ARBORICULTURE 



247 



YELLOW PIXE FOR THE WEST. 

 (Pinus Ponderosa.) 



In our March number we gave an ac- 

 count of the pinery on the divide be- 

 tween Denver and Colorado Springs. 

 During the past month a more thorough 

 study has been made of this very inter- 

 esting body of pine. 



, The elevation is from 7,000 to 7,700 

 feet, Denver being 5,200 and Colorado 

 Springs 6,000 feet. 



The land is sandy, sandstone cropping 

 out on the higher points. 



•Before the settlement of Colorado 

 there was an extensive body of timber in 

 this locality. Denver, Pueblo and Colo- 

 rado Springs were built from timber cut 

 on .this divide. In 1865, Avhile construct- 

 ing the Kansas Pacific Railway, this for- 

 est supplied the bridge timb^'rs, lumber 

 and erossties, which were hauled four 

 hundred miles. At first mule teams were 

 used, which, in the Indian wars then pro- 

 gressing, Avere captured and run off; but 

 the energy and determination of the 

 builders of this pioneer railway were 

 equal to the emergency, and thousands 

 of oxen were purchased from Mexico. 

 Since buffalos were roaming the plains in 

 great numbers, these lean animals were 

 abhorred by the savages and went unmo- 

 lested. 



Several cuttings have since been made. 

 The Colorado Southern and Denver i' 

 Rio Grande were built from timber growr 

 here. 



At present there are growths of all 

 sizes, from seedlings one to ten years old 

 standing thickly over portions of the 

 land, up to trees of six to sixteen inches 

 thickness. 



It is interesting to note the difference 

 in size of trees having the same age. 

 Some standing thickly, thirty to the 

 square rod, are only an inch or two diam- 

 eter, while others having more room, four 

 to the rod, are six inches through and 

 forty feet high. This shows the impor- 

 tance of artificial thinning. It takes na 

 ture many years to accomplish what man 

 can do, with a small amount of labor 

 in destroying surplus growths, in a brief 

 period. 



In the Black Hills of South Dakota 

 there are large forests of pinus pon'^ 

 derosa. In visiting this vicinity in May, 

 1897, I discovered immense quantities 

 of bark beetles, which were killing the 

 trees, and made report upon the subject, 

 first to the Pioneer-Times and the Inde- 

 pendent, of Deadwood, and later to the 

 Conservative, J. Sterling Morton's pa- 

 per, as follows: 



MR. brown's trip. 



Mr. John P. Brown, Secretary of the 

 Indiana Forestry Association, writes the 

 Conservative the following account of 

 his Western trip: 



"I have been several days in the Black 

 Hills, observing the work of the destruc- 

 tive beetles, which are devastating the 

 pinus ponderosa forests throughout the 

 Hills. 



"Tuesday, in company with Mr. H. G. 

 Hamaker, Forest Supervisor, I went fif- 

 teen miles from Deadwood, into the 

 Spearfish Canyon. Upon the mcuintains 

 there are numerous spots of brown and 

 dead trees, killed by beetles in former 

 years — one to three years since; other 

 spots have a slight yellowish cast, the 

 foliage not yet dead, while in many cases 

 the work is so recent that no change in 

 the foliage is discernible. 



"Wednesday, in company with Mr. W. 

 E. Smead, superintendent of the Home- 

 stake mine, I traversed the hills about 

 Lead City, finding many young trees, 

 four to eight inches in diameter — the 

 second growth forest — affected. 



"Thursday, with Prof. W. V. Hunter, 

 of Nebraska State University, I made 

 another trip to Spearfish, taking the en- 

 tire day. 



BEETLES AT LEAD CITY. 



"The young trees at Lead City were so 

 infested with destructive beetles I esti- 

 mated 10,000 beetles and larvas in a sin- 

 gle eight-inch tree. These were smaller 

 than the ones found at Spearfish, and 

 some eight species of predatory insects 

 were present in small numbers. 



