It was their first, great business to cut them down, both great and small.

Forests fell before the woodman's axe.
It made clean work, and seldom spared an oak or an elm.

But, at the end of a century, the people relented and felt their mistake.

Then commenced "the time to plant;" first in and around cities like Boston, Hartford, and New Haven, then about villages and private homesteads.

Tree-planting for use and ornament marks and measures the footsteps of our civilization.