STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 20;") 



I will refer the reader to page 36, wherein Mr. Flagg gives the pro- 

 portion of timber land in the State, as shown by the Census Report for 

 1870, and for this 1 thank him. I think, however, he will admit that in 

 Northern Illinois, at least, most of the large timber has been cut off, leav- 

 ing only the culls and the young timber that has grown up since. 



Riding along a road in Iowa, skirted on each side with such timber, 

 three or four years ago, in company with Arthur Bryant, Sen., Samuel 

 Edwards, and Suel Foster, the conversation turned on this subject, and 

 they agreed that this was substantially the case, as far as their observation 

 went; and I may say that if I was asked to name other three men, more 

 likely to observe closely the forests in their travels, I could not name them. 



On page 37, Mr. Flagg says: " So that even though trees have not 

 sprung up spontaneously, they may, with due care and attention, be 

 planted and established so as to live a reasonably long life." 



One would be led to infer from this that he is either of the opinion 

 that land on which trees have not been found growing will not produce 

 very long-lived trees, or else that trees, or seeds of trees, planted by man, 

 will not produce very long-lived trees. Facts in abundance can be 

 produced to disprove either proposition. 



Following him a little further on same page, he says: "But it is 

 true that in the West, at least, we must expect a permanent disability in 

 securing the perennial vigor and centennial lite that is attained in clim- 

 ates of fewer extremes. " Now why take this discouraging view of the 

 subject ? He has just told us on page 41 that " on the bluffs of the Platte, 

 Missouri, Canadian and other rivers, it (the red cedar) appears with 

 trunks three or four feet thick, wliich, judging from its slow growth, must 

 be of immense age." 



He shows in his own report that in the Dacotah, Wasatch, and Yel- 

 lowstone regions, where the climate is drier, and the extremes of heat and 

 cold greater than in Illinois, timber will grow larger and live as long. 

 Then his theory that because we adjoin the timber lands of Indiana, and 

 are almost surrounded by timber, hence our soil and climate is better 

 adapted to timber than further west, dissolves itself into thin air when wi- 

 go into Nebraska — a State with probably less timber than any other State 

 with the same number of square miles, inhabited by civilized man, and 

 surrounded on the east by open prairies, on the west by the rainless 

 plains, and on the north and south by lands as destitute of timber as its 

 own, and yet it will grow timber when planted as well as any State sur- 

 rounded by timber. I think Nebraska has planted more timber trees the 

 past two or three years than any other western State, and with as good 

 success, and can show as good growths on what has been planted. 



Mr. Lesquereaux' theory of " the formation of the ])rairies from the 

 base of the Rocky mountains to the Mississippi valley, and the jjrairies 

 around the lakes," as quoted by Mr. Flagg, pj;. 37 and 38, is reasonable, 

 and not doubted, as far as I know. But when, in describing the peculiar 

 nature of the soil of these prairies, and giving as a reason why trees will 

 not grow on them, he says it is because the soil is of a nature partaking 

 as much of peat as of humus, etc., he is falling into the same error that 



