6 DECEMBER 1930, Page 15

THE TREE SENSE.

Some welcome advance of what some call the " country bias " or rural mind in our present civilization may perhaps be inferred from the diaries and calendars that make their appearance. The very best I have ever seen is a calendar produced by the " Men of the Trees," a new organization which endeavours by lectures, photographs, cinemas, exhibits and planting schemes for school children to encourage what it calls the forest sense. The founder, who did wonderful work for reafforestation in East Africa, is Mr. St. Bathe Baker, 96 Piccadilly, W. I. The photographs of trees are UN good—and this is saying much—as those that appear from time to time, and with increasing frequency, in the weekly and daily press. "Men of the Trees" begin to multiply in various parts of the Empire, and it is impossible to travel about England without seeing how many landowners are indulging in small efforts at afforestation ; and of hearing how they compare the merits of such trees as Sitka spruce and Japanese larch with our native Scots pine or common spruce. The tree sense is in the air.