A CURIOUS METHOD OF PROPAGATING TREES. 



By Charles A. White. 



UP to twenty-five years ago a very large part of the surface of 

 the state of Iowa was prairie, and the early settlers there had 

 great difficulty in obtaining sufficient wood for fuel and other 

 purposes. Their principal source of supply was then the 

 scanty growth of trees that usually fringed the water courses; but 

 perceiving that this supply would be speedily exhausted, they soon be- 

 gan tree cultivation. They thus quickly discovered that a crop of 

 trees could be grown upon the fertile prairie soil no less certainly than 

 could a crop of corn, the only question being as to the time required 

 to make a wood-crop available. 



The growth of those trees which furnish the best quality of wood 

 is comparatively slow, rapid growing wood being usually of poor 

 quality. The Cottonwood {Populus moniliferd)^ which was one of the 

 commonest trees which grew along the streams referred to, is of such 

 low grade but its growth is so rapid, even upon upland prairie soil, 

 that the settlers chose it for first cultivation in preference to other 

 kinds which grew there. They practiced three methods of its propa- 

 gation, one being the transplanting of young trees, one the sowing of 

 seed, and the other the curious but effective method of planting poles. 

 At the time of year when cottonwood trees shed their seed the 

 streams along which they grow are usually bank full, and as the seed 

 falls into the water as well as upon the ground, it floats and lodges 

 along the shores. If the soil is good there the seed quickly germinates 

 and produces an abundance of seedling trees, most of which, however, 

 fail to mature. If the shore is a sandy slope the floating seed collects 

 in small ridges at the water's edge, but does not successfully germi- 

 nate there. The settler often transplanted upon his land the minute 

 seedlings found at the water's edge, as well as those of larger growth. 

 He also gathered the seed-laden sand from the shores and sowed it 

 upon a cultivated field, thus making a nursery of young trees to be 

 transplanted at his convenience to artificial groves. 



But the least laborious, and a very successful, method of propaga- 

 ting the cottonwoods was that of pole-planting. Having plowed his 

 land for a grove, the settler ran furrows across it, leaving sufficient 

 space between them for the proper growth of the trees. He then 

 went to the bottom lands and cut and trimmed poles of young cotton- 

 wood having a diameter of from two to four inches. With his ax he 

 cut notches down to the center of each pole, two or three feet apart, 



