THE PLANTED FOREST FOR PROFIT. 295 



The government has rightly reserved between 300 000 and 400,000 

 acres in this portion of the state for forestry purposes. Out of the 

 nine forest nurseries established and maintained by the government, 

 that at Halsey, Nebraska, is by far the largest and most important. 

 It occupies about five acres of seed-bed and considerable transplant 

 ground. The capacity last year was approximately 5,000,000 seedlings, 

 and already about 2,000 acres in the hills have been planted. The oldest 

 plantings were made four to five years ago and the trees have reached 

 a height of six to eight feet. Jack pine and western yellow pine have 

 been most extensively planted. Jack pine has proven most successful 

 as a field tree, while western yellow^ pine has proven its worth only as 

 a nursery tree and not fully established its value for field planting. 

 Scotch pine has been started in the seed-beds and should prove a 

 valuable tree in this region. 



The extent of the work has not stopped with the government activity 

 in establishing the Bruner grove and the extensive work at Halsey. 

 The results of the government work have been watched from the first 

 by residents of the western portion of the state, and last year a single 

 dealer in Minnesota reported that he sold to Nebraskans over 600,000 

 jack pine seedlings, which he collected from the natural forests. Often, 

 no more than 100 to 500 seedlings went to a single person. Many suc- 

 ceeded in having 80 per cent live and give promise of making successful 

 growth. 



Exposure to winds and sun in this portion of the state make it 

 advisable to plant on north and east slopes, since conditions are less 

 severe than on south and west slopes. Once a stand is secured on 

 the north and east slopes, it will be much easier to secure a successful 

 growth on the south and west slopes because of the ameliorating 

 influence exerted by the trees growing on the planted areas. 



It is reasonable to expect that higher class and a more diversified 

 forest crop can be produced on the sand barrens and other sandy soils 

 of the lake states than can be produced in western Nebraska. Michigan 

 alone has at present from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 acres of cut-over and 

 waste land of this class while Wisconsin and Minnesota are not far 

 behind. This will have material bearing on future conditions in the 

 lake states region and adjoining areas, yet most of the planted timber 

 will be needed in these states and the need for home-grown timber in 

 Nebraska will ultimately be of the very first importance. The class 

 of product which can be raised in western Nebraska should range from 

 fence posts to dimension material. Since large areas are concerned, 

 the problem is entirely distinct from that of the woodlot problem of 

 the eastern part of the state. While the government should naturally 

 take precedence in this region both as regards the area planted and 

 the investigative work performed, there still should be pronounced activ- 

 ity by the ranchers. Every ranch should be made as self-supporting 

 in timber supply as possible. As most of the ranches are large and 

 have a considerable per cent of the area which is not suited to farming 



