Forest Planting in Eastern Nebraska. 183 



tory contains approximately 21,000,000 acres, the planted area is slightly 

 more than 1 per cent of the total. Nebraska is generally accredited 

 with a vast amount of forest planting, and indeed she does lead all of 

 the middle west in this regard, yet I believe the above figures will show 

 that the state does not have as much planted timber as she is commoniy 

 thought to have. It is certain that there is need for vastly more, es- 

 pecially when it is remembered that for the best interests of agriculture 

 at least one-fifth of the total area should be in timber; and the natural 

 and planted timber together constitute less than one-half of this 

 amount, even in eastern Nebraska. 



PLANTED AREA DECREASING. 



In general, the planted area in eastern Nebraska is decreasing. 

 Not uniformly so, for some of the eastern counties, especially those in 

 the northeastern part of the state, must be excepted. However, with 

 the rapid appreciation in the price of land, together with an increased 

 timber supply, due to the efforts of the early settlers, the activity in 

 forest planting so characteristic of pioneer daj^s, has gradually de- 

 clined, till in the past few years the amount of planting done in most 

 parts of the region under consideration had been very small, and this 

 has been more than off-set by the large amount of the former planting 

 that is being cut out and converted into fuel, posts and lumber. Nursery- 

 men say that the demand for forest tree seedlings declined very rapidly 

 from about 1894. 



While it is a matter of regret that so much of the planted timber- 

 land is being cleared, yet much of the cutting can be justified, as the 

 timber is mature and should be harvested. ■ Cottonwood, for example, — 

 and it constitutes nearly or quite one-half of all the planted timber in 

 eastern Nebraska — attains its maturity here in from thirty-five to forty- 

 five years, and if not cut then it begins to decline. Since it was so ex- 

 tensively planted by the pioneers, a large amount of it has come into 

 maturity. Besides firewood, many of these old cottonwood plantations 

 have yielded a large amount of lumber. The logs are sawed by means 

 of small portable mills. The lumber is used principally in the con- 

 struction of barns, sheds, houses and for bridge planking. 



FUTURE PLANTING. 



As stated, commercial considerations have been largely left out of 

 account in past planting. But the tree planting of the future should 



