found I was a durned fool, and you _ditto_."

We are all waking up to the fact that we did not become "nutty" soon
enough. We have found that our public agencies of conservation have been
"durn fools" and farmers and other land owners "ditto", for not having
inaugurated the systematic planting of productive trees along the
highways and farm hedgerows and ditches, many years ago.

Norman Pomeroy used to say with becoming modesty that he took no credit
for planting the trees that have made such a substantial income for his
family, because "I had to be slapped in the face in the dark before I
became wise, and then the natural improvidence of mankind came near
spoiling Nature's tip when the children gratified their little stomachs
in preference to planting for the future. Men are but children of an
older growth, a wise man said. That is a true but sad doctrine. We all
live too much in the present and for the present, forgetting that the
future will soon be the present, if not for ourselves, for our children
and our children's children. It takes time to realize on trees, for the
stomach or the pocketbook. It requires sacrifice to get anything worth
while and, waiting is the hardest kind of sacrifice, especially for
people of small means. But it pays in the end."

The Northern Nut Growers' Association, is doing valuable work not only
in the study and planting of nut trees, but in its propaganda. But I
have discovered that the results of practical work and the worth of
propaganda, are hard to bring home to public agencies, like Governors
and Legislatures. The construction and maintenance _of_ public highways
are a state function. But that duty must be incomplete in our opinion
until the state finishes its job by planting productive trees along the
highways and public roads. How shall we bring this about? Adopt
resolutions? Very good.

But did the Anti-Saloon League, for example, content itself with
resolutions when it wanted real results in the halls of legislation? Not
much. Our prohibition friends were very practical. They employed trained
agents to present their cause everywhere and in every way calculated to
do the most good.

Let me repeat to you tree planters the late Norman Pomeroy's favorite
lines, as I recall them:

"_The dead are eternized in stone,_
_The living, by living shafts are known._
_Plant thou a tree and each recurring spring_
_The stirring leaves thy lasting praise shall sing._"

P