THE POPULAR POPLAR TREE.

    When the great wind sets things whirling
      And rattles the window panes,
    And blows the dust in giants
      And dragons tossing their manes;
    When the willows have waves like water,
      And children are shouting with glee;
    When the pines are alive and the larches,—­
      Then hurrah for you and me,
        In the tip o’ the top o’ the top o’ the tip of
          the popular poplar tree!

    Don’t talk about Jack and the Beanstalk—­
      He did not climb half so high! 
    And Alice in all her travels
      Was never so near the sky! 
    Only the swallow, a-skimming
      The storm-cloud over the lea,
    Knows how it feels to be flying—­
      When the gusts come strong and free—­
        In the tip o’ the top o’ the top o’ the tip of
          the popular poplar tree!

    —­Blanch Willis Howard.

FORESTRY AND THE NEED OF IT.

“Experience as well as common sense teaches us that the selecting of the species and the mere planting of the same is not a guarantee of successful forestry.”

In this country we have heretofore not made any distinction between forests and woodlands, while in Europe, and more especially in those countries in which forestry has reached a high state of development, the distinction is clearly defined.  Prof.  Rossmaessler, in speaking of the difference between forest and woodland (Forst und Wald), says:  “Every forest is also a woodland, but not every woodland, be it ever so large, is a forest.  It is the regular cultivation and economical management which turns a woodland into a forest.”

This difference between forests and woodland is also indicated by the terms forester and woodman; the former term being applied to the man who advocates the perpetuation of woodland in accordance with the teachings and principles of forestry, and the latter to the man whose profession is that of felling trees.

In this meaning of the term, we, in this country, have really no forests, but woodlands only.  To turn these woodlands into forests, and to plant forests, where for climatic and other considerations they are needed, is the aim and object of the advocates of forestry.

The forester, it will be seen, has a distinct mission, which is to perpetuate the forests so indispensable to civilized life, and to produce at a minimum expense, from a given piece of ground, the greatest amount of forest products.