384 



ARBORICULTURE 



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Forty Car Loads Catalpa Posts Yaggy Farm, Hutchinson, Kansas. 



1,000 healthy trees upon each of the 500 

 acres. As the trees are yet entirely too 

 close, extensive thinning must be made, 

 and there may be taken out 360,000 trees 

 with great advantage to the remainder, for 

 which $30,000 more will be realized. 



This 1,500 acre farm with its 800 acres 

 of apples has required a large expenditure 

 in its maintenance, and when it has been 

 necessary to pay large bills for labor, 

 machinery, buildings, etc., the catalpa 

 plantation has been the gold mine which 

 supplied much if not most of the funds. 

 As money was needed the sale of posts 

 has provided the cash. The owner real- 

 izes that it was a happy thought which 

 induced him to plant so many catalpa 

 trees, and only wishes the entire farm was 

 in forest. The estimated value of this 

 catalpa plantation today is $200 per acre, 

 or $100,000, although it has a prospective 

 value of as much more, for the steady and 

 permanent increase from sale of posts and 

 similar timbers is much greater than could 

 be realized by any other crop which can 

 be grown. 



THE ARKANSAS VALLEY. 



From Pueblo, Colorado, to far down in- 

 to the Indian Territory there is an under- 

 flow of water, a sheet extending for several 

 miles on each side of the river bed, in 

 which wells may be obtained at a moder- 



ate depth, all along the valley. The 

 sandy soil is moist with water ascending 

 by capillary attraction, which enables tree 

 roots to reach moisture and maintain 

 growth even when water has ceased to 

 flow upon the surface in the bed of the 

 stream during extreme drought. In some 

 places there is a hard-pan which is difficult 

 for roots to penetrate, but this will, in 

 time, be overcome as the now impervious 

 strata becomes broken up by more thorough 

 cultivation and by action of tree roots. 



This portion of Kansas is destined to 

 become a great center for artificial forests, 

 as the conditions are extremely favorable 

 to tree growth. Water is found at from 

 six to twenty feet. 



There are many other large plantations 

 already established in the valley and 

 throughout Southern Kansas. Messrs. Un- 

 derwood & Viles have 400 acres growing 

 and propose increasing their plantation 

 very greatly. 



Mr. Wilder, auditor of the Santa Fe 

 railway has 40 acres, but this has been so 

 totally neglected that no results can ever 

 be expected. Mr. G. Monger, at Eureka, 

 has a large tract of several hundred acres. 

 The Farlington tract of 1,200 acres has 

 been often referred to in Arboriculture. 

 Probably the best managed plantation is 

 that of Geo. W. Tidcher, of Topeka, who 

 has 65 acres. 



