gigantic eucalyptus there are in- 
 fluences at work upon the soil beneath us, 
 and in the air abo^e us, the silent working 
 of which to us we never notice. Tree-plant- 
 ing, too, is fitted to give the juvenile mind 
 a useful lesson in forethought. Living only 
 in the present, and for the present, too often 
 youth will only sow where they can quickly 
 reap. Youth should learn to forecast the 
 future as the condition of wisdom. Arbori- 
 culture is such a discipline. 
 
 We are but tenants of this beautiful earth, 
 and so have no right to trench on the in- 
 heritance of others, but rather it is a duty in- 
 cumbent on all patriotic citizens to have this 
 earth better for our having occupied it our 
 allotted time. The great lessons inculcated 
 by the facts of history for the benefit of man 
 is that he is endowed with ability to become 
 an ametiveating agent of the earth; that he, 
 within certain limi s, can control the ele- 
 ments and make them minister to his wel- 
 fare and happiness, by planting trees where 
 they have been destroyed or where absent, 
 and thus realize the truth of Mohamed's ben- 
 ediction: "Blessed is the man that planteth 
 a tree." In an aesthetic point of view, trees 
 cannot be too highly extolled, as they give 
 an added charm and beauty to the 
 landscape that nothing else in nature can 
 bestow. There is no other agency of 
 nature which is so intimately connected 
 with all that is worth living for, so 
 necessary to the contiued fertility of the 
 soil, as the trees of the forest. Says Wash- 
 ington Irving: "There is something nobly 
 simple and pure i a taste for trees." It argues 
 a generous nature to have this strong friend- 
 ship for the hardy son of the forest. He 
 who ptants an oak looks forward to the 
 future, and plants for posterity. He cannot 
 expect to enjoy its shelter, but he exults iu 
 the consciousness of the fact that he has ac- 
 complished an unselfish act. It was the tr es 
 of his own planting more than the beauties of 
 surrounding landscape that bound Irving to 
 
28 
 
 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the Hudson. It was the simple beauty that 
 Webster created at Marshfield the smooth 
 lawns and shady approaches that bound him 
 so strongly to that sequestered spot. The 
 charin of Abbotsford, the gmnd Mecca of i 
 Scott, and comes mainly from its ivy clad 
 walls, beautiful shrubbery, and the now 
 majestic trees,planted by the hand of its illus- ! 
 trious owner. An American, whose thoughts 
 drop like sparkling gems, has put in my way 
 the worr's that so beautifully express the 
 emotions that should animate every citizen 
 of the State. "If I have no coaches and 
 horses, I can at least have a tracery of vine 
 leaves along my porch, so exquisitely deli- 
 cate, that no sculptor can imitate it, and if I 
 have no conservatory with their wonders, 
 yet the sun and I together can build up a 
 little tangled coppice of blooming things in 
 my door yard, of which every tiny floral 
 leaflet shall be a miracle. Nay, I may make 
 my home, however small it may be, so com- 
 plete in its simplicity, so fitted to its oflices, 
 so governed by neatness, so embowored by 
 wealth of leaf and flowei, that no riches in 
 the world could add to it without damaging 
 its rural grace and beauty, and my garden- 
 ers sunshine, frost and showers are their 
 name shall work for me with no crusty re- 
 
 luctance, but rather with an abandon and a 
 zeal that asks only gratitude for pay." 
 
 May the beautiful thought conveyed in the 
 above words prove to be the monitor of every 
 citizen of this State, that we may the >rore 
 quickly realize the work before us to-day; so 
 that the almost boundless expanse of prairie 
 by which we are surrounded, and which is 
 terminated only by the distant horizon, shall 
 have its due proportion of tree growth, and 
 this fair land clothed with fruitful farms, 
 the abiding place of a grand civilization. 
 The preservation and planting of forests is a- 
 duty we owe to posterity and to our ancestors 
 who left us the picturesque elm, the mighty 
 oak and other denizens of the forest. 
 
 May we in the future so perform that duty 
 as to be qualified to utter the beautiful senti- 
 ment of the poet Whittier in the following 
 lines: 
 
 "Give fools their gold and knaves their power, 
 Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; 
 Who sows a field or trains a flower, 
 Or plants a tree is more than all. 
 
 "For he who blesses most is blest; 
 And God and man shall own his worth 
 Who toils to leave as his bequest; 
 An added beauty to the earth. 
 
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