146 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



lines of the state. In all this we have food for thought and 

 guides for planting trees in these several regions; what might suc- 

 ceed in one belt would be likely to suffer in another. But, as the 

 writer well suggests, here is study and work for the horticulturist, 

 who may be able to supply the conditions necessary for success, 

 when he attempts bringing the northern sylva to the southern 

 regions ; a problem, his knowledge will enable him very readily 

 to solve, as suggested above in the reference to Mr. Fisher's 

 favorite pioneer cotton-wood. When attempting sylviculture in 

 the open, windy prairie regions, plant the cotton-woods and what- 

 ever will endure the exposure, and follow with other kinds that 

 need shelter. 



According to the valuable statistical tables of Mr. Dodge, in 

 the United States Agricultural Report for 1875, Wisconsin had 

 but a little more than twenty-nine per cent, of her surface cov- 

 ered by woodland, which is but a moderate proportion when we 

 consider the broad extent of her northern border which Mr. 

 Knapp styles the Canadian belt, and which he describes as being 

 admirably fitted for a timber reserve, and illy adapted to general 

 agriculture. So that here we should look for a constant succes- 

 sion of this important crop in the corning ages. In a tier of 

 counties across the north part of the state, Mr. Dodge reports 

 none with less than sixty per cent, and some more than eighty 

 per cent, of woodland, while in the southern and central portions, 

 some are as low as three, seven, nine, ten and thirteen, and none 

 have more than thirty-nine per cent,, except Crawford county, 

 sixty-six, Richland and Calumet, fifty-eight and Pepin fifty-seven 

 per cent. The former group have not timber land enough for 

 their own protection against the cold and dry winds from the west. 



In view of these facts it becomes incumbent upon you of Wis- 

 consin to plant timber, especially in the open sections of the state, 

 if only as a means of protection. Every farm may have and 

 should have shelter belts for this purpose, at least on the western 

 and southern borders of each tract of eighty acres, and groves of 

 greater or less area on all waste places and near the farmsteads. 



In the region of the openings in the Michigan belt, we need 

 have no fear for the natural reproduction of abundant timber 



