OBSERVATIONS ON TREE PLANTING. 253 



OBSERVATIONS OX TREE PLANTING AS CARRIED ON IN 



NEDRASIvA. 

 I»iof. R. J. Pool, Uni, of Nebf. 



For many years Nebraska has been known ts the "Tree Planters' 

 State." This nickname is of particular interest to the foresters. It 

 is not that the citizens of Nebraska have necessarily planted more 

 trees than have been planted in other states, but perhaps the cogno- 

 men was applied because of the tree planting stimulus which, born 

 and applied here, has also been transmitted to distant regions and 

 has at limes secured responses that were practically nation wide. The 

 infectious influence of such men as Morton, Furnas and Bessey has 

 spread in the past years until Ferrow, Hall, Pinchot, Graves and other 

 big men in federal forestry have felt the call and have responded from 

 time to time in a most encouraging degree. The enthusiasm and 

 devotion of the above western pioneers, augumented and accelerated 

 by similar spirits in other states, have made a tremendous impression 

 in national circles until at the present time the splendid response of 

 the government is seen in the branch of reforestation or afforstation 

 which is perhaps the most farreaching and significant feature of the 

 varied program of the U. S. Forest Service. , 



Our sister states have responded to the agitation for tree plant- 

 ing eminating especially from Nebraska until now Arbor Day is a 

 holiday in many states and the spirit and practice of the day has 

 encircled the globe. Arbor Day and the various "timber culture acts" 

 of state and national scope have resulted in the addition of con- 

 siderable areas of timberland to the originally treeless regions. Simi- 

 lar stimuli have also initiated attempts, at least, to rebuild the wasted 

 forests and woodlands of states which were originally well covered 

 with arboreal vegetation. Surely many portions of Nebraska owe 

 much of their present beauty of landscape and air of homey content- 

 edness to the presence of thousands of planted groves which so effec- 

 tively and agreeably mask the lonesome monotony characteristic of 

 rolling prairies and plains. Indeed there is much of inspiration in 

 an extensive thought in the establishing of the vast majority of tree 

 plantations throughout the state. 



The timber culture act made possible the attainment of a quarter 

 section of the public domain by planting one-sixteenth of this area to 

 trees. This seemed to be an easy task and hundreds of "claims" were 

 secured under this law. It has often been reported that many of 

 these tree claims were fraudulently obtained, and that for instance 

 it was often the case that permanent tree plantations were never 

 established. Others were procured after planting worthless stock or 

 perhaps by merely broadcasting the seed over a very limited area 

 and then "breaking" the sod over a ten acre patch of virgin grass- 

 land. Many of these "timber claims" were eventually abandoned ami 

 the government finally put an end to such land frauds by repeealing 



