Connecticut western news., 1921-05-26
The Mountain Laurel

Conspicuous among the flowers of Connecticut, which are in need of conservation, is our State flower, the Mountain Laurel. Every person in the State should know more about this beautiful shrub and should take share in it's protection, when occas- ion offers.
 Left to itself, the Laurel is 2 rapid grower, and spreads alike through pasture and wood, making so vigorous a growth that one might not suspect that in certain localities, especially in thickly settled com munities, it is already on the road to eXtermination. Indeed, near the larger cities, as along the Hudson River near New York, it has been quite destroyed.
 The Laurel is very susceptible to winter weather, and flowers some what irregularly, about one year in three being what is known as a Lau- rel Year, when the blossoms in June seem to cover all the bushes, in- creasing in the richness of their pink tones wherever the plant re- ceives the most sunlight. In these Laurel years, every motor on the country roads appears to be taking home it's burden of the royal clus- ters. But this is not the destruction that is threatening the plant most immediately. It may lead to the ex- termination of the best plants along the principal highways; but if motor ists were thoughtful enough to pick in moderation and as far back from the roads as practicable, all this pick ing, extensive as it is, might not do lasting harm.
 The great danger to the Laurel is the picking for decoration. Quanti- tatively, this has become far great CT source of destruction than the picking of the flowers in the spring and it occurs principally at a season when the damage resulting is more serious. At the Christmas season every window and every church testi- fies to the thousands of bushes bereft of their evergreen leaves. and with out these leaves the plants are help less to manufacture food for another years growth.
 The commercial uses of the Lau- rel are many. Besides being sold for decorations everywhere, it is the favorite of local woods for making rustic furniture and garden arbors, and it is used for purposes as curious as the making of homemade tools and to provide a substitute for briar pipes.
 The State of Connecticut has enacted a law General Statutes. 6275), which prohibits the picking of the Laurel without the consent of the owner of the land on which it grows, and if this law were observ- ed little more would have to be done to effect it's adequate protection. As with the Arbutus, Connecticut leads other States in thus trying to pre- serve its choicest plants; but any legal prOvisiOn,, to be effective, must be enforced by public appreciation of the needs of the case and by pub lie interest. Individual moderation must be exercised in picking the flowers, and the use of the foliago in winter, for decorative purposes, must be discouraged. Persons ob- serving that shipment of the leaves are being made from their towns should, where possible, fnG cut whether these are in accordance with the law and if not should report them to the nearest Garden Club, (such clubs are located in hartford, Middletown, Litchfeld, New Canaan, Ridgefeld, Greenwich and Washing ton), or to such other agency as may be interested in the protection of our