The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-16
Forests and Highways.

At the annual celebration Of Independ.
ence day ct Roseland Park, Woodstock,
Conn.,, addresses were delivered by dis
tinguished men in the land on subjects
historical, patriotic, metaphysical and
practical. Among the latter was one by
DIR. Loring, commissioner of agriculture,
upon "Parks, Forests and Highways"
"With the wars and the telling of the
forests and the log cabin, and the print
tive school-house of newly.settled coun-
try and newly-founded empire" said the
speaker, "taste has but little to do But
when safety is made secure, and the high.
ways are we'll worn, and the skill and
strength of the cultivator have stripped
the landscape of its natural beauty, and
the foot of man has trampled out the
graceful lines in which Nature always
works, then there uprises mans demand
for the beautiful, and he endeavors to re.
store by art what he was obliged to de-
stroy for his subsistence; for, whatever
may be his outward circumstances, how
ever hardening and depressing may be
the incidents of his life, man has an in.
stinctive love of beauty which insists on
being grstifed." DR.. Loring spoke of the
beauty of trees in the swelling land
scape, of the sacred groves of ancient
times, of the cedars of Lebanon, of his
torical trees and of the " inspiration which
belongs to those solemn arches and to the
leafy chapels which Nature prepares for
all her worshipers." The commissioner,
descending from the aesthetic to the prac-
tical, treated of some of the problems of
forestry. OF the efforts of man "to restore
by art what he was obliged to destroy
for his subsistence" and of the utility
of good highways, the orator said "Aud
now to him who, in spirit of thrift and
economy worthy of that people to whom,
as an American, he belongs, would ask,
What is all this worth let me say that
the judicious selection and planting of
trees may be made, if he desires it, one of
the most profitable branches of agricul-
ture. Not for the beauty of the town
alone, but for thrifty use of remote and
deserted acres, also, may the culture of
trees be made part of the business of
life. A venerable clergyman in Mas.
sachusetts, the father of one of the most
distinguished bankers in Boston, left, at
his death, a large territory of woodland
in the town which was blessed with his
ministry for more than fifty years; and
the profits on this land, which he had pur-
chased at a very low rate at the beginning
of his professional service, and which had
been devoted to the growth of wood,
principally pine, were greater than those
realized on land purchased and sold at
the same periods in the most prosperous
parts of Boston. We have heard of
gentleman says the author of Practical
Economy, whose lands were more extern
sive than fertile, whose practice was to
plant some fifteen hundred trees, on
the birth of every daughter, upon his
waste grounds, which were, on an average,
worth one pound each on her coming of
age, thus enabling him to give her for
tune of $500, without any extraordinary
economy on his part; the regular thinning
of the trees at proper season, with bark
ing and so forth, paying off all current
expenses, besides yielding him small rent
for the land The profits derived from
the growing of the pine, the locust and
the birch, all capable of fourishing greatly
in light and somewhat worthless lands,
have been, in many instances, very re-
markable. Perhaps l would not recon-
mend the cultivation of wood and timber as
a universal branch of agriculture in these
days, when the secret of the business lies
in quick returns and devotion to local
markets; but can find in the experience
of those who have tried it an encourage.
ment to those who, by the possession of
large tracts of waste lands, may be COM
PEELED to follow their example in the bust
ucSS VI VIoo-pidueiuS' huu
would remind you that whenever man
can afford to clear land, and erect build
ings, and construct towns, he can afford
to build also the road leading from place
to place; and to build it we'll when his
work is completed. A properly-graded,
well-founded road, is public blessing,
and can often be constructed, on a ju-
dicious selection of site, at cost within
the reach of a community able to build
roads at all. The safety of the road, more
over, should not be forgotten. Narrow
causeways, without ratings, should never
be tolerated. One fatal accident in
hundred miles in ten years is enough to
condemn them. To adorn the roadside is
also as much duty as to construct
properly the road. He who did this in
former generations was considered bene-
factor. He who does it in this generation
will be enrolled among those who have
endeavored to cultivate the taste of the
community, and to add to the beauty of
the landscape around u.s."