158 ANNUAL REPORT 



Society or not, but at any rate we would be pleased to hear from him 

 in regard to Dakota tret^ planting. 



REMARKS OF MR. GIBBS. 



Mr. Gibbs. Mr. President, I have long believed that one of the 

 greatest blunders ever made by the United States government or by 

 the people of the United States, was in parting with the title to 

 prairie lands without first reforesting them and preparing them for the 

 habitation of civilized man. It is not too late to repair the mistake 

 to some extent. Vast bodies of these lands are yet in the hands of 

 the government, and large tracts are also in the hands of the State 

 governments. I believe in reinforcing the theory that is now being 

 advanced at Washington by the forestry bureau of the agricultural 

 department, in taking proper steps looking toward a system of forestry 

 for the lands that are remaining under the control of the government, 

 so that such lands may be preserved as far as possible for this pur- 

 pose. 



Reforestation in Europe has been conducted for many years under 

 government control, and upon scientific and practical principles, and 

 with reference, also, to the uses to which trees are adapted 



He said that timber had a marked effect in the amelioration of the 

 climate, but it should be planted extensively to accomplish that re- 

 sult. A good deal had been said in regard to the timber culture act 

 and its repeal. According to his observation in Dakota, he had 

 been led to believe nearly all that had been done thus far in the direc- 

 tion of growing timber had been done under the provisions of that 

 act, and by people who were trying to protect their tree claims, al- 

 though as a rule the amount of timber grown on these tree claims was 

 limited and did not amount to a great deal. Trees seem to have been 

 planted with little regard to systeui in the varieties selected, or prop- 

 er locations. 



The greatest drawback in the way of growing forest trees on the 

 prairies was perhaps in the ignorance of the people who planted trees 

 Those who undertook to grow them were not adapted to the occu- 

 pation. Many of them had been brought up without the benefit of 

 schools, and knowing little of the principles of forestry or horticul- 

 ture in any form. 



In speaking of the force of the winds on these treeless prairies, he 

 mentioned the fact that in driving across the prairie on one occasion 

 a distance of some ten miles, facing the wind, with his wife at his 

 side, they drove two or three miles debating in their own minds 



