Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-04-06
An Ola story He-Toid.

As the HERALD has frequently taken
occasion to remark, it would be well for
the Legislature of our State to consider
the propriety Of forestry laws which
shall encourage in every practical way
the planting of trees useful for timber.
At present Southern California is de.
pendent on the north for the necessary
supply of daily increasing demand for
building material. Yet the only law of
the State relating to tree-planting is one
which protects from injury the trees,
useful or not, which, by virtue Of thai
same law. any one may plant, II he sees
lit, in the public highway bordering his
or her land. But this is not all that is
wanted. As we Of the south have never
possessed forests, the present reckless
destruction Of timber by the people OF
the United STAGES in general is not to us
rs significant as II should be OF the want
which must onsue from such wanton
waste. At the same time 1t Is we'll to
remember that, by the expenditure OF n
very little time and an Insignificant
amount OF money, we should soon be-
come independent in the matter of tim
Der. II is scarcely necessary to allude
to the high price of lumber in our
market or to The fact that wood for fuel
Is dear as well as poor in quality. In
addition to these wants which are i'm
perative there Is another which should
be fully as patent TO us. No man can
be blind to the rapidly growing demand
Tor wine barrels and fruit boxes, and
this demand must go on increasing
from year to year in geometrical
progression, for the brilliant
future Of the country we inhabit
is based chiefly upon our wines and our
fruits. The trees intended to supply
this want should now be growing in the
foothill region and in the mountains.
In addition to this we must create here
at homo the resources upon which we
can depend for our own household furni-
ture, our vehicles, our agricultural i'm
plements and the thousand other things
made of wood which arc used by civil.
lied man. From time to time we have
referred TO the spread of public tree.
planting in the older States. In most
of them ono day in the year is desig-
mated for tree planting, every citizen
? being expected to plant at least one tree.
1t takes but very few minutes to plant a
tree; so that the time lost in doing SO is
inappreciable, and the cost Of the tree
is Insignificant. OF course there are in
those States, as there would be here,
citizens who do not plant. even a single
tree, but on the other hand, there are
many who plant many trees. Thus the
number Of trees planted greatly exceeds
that of the citizens. With conditions of
soil and climate which would make
forest-producing anything but task, it
is inexcusable that Los Angeles county
has not taken the lead publicly. Indi.
vidual enterprise is not lacking among
us, and, in the absence Of general law
will not tho Board of Supervisors take
the matter into consideration A judi
cial distribution of premiums to those
who after certain lapse Of time shall
possess the greatest number of young
timber trees, planted conformably to
certain established rules, would prove
undoubtedly very efiicacious method
Nor can II be doubted that the custom
of tree planting, were it well established
among us, would last as long as grass
grows and water runs.