Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1925-11-20
EDIT RIAL S
Plant a Tree
Work and Save


If you were a tourist driving
through Georgia and entered {
long line of beautiful trees. or
both sides of the highway, with {
hard-surfaced road between, what
would YOU think Of that county
Can you visualize such a scene
for instance, from the Nationa
Cemetery, near Andersonville
through Anericus, and thence tc
the Lee County line, on the Al.
bany road?
IF you can do that and are able
% put your self in the place Of the
ourist looking for a place to set
lie, don't you know you would
ay Here's God own country
nere's where | will spend the bal
Ance of my days.
Identification is but one of the
lesser services trees contribute to
man. as is ably pointed out in an
article especially prepared by
Robert { Ellis, of Americus, as a
contribution the Educational week
being observed BY the schools.
Yesterday - Thursday was
Conservation and Thrift Day in
the week s program and an arti-
Gle from the pen of Colonel Ellis
was written Especially for that
day, as follows:
CONSERVE AND BUILD UP
GEORGIA'S FOREST WEALTH
"The wealth of any State or
Country consists of the people
who inhabit it, its natural re-
sources, wealth created by its peo-
pie and wealth gathered by them
from other lands. The pepole of
the State are its greatest wealth,
and the more civilized, the better
educated and the more moral the
people, the richer the State. The
natural wealth of State or Coun-
try consists of its climate and soil,
its mineral wealth. its forests and
other vegetable life, its streams and
seacoasts and the wild animal life.
A State, like an individual, pos
sessing wealth and producing
wealth. must also protect and con-
serve such wealth to continue
wealthy. To waste will impoverish
an individual or a State. If a
State wastes and destroys its nat
1ral resources, it wastes and de-
itroys just that much of its wealth.
Space forhidS discussion of the
question iu all its phases, and only
.orest wealth and its relation to
other kinds of wealth, can be con-
sidered
"The forests furnish timber to
build houses and furniture there
in, tools and machinery for farm
ing, minlpg, manufacturing and
building; for the peasants cart,
the automobile, railroads and cars,
ships, submarines, flying machines,
radios; firewcod to keep us warn.
and to cook our food paper for
newspapers. 1--we letters, and BIZ
b.es. Forest products are used for
almost everything and are prac-
tically indispensable to maI.
Forests have C:ner uses han to
supply timber and wood 10 man.
The value Of streams for drinking
water and water power depend
upon them for their purity and
constant flow. Sprinkle water
upon a plate of glass and it will
quickly lun off, carrying away any
small loose articles thereon with
1t. Place a sponge or blotting pa
per on the glass and the water will
soak into the sponge or paper and
slowly seep out and run off in a
constant stream. Forest leaves
form a sponge-like covering for
the earth ard flow out as springs,
and furnish water for the farmer
and his animals; for cities, for
hydro-electric power for factories
and transportation; heat and light.
When forests are cleared off the
steep hillsides, the rain-water rush.
es down the hills tearings gullies
covering the fertile valleys with
sand and making them unfit tol
cultivation, filling up the channels
of the streams with sand and mud,
making them unfit for navigation
and killing the fish. The streams
alternate with rushing floods and
dry or almost dry beds, like the
rivers Of Asia where the forests
were destroyed many centuries ago.
Upon the preservation of destruc-
ton of the forests depends the con-
servation or loss of the other great
natural wealth of soil, of streams
as highways for commerce and as a
source of food and pleasure for
men.
''The exhaustion of the forests
DESTROYS the great industries of the
sawmills, planning mills, factories
using wood, and the naval stores
industry, which furnish employ
ment to thousands of people and
are productive of great wealth
Georgia now imports lun Der from