The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-11-07
The Destruction OF Timber.

We find in the North American Reuiew
the following ve,y just remarks on this sub
ject.
The railroads throughout the country are
devouring the timber with wonderful rapid
ty. Whole mountain ranges in the eastern
part of the country formerly supplied with a
luxuriant growth of timber, have been strip
ped nearly bare. This suggests two things,
viz: The Importance ofinventing some meth.
cd of using coal successfully on railroads, and
of planting trees for use as we'll as for orna-
ment The latter falls within the province
of our prairie farmers. The absence of wood
and water is the great objection to settling
the prairies. Now, the difficulty of obtaining
water is in great measure owing to the des
titution of timber. And if large prairies, now
wholly untouched, though rich as blackber-
ries and cream, were planted in large forests
we will not say groves-of cotton woods
locusts, balm of Gilead, and other ornament,
al and useful trees, in the course of ten years
water would be more easily procured, and
the country, in every way, more desirable for
farming purposes. For shade, for protection
against winds and storms, for building pur-
poses, and for fuel, these forests would return
many fold the expense of setting out and cul-
ture. 1t seems to us that our people should
be very economical of their timber, or even
that measures should be taken to protect it.
Ii anything could provoke saint to wrath
it is the frequent destruction of fine trees on
the most frivolous pretences. Here males
tic elm is sacrificed because the dripping from
its boughs moistens cheap shingles on some
adjoining house, and compels more speedy
repair. There barn is to be removed and
all the trees which stand in the line of its d.
rect course must i've way. A couple Of row.
dies, returning on dark night from winter
revel are upset against an oak which pro-
jects into the road foot or two; straightway
the sapient selectmen of the town debate the
case, and solemnly order that the tree which
has stood there since the memory of man
shall be brought low, rather than dollar
shall be spent to widen the road at that point.
Here, again, unfortunately, new street must
be laid out in straight line, to satisfy the
precise genius of modern engineering; and the
great tree that stops the way st disappear,
root and branch, rather than ha IRIS breadth
be changed in the beautiful lithograph of
attractive house-ots The first care of a
lucky broker, who has bought al bargain
some fine old estate, is to thin out and trim
the trees and shrubbery on the model of his
own ledger, saving only the specimens which
he can coax into regular rows, or inspect with
haif-shut eye.
We know more than one instance where q
quarrel between neighbors has led to the des-
truction of noble trees, simply because one
thought that he might annoy the other by
dcpriving him Of his shade. And there are
not few occasions to admire that thrift
which cuts down an orchard because birds
get all the che rries, or boys steal all tue APP
piles. Provocato of this sort, which con-
stantly vexes one in large country town,
suggests the question, whether he who re-
moves public ornament and good, even from
his own land, is not as much subject for the
law as he who cleates public nuisance
The destruction of half dozen fine shade
trees may be as great an injury to neigh
bOrhood as the erection of ON oil-boiler or
fish-house. Yet the one has an impunity not
allowed to the other. Many statutes are
passed with much less moral justification
than statute to prevent the arbitrary cutting
down of valuable trees.