204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



In concluding this already too long article, I would say — Do not 

 wait "several generations" before planting " valuable timber," when you 

 see that your prairies are already fitted for its growth ; and while you 

 study the natural sciences, do not let wild theories run away with your 

 common sense. Do not run into past and future generations, to the 

 neglect of what is going on in the present. 



No doubt nature is slowly changing the surface of the earth — always 

 has and always will be making very slow changes. Yes, very slow indeed 

 — entirely too slow for us. Man will take a plant and make more change 

 in it in half of one generation than nature, unaided, could have made in 

 it since the commencement of the Christian era. Man will take a poison- 

 ous plant, and by cultivation make of it a nutritious edible to supply his 

 table ; and then if he neglects it, and leaves it to nature's care, it will 

 soon run back again to a noxious, unwholesome weed. 



The common parsnip is an instance of this. Nature made the astrin- 

 gent pear and the unwholesome peach unfitted for the food of the beasts 

 of the field. Man fitted them for the palate of the epicure. 



Then supposing nature has, in myriads of ages, brought us magnifi- 

 cent trees from the lowest orders of vegetation — which is certainly not 

 fully proven yet — or even supposing the Chinaman, in the remote past, 

 did wear his cue at the lower extremity of his spinal column, instead of at 

 the upper end, as now, neither the one nor the other has any bearing on 

 the subject in hand — the growing of forest trees on the prairies. 



Therefore, do not wait for " several generations," but go about your 

 work now. You know that you have one of the fairest and most fertile 

 spots on earth ; that the only one thing lacking is a due proportion of 

 timber. You know that even this seven per cent, of timber land, made 

 out by the Census Report of 1870, has been mostly cut away ; and it is 

 in most parts old clearings turned out to commons, or into pasture, that 

 are called "woodlands" in the census reports. 



You know that most of the valuable forest trees that are natives of 

 your State grow better on the prairies than elsewhere, and you know that 

 your evergreens, a year or two ago, did not suff"er so severely as the same 

 kinds did in the eastern States, and on the dry, gravelly lands in the Fox 

 River District. 



You know that apple and cherry will not thrive on cold, wet, clay 

 subsoils, whether it be on the prairies or elsewhere, and that the same is 

 true of the beech and chestnut ; so that your success depends, not on 

 whether your lands were originally prairie or timber, but on the selection 

 of the kinds of trees best adapted to your soils. 



Since writing the foregoing, I have read Mr. Flagg's paper upon 

 " Conditions of Tree Growth," found on page 36 of this volume, and find 

 that he has so modified his views since last year, that they very nearly 

 meet mine. In fact I may say we agree that valuable timber trees will 

 grow well on all prairies suitable for growing farm crops, but not on bogs, 

 sloughs, nor lands composed mainly of peat. But as he has not so stated, 

 I will not claim it. I only draw the inference, and will follow his report, 

 naming the points wherein I differ with him. 



