In this meaning of the term, we, in this country, have really no forests, but woodlands only. To turn these woodlands into forests, and to plant forests, where for climatic and other considerations they are needed, is the aim and object of the advocates of forestry.
The forester, it will be seen, has a distinct mission, which is to perpetuate the forests so indispensable to civilized life, and to produce at a minimum expense, from a given piece of ground, the greatest amount of forest products.
As our forests decrease in extent and deteriorate in quality, and as, with the increase of our population, the demands upon forest products of all kinds become greater, the necessity of a rational system of forestry, and the need of educated foresters becomes more apparent every day. We should, moreover, constantly bear in mind that, while there are trees, as the catalpa, the ash and the hickory, which will attain merchantable size in forty or fifty years from the seed, there are others such as the pine and the tulip-poplar, which require for reaching the necessary dimensions a period of from sixty to eighty years; and still others, such as the oaks and the black walnut, for the full development of which about a hundred and fifty years are required. Can we, in view of this, still be in doubt as to whether or not the time has come when we should earnestly consider the question?
Hon. ADOLPH LENÉ, Secretary of Ohio State Forestry Bureau.
If the Oak is out before the Ash, T'will be a summer of wet and splash; But if the Ash is out before the Oak, T'will be a summer of fire and smoke.
When the Hawthorne bloom too early shows, We shall have still many snows.
When the Oak puts on his goslings gray, 'Tis time to sow barley, night or day.
When Elm leaves are big as a shilling, Plant kidney beans if you are willing; When Elm leaves are as big as a penny, You _must_ plant kidney beans if you wish to have any.
Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.
Stars they are, wherein we read our history, As astrologers and seers of eld; Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery, Like the burning stars which they beheld.