186 AlOnjAL EEPORT 



limited to the Cottonwood and box elder. These varieties keep up 

 a very straggling procession clear across the great interior treeless 

 region — in fact, clear across the continent. I am informed on good 

 authority that the hackberry, red cedar, cottonwood and box elder 

 are the only varieties of forest tree that have held their own, and 

 can occasionally be found in nearly every portion of the arid 

 region, all other varieties having played out. 



So far as Western Minnesota and Northern Dakota are concerned, 

 I very confidently recommend box-elder, green ash, white willow, 

 cottonwood and elm, as absolutely sure to grow if properly handled. 

 I might also, with nearly the same certainty, recommend the soft 

 maple but for its unfortunate habit of killing down if its first win- 

 ter out happens to be an open one; but for all that, I find there is 

 a good deal of ''come out" to them. With this list you can plant 

 your ten-acre grove on your tree claim with more certainty of sat- 

 isfactory results than from the planting of any other crop I know 

 of; and, as these varieties grow up and shade the ground, you can 

 gradually introduce more valuable and less hardy varieties, thinning 

 out enough of the original occupants to make room for their new 

 neighbors, leaving enough of the "old settlers" as "nurse trees" to 

 protect the newcomers. In some such manner as this, it is not 

 unreasonable to suppose that nearly all the varieties of timber now 

 found in the Big Woods of Minnesota will eventually be grown 

 successfully all over the great treeless and arid region oi the interior, 

 and the Great American Desert, which once figured so conspicuously 

 on our maps, will ultimately become a tradition of the past. 



CULTIVATION". 



The wonderful results obtained from a comprehensive and thor- 

 ough cultivation of the human intellect are not more striking and 

 strongly marked than are the results of good cultivation upon the 

 earth and her products. Hence I recommend the most thorough 

 cultivation of the soil from which the young forest is to be 

 evolved, until such time as the growth of the trees prevents further 

 cultivation. 



The proper time for cultivation is from the time grass starts until 

 about the 1st of August. By doing this you enable the trees to 

 withstand drouth. Six inches of finely pulverized earth is the best 

 mulch you can get, and a good mulch retains moisture and retards 

 evaporation. In this connection permit me to jump over the traces 

 in further illustration of the effects of cultivation of the soil of the 

 open prairie region between the Big Woods and the foot hills of 



