108 ANNUAL REPORT 



the Cottonwood is the hardiest, easiest grown of all the forest trees, and the least 

 desirable after being grown. Its long, far-reaching roots make it a perfect octopus, 

 sucking the life and moisture from soil, crops and other trees. Up to the period 

 that it becomes six to ten inches in diameter it is easy to handle, after that time 

 it is of no earthl}' use as timber to any one, from the comparative impossibility to 

 work it up. It is soft, spuugy wood, allowing the axe to penetrate to the eye, and 

 the locky structure of the fibre preventing it from splittmg. After being split it 

 makes a fuel a little better than ]iay or sunflower stalks, being of a quick flashy 

 nature while burning. Laying aside the feasibility for fuel or timber purposes it 

 makeg a quick, rampant growth for windbreaks or boundar}' line, a question of no 

 minor importance in a country subject to blizzards. 



The surest way to propagate tins, is by planting the seedings from twelve inches 

 to three feet in height. 



Next to the Cottonwood, as a general favorite, comes the white willow, grown from 

 cuttings. It is by all odds the better investment of the two. Its rapidity of growth, 

 and the ease with which it is worked up, commends it in every spot that the Cot- 

 tonwood could l3e placed; planted in a hedge, it soon makes a stock tight fence, 

 from which annually liberal amounts of fuel may be cut. 



The box elder grows from seeds and seedlings, and in favorable j'ears from cut- 

 tings attaining large size with great rapidity, its sajj ranking nearly up to the sugar 

 maple in the manufacture of sugar, and as it occupies the half-way ground, be- 

 tween soft and hard woods, it is of more real value to the planter than the soft 

 woods, such as soft maple, willow and cottonwood. 



The white or green ash is grown from seeds or seedlings. There are seasons 

 when cuttings will grow, but the latter method is not reliable, and will only suc- 

 ceed under the most favorable circumstances. 



The wood of the ash is in demand in the manufacture of wagons, sleighs, and 

 other implements requiring tough, springy timber easy to work. It should be 

 planted in great numbers, as it offers some returns on the investment. 



These four mentioned form, perhaps, 90 per cent, of the forest trees that are be- 

 ing planted on timber claims, owing to the ease with which they are obtained and 

 rapidity of growth. 



The government accepts any tree that attains size and is desirable, such as the 

 four already enumerated, and also the poplar, elm, hard maple, linden, black and 

 white walnut, birch, oaks, larch, evergreens that are trees by nature and practice 

 and not shrubs, affording the plauter a wide range, with use and beauty as his 

 guides in his selection. 



Our idea of a timber claim would be to select a plat of twenty acres in the most 

 favorable locality for timber growing, and prepare the plant as before advised in 

 rows eight feet apart, forming a piece 40x80 rods in extent, its greatest length east 

 and west. In this plat set alternate rows, two feet apart, in the following order : 

 White pine, European larch, balsam fir, white elm, Norway spruce, box elder, 

 white spruce, black walnut, red cedar, white walnut, Scotch pine, white ash. 



The twenty acres would then be divided into a plat, eighty rods east and west 

 forty rods deep; this would subdivide into about eighty rows north and southr' 

 forty rods long, eight feet apart, and trees two feet apart in the row would contain 

 54,000 trees, the constitutional number. Thorough cultivation in eight years or 



