H. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 279 



H. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 



TREE-PLANTING ON THE PRAIRIES. 



M. R. S. Elliott, industrial agent of the Kansas Pacific Rail- 

 way, has been experimenting upon the cultivation, upon the 

 plains, of various seeds without accompanying irrigation, the 

 principal trials having been made at three stations along the 

 railroad: the first, Wilson, being 239 miles west of the state 

 line, and 1586 feet above the sea level; the second, Ellis, 302 

 miles west, and of 3019 feet elevation; and the third, Pond 

 Creek, 422 miles west, and 3175 feet in altitude. Trials were 

 made, in these experiments, of winter grains, as wheat, bar- 

 ley, and rye ; of spring grains, as wheat and oats ; of various 

 grasses ; of tree seeds, such as ailanthus, chestnut, rjiiion, elm, 

 etc. ; and of various fruit trees. The conclusions arrived at 

 from these investigations were, that lucerne and other valu- 

 able forage plants, winter and spring grains, and trees, may 

 be grown on the plains from seed, without irrigation, as far 

 west as the 100th meridian, and perhaps even further; also, 

 that trees may be grown from seeds, cuttings, and young 

 plants, for timber or for fruit, in all parts of the plains be- 

 tween the Platte and the Arkansas Rivers ; and, finally, that 

 the growth of living storm-shields along the line of the Kan- 

 sas Pacific Railway, and of timber for the uses of the road, is 

 only a matter of effort and time. Circular of Elliott. 



EFFECT OF TREES ON CLIMATE (MALTA). 



Much has been said in the work of Mr. George P. Marsh, 

 entitled " Man and Nature," and by many other writers, of 

 the influences exerted by man upon the physical condition 

 of the earth and the atmosphere, and deserved stress has been 

 laid upon the important part played by trees in all phenom- 

 ena connected with the amelioration of climates and the res- 

 toration or increase of rain-fall, and the diminution in the 

 number and the intense severity of inundations, etc. Mr. 

 Buchan, a we"ll-known meteorologist of Edinburgh, has made 

 a report to the Scientific Society of that city in regard to cer- 

 tain measures about being introduced by the Governor of 



