36o 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



scheme for providing a summer home 

 and resort for members of the Nation- 

 al Educational Association. His com- 

 pany proposes to dedicate to the As- 

 sociation a tract of land in Routt coun- 

 ty, upon which members may build, 

 and which will be capable of agricul- 

 tural development, with the idea of 

 providing a resort where vacations may 

 be spent with as little expense as pos- 

 sible. The land lies along the eastern 

 side of the company's irrigation ditch, 

 running up into the mountains, and 

 offers what is said to be an ideal loca- 

 tion for summer residences, cottages 

 or resort hotels. The Moffat Road, 

 now approaching completion, taps the 

 section from Denver, and Routt coun- 

 ty affords some of the finest scenery, 

 as well as magnificent farming, gar- 

 dening and fruit-growing lands, to be 

 found in the Centennial State. The 

 proposition will be made to the Asso- 

 ciation at its annual meeting in Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, this summer. 

 iii ^ ^ 

 ■ New National Forest in Kansas 



President Roosevelt has just signed 

 a proclamation creating additions to 

 the present Garden City National 

 Forest amounting to 205,107 acres. 

 This proclamation also provides that 

 the original Forest known as the Gar- 

 den City with the additions shall be 

 called the Kansas National Forest. 

 The additions will bring the area of 

 the Kansas National Forest up to 

 302,387 acres. 



The forest is located in Finney and 

 Kearney counties, in the sandhill re- 

 gion of Kansas, on the Arkansas Riv- 

 er. Its creation received the support 

 of the entire Kansas delegation in 

 Congress, and, through petitions, the 

 support of industrial associations and 

 citizens generally of the counties in 

 which this land is situated. 



The Kansas National Forest was 

 created mainly for experimental plant- 

 ing, since the rapidly increasing de- 

 mand for timber in the agricultural 



communities adjacent has led the peo- 

 ple to believe that this sandhill land, 

 otherwise worthless except for a lim- 

 ited amount of grazing, can be made 

 to produce timber. Fair success has 

 been obtained with black locust on 

 lands similar in character, and it is 

 thought that further experiments will 

 demonstrate that the entire sandhill 

 region south of the Arkansas River 

 can be made to produce timber. 



To this end, the Forest Service has 

 made arrangements to plant 65,000 

 seedlings of valuable hardwood spe- 

 cies on this forest this spring- A new 

 planting station at Garden City, to 

 supply trees for future planting on 

 this forest, was established March 

 I, on a tract of five acres of land which 

 was leased from the County Commis- 

 sioners of Finney county, for yearly 

 rental of $i per acre. The an- 

 nual capacity of this nursery will be 

 300,000 trees. The value of timber 

 for fence posts, fuel, and other do- 

 mestic uses, which it is believed this 

 forest is capable of producing, is al- 

 most incalculable in that practically 

 treeless country. It is unquestionable 

 that, if the Forest Service is success- 

 ful in these experiments, many pri- 

 vate individuals will benefit from the 

 results obtained by the Government, 

 and plant trees for domestic purposes 

 in connection with other work on their 

 ranches. 



Tree planting experiences in Kan- 

 sas have been many and varied. Ig- 

 norance of proper methods of plant- 

 ing and caring for the trees and the 

 frequent choice of stock entirely un- 

 suited to the region brought many 

 failures during the year following the 

 enactment of the old timber claim 

 law. There have been many success- 

 es, however, in tree planting, where 

 landowners have exercised judge- 

 ment and care in the work, and the 

 fine groves of trees in the western 

 part of the state give promise of the 

 reclamation of much of the great 

 stretch of land lying south of the Ar- 

 kansas River, known as the sandhills. 



