134 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have simply considered conservation simply as a project, but the time 

 has now come when it ought to be made a practical thing. If we can 

 not make it practical we have but very little interest in the matter, 

 except as it concerns us in regard to the cost of forest products. I 

 know that the chief disciple of forestry, Mr. Pinchot, in some of his 

 works places great emphasis on the preservation of forest timber. Insuffi- 

 cient as it seems to me, upon the planting of trees. 



The time has come for us to help ourselves and improve the state 

 of Nebraska. We may talk of this and may talk as they have been 

 talking about conservation, but the vital thing and the thing to do 

 is to begin to plant trees. Example is much better than precept, and 

 agitation in Nebraska could be made definite. In general, we have 

 ample room for improvement. The time is ripe for action. Every year 

 is delay and means that much precious time lost. I do not mean by 

 that that we should seek to emulate the Germans and French, but what 

 would be possible for Michigan, Indiana and Iowa. We are not so favored 

 in Nebraska so far as tree growing is concerned, and we might as well 

 admit it. I have lived in Iowa and have planted trees there and have 

 seen them grow for five or six years. I have planted trees in Nebraska 

 and have seen them grow and I know that we can get the results in 

 Nebraska upon ordinary land. 



It is well enough to talk about planting trees upon bottom lands. 

 Most of the land in Nebraska is in the second bottom, but there is upland 

 that will grow good crops of corn. When I am speaking of trees and 

 the planting of trees, I am speaking about lands where the wells are 

 200 feet deep, where the trees grow successfully, notwithstanding that 

 fact. If you can not make forest trees succeed upon that kind of land, 

 then they will not succeed generally in Nebraska; but we can do well 

 within our means. 



Cottonwoods were spoken of. Years ago they were plentiful. Out in 

 my part of the country I was going to say there are less there than 

 there were ten years ago, because they have been cut down and made 

 into lumber and used for wood, and there has been no replanting of 

 cottonwoods in the last fifteen years, practically none at all, and the 

 idea has gotten out that they are practically worthless. They were 

 planted originally along the highways and upon the farms. There was 

 a large area of land, several rods wide, that seemed to be destroyed by 

 those rows of cottonwoods, and the conclusion was reached by those who 

 have not thought deeply or carefully in the matter was that they should 

 be abandoned instead of placing them in groves by themselves. Any 

 loss to adjoining land would be slight. The agitation should be renewed 

 if we would have cottonwoods planted generally in Nebraska by the 

 farmers. 



I have spoken of the ordinary uplands of the state, not the best 

 lands in the extreme Eastern part of the state. I am speaking of what 

 you might call the average lands in the North Platte country. In Ante- 

 lope county, where the land is a black, sandy loam, where there are 



