Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-25
HAS NATURE BEATEN
Sherman Thorp, Artist, Says
He Can Force Tree Growth.
DONE BY SIMPLE METHODS
In Seventeen Years Can Accomplish
What It Usually Takes Fifty
Years to Do, He Says.

Sherman Thorp. who has painted the
portraits of many famous men, has add
ed another achievement to the long
string Of milestones which mark his In
teresting career. What Mr.. Thorp' S
practical accomplishment Is seems to be
nothing more or less than finding how to
make q tree appear to be fifty years
old in seventeen years.
The portrait painter Is in Washington
with a few samples of his Minnesota Won
der-wood done up in rough wrapping paper.
BY counting the rings in the wood, one
could calculate the ages very easily. He
has several slices of wood. cut in cross
sections. They demonstrated that by
following the methods which the portrait
painter adopted seventeen years ago
one can make a tree grow twice as fast
and twice as big as nature knows how.
and at the same time pack four times
as much timber under the bark.
All Mr.. Thorp did when he went out
to Minnesota from Washington seven
teen years ago. to try to break up his
malaria. was to build embankments on
his observation-disclosures farm. He turn
ed a thousand acres into forest land,
and built entertainments.
Trees Get Plenty Of Water.
Entertainments are his secret. He
claims that they keep the surface water
from running off into streams. The sur
face water seeps into the ground right
where it falls from the sky. and, being
sucked in by the roots OF the thirsty
trees nourishes the trunk and limbs
with the result claimed by Mr.. Thorp.
Mr.. Thorp said last night he had
made the planting OF forests ana sne
his secret belongs to the world. II II
is any use to the world: ;,
II came to Washington this trip,
he said, Ito finish portrait OF
SCHUYLER Colfax. which now hangs in
the Capitol / interested Chief Forester
Graves in my ideas on planting forests
and using the embankment system he
talked with me several times on the
subject. and 1 convinced him there Is
something in 1t. He is going to visit
my farm very soon and will see
whether or not the forestry OF the en-
tire continent cannot be improved"
Says Results Are Enormous.
Mr.. Thorp figures that every farmer
in the United States ought to devote
three acres on an average to planting
forests from seed. just as he planted
them. In seventeen years pines and
oaks, under the embankment system
will be worth as much as they would
ordinarily fetch in a generation. The
aggregate results Of this sort OF farm
ing are enormous. according to Mr.
Thorp:
with five million cultivated acres
the farmers Of the country would have
just as much timber in bulk as there
now exists on twenty million acres OF
ordinary forest growth. 1t can be APP
piled to all farms. 1t is nothing more
or less than making earth embank-
ments to keep the water from running
away. The trees grow to enormous
size very quickly"
Mr.. Thorp has painted pictures of
ex-Representative James Tawney, Presi-
dent Mckinley, President Cleveland.
President Garfield and President Lin
coin. The latter picture was from a
sketch made when Thorp was fifteen
years old. and Lincoln was on his way
east to be inaugurated. The young
artist made a pencil sketch. Years
afterward. after having fought through
the civil war, and bearing a coloners
title, the artist-soldier painted q
portrait from the old sketch.
portrait Of Judge Alfonso Taft
father of the President, is the work of
Sherman Thorp. and now hangs in the
Department of Justice