FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 53 



likely to furnish the most useful object lessons. After an application 

 has been made and accepted, an expert in tree planting visits the land 

 of the applicant, and after adequate study on the ground makes a plant- 

 ing plan suited to its particular condition. The purpose of this i)lan 

 is to give help in the selection of trees, information in regard to planting, 

 and instruction in handling forest trees after they are planted. 



The bureau does not furnish trees or seeds to planters or assume any 

 of the expenses of |)lanting, except to defray the expenses of its agent in 

 making the preliminary examination and the planting plan. 



The bureau gives such aid to tree planters that wood lots, shelter belts, 

 wind-breaks and other forest plantations may be so well established and 

 cared for as to attain the greatest usefulness and most permanent value 

 to their owners. 



WHAT IT TEACHES. 



A study of forest jjlantations established in the past and without a 

 full knowledge of silviculture shows forcibly the value of careful selec- 

 tion and association of species and of judgment in planting. Some are 

 upon one kind of soil, some upon another; some are planted with trees 

 close together, others with trees long distances apart; some have been 

 pastured, others have not; some have been carefully cultivated; others 

 have been allowed to gTOw to grass and weeds. As a result, some of 

 these plantations are dead or dying, while others are in a thrifty condi- 

 tion. Accurate conclusions drawn from the work of the past, a knowl- 

 edge of the causes of failures, and a correct accounting for the success- 

 ful plantings should materially lessen future failures. The application 

 of such knowledge must necessarily give a new impulse to tree planting. 



THE VALUE OF FOREST PLANTATIONS TO FARMERS. 



Few comprehend the direct and indirect value of forest plantations to 

 farmers. In the humid portions of America, where nearly every farm 

 has its wood lot. the total area of the woodland is more than 200,000,000 

 acres. It is not possible to make an accurate statement of the value of 

 the annual products of these lands, but when it is considered that nearly 

 all the fuel used by the farmers of the region mentioned, together with 

 most of the wood for fencing and a considerable portion of the timber 

 for building purposes, are annually cut from the wood lots, their value 

 begins to be appreciated. 



A farmer near Lincoln. Nebraska, set an acre of land to willow and 

 has for several years provided all the fuel used on the farm. Today there 

 is more standing timber on it than ever before. 



Forest plantations also have great indirect value in conserving the 

 moisture and tempering the wind. They modify the local climate to a 

 very marked degree, while the value of groves, wood lots, wind-breaks 

 and shelter belts, in the protection which they afl'ord crops, orchards, 

 stock and farm buildings, is of first importance. 



Another important indirect service is the increased market value of a 

 well-wooded farm over one without timber. Conservative estimates indi- 

 cate that the farms of eastern Kansas and Nebraska that have forest 



