Arboretum
The Tree department is a large division of the Garden, which Botanists and Arbourculturists have denominated Arboretum. Ours, commenced in 1860, is a collection, occupying about 25 acres of such Trees, indigenous and foreign, as will grow in the open air in the climate of St. Louis. See preceding page.
A Tree is an object which has, at all periods, been held in a certain degree of admiration by mankind, from its grandeur, its beauty, and its usefulness, and has been associated with the dwellings of civilized man in every country. The Persians, Creeks, and Romans were particularly attached to trees; some of their greatest men were proud to acknowledge, that they had made plantations with their own hands, and fine specimens, whether planted by nature or art, were held sacred, or specially protected.
The planting of extensive tracts for timber, or fuel however, was not practised by them or any other people, till the beginning of the 16th century, when the insufficiency of the natural forests, which had hitherto supplied civilized society in Europe with timber, and fuel, rendered planting a matter of necessity. In this country Trees are alone planted for ornament and shade, in towns and villages, and as well as around suburban residences and isolated dwellings, surrounded by verdant scenery; and to adopt the sentiments of a modern writer, "We have a regard for trees, because they grew in Paradise, because they are employed in Scripture illustration, and because they are the earliest objects that memory fixes upon. We thank God for his trees, and the green sod he has laid round them, and we look upon them as so many incentives to be good men; and although he cursed the earth generally, with all its fair furniture, we see that he hath withheld the severity of the sentence from some spots; for they break into loveliness, and assume all we fancy of primeval verdure. We pity the man who displays no fondness for trees; who enquires not after them at all.; because he is robbing himself of one of the greatest sources of enjoyment, that nature has placed within the reach of human Kind."
What relates to the effect of tree planting, as a part of rural scenery, belongs to the art of "Landscape Gardening", and what relates to their use and culture is denominated "Arboriculture", a Knowledge of which can only be acquired by long local experience, and intelligent observation. The care of woods and forests, is an important department in the governments of France and Germany, and even the government of India, by the recent employment of qualified arboriculturests are making strenuous efforts to prevent the valuable timber of that country, from being wasted and destroyed.
In America neither the State or Federal governments have made any decided efforts, against the evils that are to ensue, from the scarcity of timber; the native forests are rapidly disappearing, to leave the country at an early future, entirely unprovided with an adequate supply of an article, ranking among the essential requirements of social life. The importance of planting and preserving trees is self evident, and a scarcity of timber cannot fail in a short period of time, to draw the attention of the public to an evil that will be found to be a national calamity. Unlike other crops, forests require generations to mature. How to raise forests then, in the quickest and most economical manner, will some day be a subject of very considerable moment to the American people. The late Mr. James Arnold of New Bedford, has enabled the Harvard University to establish an Arboretum in West Roxbury and to create in connescion with it, a chair of Arboriculture a museum of living trees, for escperiment and investigation.
