^\ 



^<V — 



I'LANTINO TUEKS lOU Wool). 



Larch is undoubtedly a suitjible tree for such planting as has been suggested. It 

 occupies less space than many other trees, is conical, and would be less in the way ; 

 its wood is entirely suitable for the sills of the road, aud it is of rapiil growth. I 

 agree with the editor that st^ck iu the tree company olFors better inducements for 

 investment than that of most of our railroads, turnpikes or canals. By the way, 

 what a curious thing it was that just as lumber waa becoming very scarce, we should 

 all at once have gone to building plank roads. 



One of the great expenses of lumber is its transportation. In the interior it is 

 remarkably cheap; railroads and canals offer the easiest mode of transfer, except 

 rivers, and the head waters of the latter are pretty well exhausted of their best 

 timber. "We must resort to railroad or canal transport for our future supplies, and 

 how fortunate will that company be which has its millions of hard wooded trees to 

 resort to in the year 1900, or even at an earlier date. 



As a means of supplying fniit, the subject is worthy of deep consideration. Take 

 the Maron Chesnut, with its large fruit for roasting, so much esteemed, and so very 

 high priced. A railroad route planted with these trees, for a mere bagatelle, would 

 yield thousands of bushels in a very short time. Eight trees on one small suburban 

 lot yield the owner often one hundred dollars per annum. Peaches, Pears, Cherries, 

 and even Grapes, might very profitably be cultivated on the borders of our thorough- 

 fares. If the directors will not do it, they might oflFer to let the ground under 

 certain limitations and restrictions. 



It is asserted that twenty-two hundred full grown trees, or the matured crop of 

 forty-four acres of woodland, are required to furnish timber for a single seventy-four 

 gun ship. This is a great couutiy, it is a true, but it is getting shaved very close of 

 its beard I 



[In confirmation of the remarks on the above snbject, we cut the following from 

 an intelligent Illinois journal : 



"As to the growth of Wood, it is very generally estimated to equal the annual con- 

 sumption. But it ought to do more, much more than this. True, there is as much wood in 

 the State as is needed, but not where it is needed. Belts of timber skirt nearly every 

 stream, but there are thousands of square miles of choice prairie at least five miles from 

 the nearest grove or " opening." Every land-ower, every speculator, ought to realize the 

 moral obligation resting on him to plant timber. If the owner of each prairie quarter-sec- 

 tion distant more than one mile from the nearest timber were required by law to plant at 

 least ten acres of timber thereon within a year, and keep the fire out of said timber by 

 plowing a wide belt all around it, the total value of the lands of Illinois would be en- 

 hanced at least one-fourth within ten years. Let the seed sown be part Locust or some 

 other quick-growing wood, the residue Hickory, Sugar Maple, White Pine, Chesnut, 

 Cherry, Black Walnut, &c., and soon Illinois, from being the very worst, would soon be- 

 come decidedly the best timbered State in the Union."] 



