ARBORICULTURE 



151 



the stump, should be spared ; they will 

 be of much greater value in a few years. 



For mine timbers the Aspen should be 

 impregnated with chloride of zinc — a 

 portable treating plant being constructed 

 for the purpose. 



Probably not more than fifty spruce 

 timbers are secured from an acre. Long 

 hauls over abrupt mountain roads, with 

 but a few sticks on the wagon, make it 

 quite expensive getting out these small 

 timbers, and being immature they decay 

 in two years. Aspen of a larger size 

 can be treated quite cheaply, the plant be- 

 ing located in the valleys below the thick- 

 ets, all the haul being down the slope. 

 From one small valley which I examined 

 there can be obtained three millions mine 

 timbers. A hundred millions could be se- 

 cured on the tract which I was investigat- 

 ing for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com- 

 pany. 



Should the Aspen be adopted for mine 

 timbers it would result in the perpetua- 

 tion of the coniferous forests of that re- 

 gion, which through the unwise policy of 

 an unworthy employe are now being ex- 

 terminated, losing forever all hopes of 

 future forests. 



The Aspen thickets should be thinned 

 severely, but not entirely cleared away, 

 as there is one provision of the Aspen 

 which is seldom considered. The decay 

 of such a quantity of deciduous leaves 

 each year makes a deep rich molild in 

 which seeds of pine, spruce and fir trees 

 lodge, germinate, and protected by the 

 Aspen, isecome valuable forests. 



Intelligent persons now recognize the 

 importance of these Aspen thickets in 

 holding the snow, preventing too rapid 

 melting, and thus the season of water 

 supply is prolonged for the inhabitants of 

 the lower valleys. 



The view on page 159 is of the won- 

 derful vStone Wall, an immense mass of 

 rocks rising perpendicularly out of the 

 mountains to great height and extending 

 many miles. The high snow-capped 

 mountains in the distance are of the 

 Sangre de Christo Range referred to, and 

 upon the summit and slopes of which are 

 millions of acres covered with Aspens. 

 It was on one of these peaks I obtained 

 the photograph of the big Aspen tree. 



INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF FIRE. 



It has been solely from the action 

 of fires that the great plain and 

 prairie regions are treeless. Eviden- 

 ces are abundant that in former times all 

 the now arid regions of our continent 

 were covered with dense forests, some of 

 monster dimensions. Of this we have 

 more to say elsewhere. 



The subject we now have in mind is the 

 destruction of all vegetation by annual 

 burning, throughout the sandy plains of 

 the West, and also in other localities far- 

 ther south and east. 



The Pan Handle of Texas, New Mex- 

 ico, Western Kansas and Nebraska and 

 Eastern Colorado are instances, wdiile 

 Florida is another illustration. 



For ages the grasses and herbaceous 

 growths have been burned ofif each year, 

 destroying all vegetation which otherwise 

 would become incorporated with the sand 

 and form a true soil of great fertility. 



The total productions of every man- 

 ufacturer of artificial fertilizers spread 

 upon the surface, without admixture of 

 soil, would not produce a growth of vege- 

 tation. Sand, without vegetable mould 

 added, makes a very poor farm. 



All the sandy plains of the West contain 

 potash, and other mineral constituents in 

 ample quantities to produce immense 

 crops when water is supplied by irriga- 

 tion. 



But these sands, with all their mineral 

 combinations, are subject to frequent 

 loss by burning, during periods of 

 drought, because of the absence of veg- 

 etable composition. 



This is seen in Florida, a land of sand, 

 that has been burned over by the aborigi- 

 nes, and afterwards by the cattle men, 

 the pine needles destroyed ; nothing has 

 been added to the sand to form a soil. 

 But in the thousands of depressions 

 where moisture prevented the burning, 

 rich hummock tracts have resulted, with 

 a deep, ricli. black productive loam. 



These annual fires are destructive of all 

 young forest growths as well, and pre- 

 vent the natural spread of forests, be- 

 sides the great losses each year of ma- 

 tured timber. 



This practice of setting fires upon the 

 prairies and plains, as well as within the 

 forests, should be speedily abandoned. 



