During the preparation of this book I visited the grounds of Mr.
A. S. Fuller, at Kidgewood, N. J., and for an hour or two I broke
the tenth commandment in spite of myself. I was surrounded by
trees from almost every portion of the northern temperate zone,
from Oregon to Japan; and in Mr. Fuller I had a guide whose
sympathy with his arboreal pets was only equalled by his knowledge
of their characteristics. All who love trees should possess his
book entitled "Practical Forestry." If it could only be put into
the hands of law-makers, and they compelled to learn much of its
contents by heart, they would cease to be more or less conscious
traitors to their country in allowing the destruction of forests.
They might avert the verdict of the future, and prevent posterity
from denouncing the irreparable wrong which is now permitted with
impunity. The Arnolds of to-day are those who have the power to
save the trees, yet fail to do so.

Japan appears to be doing as much to adorn our lawns and gardens
as our drawing-rooms; and from this and other foreign lands much
that is beautiful or curious is coming annually to our shores. At
the same time I was convinced of the wisdom of Mr. Fuller's
appreciation of our native trees. In few instances should we have
to go far from home to find nearly all that we wanted in beautiful
variety--maples, dogwoods, scarlet and chestnut oaks, the liquid-
amber, the whitewood or tulip-tree, white birch, and horn-beam, or
the hop-tree; not to speak of the evergreens and shrubs indigenous
to our forests. Perhaps it is not generally known that the
persimmon, so well remembered by old campaigners in Virginia, will
grow readily in this latitude. There are forests of this tree
around Paterson, N. J., and it has been known to endure twenty-
seven degrees below zero. It is a handsome tree at any season, and