232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



thousands of trees upon the hills. Naturally there have been mistakes 

 and failures, but after almost a decade of active operations on the 

 Dismal Eiver National Forest one can not but marvel at the results 

 obtained, if he is at all familiar with the extreme natural conditions 

 that the government's experts have attempted to meet. The pine trees 

 that were planted in 1903 are now about twelve feet in height and four 

 inches in diameter. The bunch-grasses have been shaded out and a 

 fine carpet of pine needles is beginning to accumulate beneath the green 

 crowns of this young Sand Hill forest. So also, as I was able to dem- 

 onstrate during the past summer, the temperature of air and soil, the 

 humidity and evaporation, and the movements of the air in the vicinity 

 of this plantation have been profoundly modified in comparison to those 

 conditions in the bunch-grass association that completely surrounds 

 these plantations. It is a most interesting and significant fact that the 

 trees have adjusted themselves more readily to the fury of the wind on 

 the hilltops and even in the blow-outs than to the struggle with other 

 vegetation in the moister and more protected situations. Mr. Pierce, 

 the supervisor of the Nebraska National Forest, told me in October that 

 eighty per cent, of the trees planted in 1911 had passed through the 

 summer drought and were making a brave effort to become permanent 

 fixtures in the Sand Hill landscape. 



The forest nursery established in 1903 has been enlarged from time 

 to time until now it covers about five acres. When all of the seed beds 

 are in use the nursery can care for about four million seedlings and 

 two million transplants. The care of the delicate seedlings requires a 

 great amount of skill and a large force of men in order that they may 

 be kept free from disease and develop perfectly for the planting on 

 the hills. 



While it will be many years in the future before any return will be 

 realized from this enormous experiment of the government's, yet the 

 success of the first decade certainly warrants the continuation of the 

 experiment. It is hoped that at some distant time acres of flourishing 

 pine trees will grace many of the hills now so completely dominated by 

 the bunch-grass. 



The people of the Sand Hills are a hale and hardy lot. Their life 

 is a rather hard one, even if they take advantage of every comfort pos- 

 sible for them. Many of them were lured by the roseate stories of the 

 early " boomers " and came to the region from the east years ago. They 

 found that the glowing tales of the wealth of the region were mostly 

 florid falsehoods and that they were in a strange land whose productivity 

 was not at all apparent and the rigors of whose climate were at times 

 most severe. Many of these early homesteaders used up all of their 

 capital in getting into the Sand Hills. Once there their disappoint- 



