The Washington herald., 1909-06-28
ANlEs HENRY.
Free Seed Thoughts.
Htar The wsshlngton Herald:

Editoy The Washington Herald:
Knowing that your readers are OF the
most progressive and doing class. and
necessarily always Ike 70 hear OF some
thing doing" I have decided 10 offer
some forest free-seed thoughts. and as
this Is my seventy-seCond birthday. I
may be able 70 write from a more ex-
tended experience and observation than
I could have done fifty years ago. And
my desire is TO emphasize my position on
conservation and replenishment OF our
forests. Ny view is that while couserva-
ton is certainly necessary. the replenish-
ing OF our forests by gathering and plant
Ing forest tree seeds is inpeTatively ur-
gent and essential annually and as ex-
tensively as possible until the thousands
OF square miles Of our almost denuded
forest lands are refOrested and the vast
areas OF thirteen great timberless Plains
States west OF the Mississippi River are
adequately supplied with trees.
And my conviction on this subject may
be further emphasized by mentioning
some Of my personal work in forestry
during the last nine months. Since last
August I have personally gathered IT'S
bushels OF forest tree seeds, including
ash. acacia. beech, box elder. black wal
nut. black locust, buckeye, chestnut ca
I talpa, cherry. coffee bean, elm. gum.
ginkO. honey locust, hickory, blackberry
JapOnica linden. naples, oaks, poplar
persimmOn. yellow wood. and sycamore:
and 1 have planted rs bushels OF these
seeds near Washington. D. c., in Vir-
ginia and Maryland, and, better stlll.
from this planting I now have approx
mately 100000 OF forest tree seedlings
growing in about ten acres OF land, most
OF them from two to four inches high,
and a good market assured IN the thir-
teen great timberless Plains States west
OF the Mississippi River. Tens Of millions
OF forest tree seeds and seedlings are
being planted annually. Colorado is espe-
cially active in this work. Gov. John F.
Shafroth very generously furnished the
100 00o school children OF his State each
with thirteen forest tree seeds to plant
on last Colorado Arbor and Bird Day.
one seed for each Of the original thirteen
colonies OF the United States. as a pointer
20 the Importance OF learning United
States history and geography.
Under the governors direction these
tree seels were sent by Mrs. Katherine NJ
Cook. COlorado's efficient State superin-
tendent Of public instruction, 10 the su-
perintendents Of schools IN the counties
and cities Of the State. for gratuitous
distribution. with instructions 10 the
children for planting, and care Of the
seedlings.
The United States Forest Service, un-
der Mr.. PinchOt. is doing an intellectually
useful. essential, and stupendOus work
for the United States and the world. in
It's wise and persistent efforts to conserve
our national forests: but all intelligent
people admit that our forests are already
50 alarmingly depleted that good timber
is hard TO obtain even at high prices.
Admitting this depletion shows replen-
ishment imperative, and as the forest
fires and floods destroy most of the tree
seeds, while destroying the timber. thus
preventing replenishment from the nat
ural source, the only way for US 20 re-
plenish our forests Is to gather and plant
forest tree seeds as extensively as pos
sible. annually until we have adequate
forests 10 conserve.
As Washington, D. c, has a greater
number Of variety Of forest trees on the
streets than any other city IN the world.
and most Of the seeds produced By these