122 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



I doubt much whether the pine forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota 

 that are now being cut off can be renewed for three or four centuries to 

 come, but they can be replaced with the oak and other valuable timber, 

 and ought to be. On our prairies, where there have been no forests for 

 thousands of years, if ever, it is virgin soil for all species. Here the 

 most urgent demand is to make wood as quickly as possible for present 

 use, though it be of an inferior quality, and to cover as great an area as 

 possible, for its climatic influence. For this purpose the softer woods of 

 rapid growth that are known to be hardy should be selected. To show 

 how quickly wood of this character may be produced on our prairies, I 

 append an extract from a letter just received from my brother, S. W. 

 Stewart, of Granville, Putnam county, Illinois. The kind he refers to is 

 the soft maple. He says : 



"The first seed was planted eighteen years last spring. I trans- 

 planted some sprouts from the river bottom two years later, which would 

 make them all about the same age. There are 172 rods in trees, being a 

 trifle over an acre. There are now upon this ground 775 trees. I planted 

 the seed in nursery, and transplanted at one year old, in rows six feet 

 apart, and about three feet in the row. I thinned out one-half as they 

 grew large enough for fence poles. They were set too thick, and have 

 not been thinned enough, consequently some have died and the rest are 

 rather slender. 



" They are in two groves ; one of 115 trees I set ten by twelve feet .; 

 they have not produced so much timber to the acre, but the trees are a 

 little larger. The trees in the thin and thick groves are about the same 

 height — about fifty feet. Those in the thick grove average about twenty 

 inches in circumference, those in the thin one about twenty-four inches, 

 four feet above the ground, and some few measure three feet. I think 

 twenty trees will make a cord of wood, am sure twenty-five will ; I am 

 inclined to think that twenty will make more than a cord. I think there 

 are now forty cords to the acre. 



" If I were going to start a grove now, I would plant the seed in a 

 nursery as soon as they fall from the trees. They should be planted 

 shallow, about one and a half to two inches deep. Transplant them 

 when one year old, in rows nine feet apart, and three feet in the row. 

 Cultivate well for three or four years, with a row of potatoes or some 

 other vegetables between each row of trees. Thin as they need it until 

 two-thirds are removed, then you have them nine feet each way. This 

 thinning will produce more than enough wood to pay all the expense of 

 cultivation. It makes good firewood, and most excellent poles for 

 fencing, if cut when the bark will peel. 



" I think black walnut is a profitable tree to cultivate. What a 

 grand thing it would be if every 166 acres of our prairie had on it ten 

 acres of forest." 



Adjourned. 



