NEWS AND NOTES 



Fcrest Plant- If the young farmers and 



ing on the ^he children of the older 

 Prairies r ■ ., 



tarmers in the prairie 



States are during the later years of 

 their lives to be supplied with cheap 

 fence posts and cheap fuel, whether 

 there is a car shortage on the railroad 

 or not, there must be a great deal 

 more attention paid to forest planting 

 on the farm than there has been here- 

 tofore. 



There was considerable forest 

 planting in these States in the early 

 years of their settlement. The object 

 then in view was not to secure post 

 timber or ' building material or fuel, 

 but to protect the farm houses and 

 other buildings from the storms of the 

 Western winter. 



Times change, and farmers must 

 change with them. The forest tree 

 planting in the West, small as it ap- 

 pears to be in comparison with the 

 acreage, has done much to modify the 

 severity of the winters ; more than any 

 one would think. 



What is needed now is timber for 

 fence posts, for fuel and for lumber, 

 as well as protection against the bliz- 

 zards of the winter and the heat of the 

 summer. — IVallace's Farmer. 



A Few The importance of tim- 



Acres of i^^,- qj^ ^j^g farm is be- 



coming plainer each 

 year. The uses and needs are many, 

 and these increase as the farm be- 

 comes older. The one feature of 

 fencing creates within itself almost a 

 constant demand for timber for posts. 

 Iron and stone are sometimes sug- 

 gested as the coming fence post. This 

 sounds as though the farmer was ab- 

 solutely helpless in the matter of sup- 

 ply. The farmer need not look to any 

 source outside his land resources for 

 fence posts or fuel, if he decides that 

 he will plan and produce these him- 

 self. The grove of quickly growing 

 timbers will in a few years supply 

 fence posts and fuel for all the needs 



of the farm. It -is simply a matter of 

 planting and preparing for tree 

 growth. 



It does not require the lifetime of a 

 man to do this and reap the benefits. 

 True, it will take from ten to twenty 

 years to see these trees satisfactorily 

 serviceable, yet this time is often 

 spent on a prairie homestead without 

 any effort being made to plant, culti- 

 vate, or grow a tree. — West Texas 

 Journal. 



Census of The Bureau of the Cen- 

 Water Trans- g^^, j^as just issued a 

 portaticn in,- ;-kt x 



bulletin (No. 91) on 



transportation by water. The bulletin 

 contains a summary of the main feat- 

 ures of a census of transportation by 

 water which covered the year ending 

 December 31, 1906, further details of 

 which are reserved for separate re- 

 ports of the shipping on the Atlantic 

 Coast and Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific 

 Coast, the Great Lakes and St. Law- 

 rence River, the Mississippi River and 

 its tributaries, and all other inland wa- 

 ters, respectively. 



During the year 1906, according to 

 the census, ferryboats carried 330,- 

 737,639 passengers ; over 63 per cent 

 of whom were carried by the ferries in 

 and around New York harbor. 



By far the largest part of the Am- 

 erican shipping is on the x\tlantic 

 Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 next largest is on the Mississippi Riv- 

 er and its tributaries ; but so many of 

 the river vessels are coal barges and 

 scows, that the value of both shipping 

 and freight moved on the Great Lakes 

 is greater. 



The total freight moved showed an 

 increase of over 100 per cent from 1889 

 to 1906. 



On the basis of tonnage moved, coal 

 is the most important item of freight 

 in the water commerce of the United 

 States. 



Considerable decreases are shown 

 in the shipments of lumber and of ice. 



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