Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-07-12

Gently passed is not the least Of these expe-
riences. This annual change is like swift
conquest. Summers green skirmish line
noiselessly ascends the valleys, the nimble
soldiers of her grand army, securely in
trenched in lowland hooks and intervals,
scale the hilsiaes and their sea-green ban
ners, flung out from every tree-top on the
mountain heights, speedily proclaim their
victory complete And so the season passes
on to full-verdured summer, and summer in
turn yields up her empire TO autumn's bril-
liant sovereignty, the period when the blaz-
ing hills and mountains stand out in sharply
chiseled lines against the skies and whose
glories shine for good vermonters alone.
The variety and charm of her scenery,
her clear, bracing atmosphere and un-
rivaled facilities for recreation, have made
Vermont the great camping ground for the
denizens of the heated cities. An enumera-
ton of the summer strangers within her
gates would give her higher rank in the
columns of the census reports. These fire.
quenters of the state for health and pleasure
but few years ago were confined to few
conspicuous places of resort In later years
weary pilgrims seeking genuine rest and re-
cuperation have pushed their way past fash
ionable and expensive hosteries up among
the quiet villages and the farm houses among
the hills, beyond the jurisdiction Of the iron
code of fashion and where solitude is I'M
broken by the screech of the locomotive
whistle. Year by year her cool retreats and
delightful prospects will continue to WOO an
innumerable caravan to her borders If
her citizens will wisely have a care to pre-.
serve the lavish charms with which heaven
has endowed her. Her forests, lakes and
streams are her browning glory. There is
healing for mind and body in her woodland
scenery, and the waters whose fountains the
forest trees keep flowing are the delight of
her sportsmen. The greed of gold should
make no ill-considered haste to convert these
sheltering and ameliorating forests into fire.
wood and lumber. The esthetic estate in
them, judiciously administered, may yield
from the visitors they attract larger reve-
nue. than their material resources. To
slaughter flock Of sheep to obtain their
wool could hardly be more shortsighted
than indiscriminate humiliation of wooded
tracts for the timber. The shepherd shears
his flock and it bears him new fieeces again.
With equal wisdom owners of forest lands
by judicious management may periodically
harvest their timber, receive rich returns,
maintain on rough and rocky lands grace
full forest growth and minister at the same
time to general interests, material as well as
hygienic and esthetic. The laws protect the
lakes and streams from depredations, but no
statute can erect barrier against the SOY.
ereign citizens lisence to denude for his
own ACKNOWLEDGMENT the hills and noun.
tains of their forest growth. Other persua-
siye influences must organize to disseminate
the literature of forestry, teach the people
forest culture and stir up spirit of emula-
ton that shall end not only in preserving
the natural beauties of our picturesque
state but restore to her villages and high
ways those natural charms Of which in
severely practical age they were despoiled.
"a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
when once destroyed can never be supplied"
So it is with the rehabilitation of country
with its natural forests. There is yet time
to save the Green Mountain state.