No. 5.] THOMPSON — FOREST PLANTING. 313 



PLAN OF FOREST PLANTING FOR THE GREAT 

 PLAINS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



By H. M. Thompson, Lake Preston, Dakota, U.S.A. 

 Read before the Amarican Forestry Congress, Montreal, August. 1882. 



In devising or advocating' plans for forest planting, on the Great 

 Plains which will prove to be generally beneficial in ameliorating 

 climate, due consideration must be given to the physical features 

 and to the meteorological conditions. These features and con- 

 ditions may be briefly stated to be as follows: — 



The Great I'lains extend from the southern limit of the Staked 

 Plains in Texas northwardly about 20 degrees of lattitude to the 

 Saskatchewan river and Hudson's Bay, and from an irregular 

 east line, commencing in Texas, running through the eastern part 

 of the Indian Territory, Eastern Kansas and Nebraska, Western 

 Iowa, the Bigwoods of Minnesota, and the Red river of the 

 North ; westwardly of this irregular eastern limit an average dis- 

 tance of aboutJlO degrees of longitude to the foot-hills of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and containing an area of about 950,000 square 

 miles. If all this region possessed a propitious climate, and all 

 the soil were susceptible of culivation the area is sufficient to 

 make 3,800,000 firms of 1(30 acres each, and which, by the 

 aid of a proper forest economy, may be made capable of sup- 

 porting an agricultural and pastoral population of fifty millions. 

 This vast region, with the exception of the Black Hills, the 

 Des Coteaux, and a lew isolated mountains, may be said 

 to be a level, or slightly undulating plateau, having an 

 altitude of a few hundred feet in the eastern part, to sev- 

 eral thousand iu the western portion above tide water. The 

 plateau is intersected by the Red river of the North flowing 

 northwardly, and bisected by the Missouri, the Arkansas, 

 the Red river of the South and their affluents, which with few 

 exceptions, are of minor size " being raging torrents to-day and 

 dry water courses to-morrow." The entire plateau is treeless, with 

 the exception of narrow fringes of forests skirting the margin of 

 the streams, the Des Coteaux, the Black Hills, the lakes and 

 the few isolated mountains dotting the plains. 



The soil of the eastern, and a portion of the southern dis- 

 trict seems to contain most, if not all the mineral constituents 

 needed for the successful growth of agricultural products, and for 

 the native grasses and thus to possess an unlimited capacity 

 Vol. X. u No. 5.. 



