The species of trees are as little realized as the
number of suitable areas. It seems not improbable that the cryptomeria, which most of us regard as a merely ornamental gardea tree, may become commercially valuable. The world is a little afraid of enthusiasm for new trees because of some unhappy promises of the past. Cobbett was quite certain—certainty, of course, was a hobby of his—that the locust tree would become more common than the- oak ; "when a man would be thought mad if he used anything but locust in the limiting of sills, posts, gates, joists, feet for rick-stands, stocks and axle- trees for wheels, hop-poles, pales and for anything where there is liability to rot." A good many middle aged persons. lament that their parents were inspired with the zeal for that useless un-English monstrosity, the Sequoia, foolishly rechristened Wellingtonia. But there are good trees untried. The disease-resisting Japanese larch is earning golden opinions. Our foresters discover that certain mixtures are good, such as beech and conifer. In one way and another the art and practice of tree-planting are advancing rapidly and it is a fair prophecy that one may soon see woods growing up in the most unexpected places, to the great good of the policy of national conservation.
* * * *
Previous page
