12 THE PLANT WORLD. 



The steps by which forestation begins are often apparently 

 insignificant and unobserved. On the streams, the sandbar wil- 

 low and the false indigo play an important part, their roots hold- 

 ing the banks and bars from shifting until tree species can get 

 a foothold. After the sand is fixed and other species have 

 started, the willow dies, but its mission has been fulfilled. Its 

 seed is carried by the water as well as by the wind, so that the 

 same flood which makes the sandbar often seeds it with the tree 

 which will redeem it. In heavier soils other shrubs, such as the 

 smooth sumac, the wolfberry, and the wild plum, which grow in 

 clumps and are able to win in the fight against grass, are fore- 

 runners of the forest. 



The one thing which, above all others, makes for improved 

 conditions on the plains, and gives assured hope for better tree 

 growth in the future than in the past, is the cessation of fires. 

 Before the country was settled fires were both frequent aitd ex- 

 tensive. Only the trees along streams could survive, and, at best, 

 make a stunted, scrubby growth. Reproduction was extremely 

 uncertain, owing to the loss of seedlings, and grass gained the 

 ascendency over all other forms of vegetation. But with the 

 nearly complete stoppage of fires since the country has been per- 

 manently settled, conditions are greatly improved. Several tree 

 species have succeeded, despite other most adverse circum- 

 stances, in forcing their way into the very heart of the plains by 

 following up the water courses tributary to the Missouri River. 

 It is therefore quite certain that with protection they will in the 

 future steadily gain new territory. 



As a result of the study it becomes clear that the forests of this 

 region are much more restricted in area and poorer in character 

 than they need be. That it takes a long time to grow trees fit for 

 any practical purpose is true, yet a region without trees is seri- 

 ously handicapped, and few farmers can do better for their 

 property than to establish groves upon it. The government is so 

 well convinced of the practicability of growing trees from seeds 

 in this region that it has created two forest reserves, containing 

 208,000 acres, in the sand hills of Nebraska for this purpose. 



