356 



AKr.URICULTURE 



IMant Trees. 



A timely word from South Dakota, Mitchell 

 Gazette 



The crying nee<i of this country is more 

 trees. Trees of any kiml. White \vilk)\v, 

 box elder, soft maple, cotton wood, popular 

 or anything else that will grow ([uick and 

 make a wind break. Plant them in hedges, 

 in groves, in sink holes, along sloughs and 

 creeks, anywhere and everywhere that 

 there is a chance for them to grow. Set 

 them deep and cultivate them all you can. 

 If you can't cultivate them put a mulching 

 of straw six inches deep around them to 

 keep down the weeds, keep stock away 

 from them and they will do the rest. They 

 will stop the fearful drying winds that now 

 sweep up from the arid plains of Nebraska 



and liurn up the crops; they will put an 

 end to blizzards, for the very essence of the 

 blizzard is an unbroken stretch of prairie 

 over which the wind can sweep and grind 

 the snow to powder; they will prevent 

 droughts by preventing the surface mois- 

 ture from running off into the streams. 

 They will break tlie coal trusts far nu)re 

 effectually than any legislation that can be 

 devised. In time they will solve the (jues- 

 tion of cheap lumber and a score of other 



])roblems that harass and distress the inhab- 

 itant of these fertile plains. Plant acres 

 of them and you will a heritage of verdue 

 which will bless your community for all 

 time. 



California Caring For Her Timber. 



The Legislature of California appropri- 

 ated $15,000, for a study of the forest 

 que.stion. 



The Rcdlancls Review says: 



'Valifornia desires to know those facts 

 about its forests that will guide in the 

 passing wise forest laws. It desires to 

 know, for instance, what disposal should be 

 made of the State forest lands, what should 

 be done to regulate the cutting of timber 

 on them, how forest fires may best be 

 restrained, whether tree planting in denuded 

 areas will pay, etc. 



Work in securing all the information 

 necessary for a forest police for California 

 the bureau of forestry has begun this sum- 

 mer. The work is of such magnitude that 

 several years will be required to complete 

 it, but valuable and suggestive results will 

 be secured each year. 



Six men are now examining public lands 

 in the State to determine what parts of 

 them are suitable for national forest re- 

 serves and similar studies will be made of 

 lands owned by the State in order to deter- 

 mine the uses to which they may be best 

 put. who should administer them, and what 

 sort of administration they should have. A 

 forest map of California will be made, show- 

 ing the location of all forest areas and 

 distinguishing between the different kinds 



of forest. In connection with the forest 

 map will be a study of important trees in 

 order to learn with exactness the commer- 

 cial range of the valuable species. 



Investigation may be made of the effects 

 of lumbering on the forest in order to 

 determin what ought to be done to cut 

 over lands. It is of great importance to 

 know what happens to the land in different 

 parts of the timbered regions after it is 

 cut over by the lumberman- whether it 

 comes up again in timber or whether it be- 

 comes waste land. 



P^ffects of fire on the forest especially 

 after lumbering, and what may be done by 

 the state to prevent fire, are subjects that 

 will take a long time to work out. In 

 September Vj. A. Sterling of the bureau will 

 try to determin what is the cheapest and 

 most effective method of protecting from 

 fire land that has been lumbered. This 

 bureau will also make a study of the chap- 

 arral lands of Southern California in order 

 to learn whether it will pay to plant them 

 with timber trees. A very interesting 

 question has been raised as to whether 

 chaparral which includes a great varity 

 of scrub trees, such as nianzanita, scrub 

 oak, valley mahogany and scrub cherry- 

 will retain the moisture in the soil as well 

 as timber trees. Chaparral grows denser 



