The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-05
economic Importance of any matter to
which sentiment attaches.
THE RECKLESS OBSTRUCTION OF
TIMBER PROPERTY.

THE RECKLESS DESTRUCTION OF
TIMBER PROPERTY.
Now let us very briefly look at another
aspect of the question, an aspect as
purely practical as that just mentioned
and of great public moment. The leaf
house of a large part of the snow and
rain fall. From this spongy soil, satur-
ated with water, the supply of water
comes in dry weather to enable farm
natural store house. and we part. with
1t when we permit the forests to be de-
stroyed, we have periods of torrents AID
periods of drouth and the earth's value
to man is most seriously curtailed.
At present the consumption of our for
ests for lumber and for fuel is so great
that it behooves us to adopt the Ger
man method of never destroying a tree
without planting new one. 1t is esti--
mated that the annual consumption OF
wood, from the forests of the United
States for fuel and lumber, now amounts
to 2, 000, 00,0e0 cubic feet.
ITO furnish this amount" says Mr..
EgleSton of the department of agricul-
ture, would require the product (not the
destruction but the product of the
growth of 1,2G0, 100000 acres of woodland,
whereas our total forest area is less than
506, 600, 900 acres, which is no more than we
need as q permanent stock of woodland
for the country. 1t will be seen then that
more than half of our annual consunp-
ton is draft by so much upon our for
est capital when we should be only draw
ing from our forests the amount of their
annual growth, or the interest of that
capital. How long would it take a mil
lionaire to become q bankrupt if he
should be annually trenching upon his
money capital at like rate?'
This statement and observation Mr.. Eg-
lesion makes in a pamphlet on iArbor
Day-Its History and Observance, soon
to be issued by the department of agri-
In wv tnld "a
was first suggested by Mr.. George p.
March, long time minister of the United
States to Turkey and Italy. Mr.. Marsh
found that Italy and Germany, and other
European countries, were making active
endeayors, at great expense, to rehabil-
itate their forests, which had been de-
pleted centuries before. He thought that
in these efforts there were lessons for his
own people, and he said so in his book
1.-THE Earth and Man.
THE HISTORY OF ARBOR DAY.
But it was the present secretary of ag-
ricufture, Mr. j. Sterling Morton, who
took the first practical step in the di-
rection of the establishment of an Arbor
day, when trees should be planted by
the school children of the country, and
the value of forest preservation i'm
pressed upon them This was in Ne
braska, in 1872. Twenty-four years later
Arbor Day has become a public holiday,
either by legislative enactment or by
proclamation, in nearly every state and
territory in the Union. The idea of it APP
pealed more directly to the people of the
states of the treeless plains. but the other
states-even those IN which the men of
two generations ago looked upon trees
as mans greatest enemy-soon saw the
benefits to be derived from Arbor day OBJ
servances, and responded to the senti-
ment in favor thereof. 1t has been char
acterized as 1.-The one festival or celebra-
ton which instead of looking backward
and clarifying the heroes and achieve
ments of the past or recountipg the
looks forward and seeks to make a bet
ter environment and a better inheritance
for the coming generations"
The date of "Arbor Day" varies with
the ATTITUDES of the states: in Florida,
for instance, the date is January 8,
while IN North Dakota it is May g. But
usually the day is celebrated in April
In Nebraska, Mr.. j. Sterling Morton. S
birthday, April %, has been chosen. 1t Is
interesting to know that in Nebraska
from the trees planted in the early years
of Arbor day celebration, there is now
regular yield of building material.
HOW TO PLANT A TREE.
One of the chief objects of all such cele-
brations should be to teach how a tree
should be planted, and what kind of a
tree to plant in any given place. For
instance it would be most unwise to take
a young tree from a swamp and plant
it on hillside, and vice versa. In the
pamphlet already quoted, Mr.. Egleston
recommends that trees should be secured
from nurseries rather than from the
woodlands or other uncultiVated places,
because of the necessity of not breaking
the roots in taking the tree from the
ground The ordinary method of trans
planting d tree is to dig hole about