DIVISION OF FOEESTRY. 197 



nnraber of acres of planted forest in that State exceeds that of the 

 natural forest. In Kansas and Dakota a similar interest is manifested. 

 Minnesota has shown for several years a most intelligent interest in 

 tree culture. The Forest-Tree Planter- s Manual, published by the State 

 Forestry Association, contains much valuable information on the sub- 

 ject of tree planting, and its distribution has been of much service not 

 only in Minnesota, but also in other States. 



Letters received by the division from all portions of the country in- 

 dicate that there is an awakening of interest in tree planting in every 

 direction. Of course, it results as yet in the planting of an insignifi- 

 cant amount, when compared with the vast quantity of native forest 

 annually swei)t away by tbe ax and by fire. But such interest, once 

 aroused, grows in intensity and spreads from one to anotlier. The more 

 attention is given to the subject tbe more interesting it becomes. The 

 more one plants the more he wishes to plant, and his example stimu- 

 lates his more ignorant or tardy neighbor to adopt a similar course and. 

 become a tree planter. More and more a knowledge of the ofiTices of 

 trees in respect to climate and its modification, in respect to the growth 

 of the husbandman's crops and the comfort and pleasure of life, is 

 spread abroad and gives promise of a coming time, not far distant, 

 when the value of trees will be generally recognized, and they will be 

 treated accordingly. 



That tree planting has been attended with failure in some cases is not 

 to be denied. The reports coming to the division indicate this, and some 

 are disposed to assert that tree planting is so seldom attended with suc- 

 cess as to be discouraging. But when it is considered that many of 

 those who engage in tree planting have had little or no experience in 

 planting and as little knowledge of the laws which govern plant life, 

 that so little attention is given to the choice of trees or their adaptations 

 to different soils and situations, and that so little care is given to the act 

 of planting itself, and so little subsequently, the wonder should be that 

 so many, rather than that so few, trees when planted live and thrivi?. 



The almost uniform testimony is that the failure of trees to grow is 

 attributable to thelack of i)roper preparation of the ground, carelessness 

 in planting, or insufficient attention afterwards. While it is true that 

 trees will flourish on jioor soils, and where the ordinary croi)s of the 

 farmer would fail, and while on this account there would be great gain 

 in devoting much of our sterile and so-called waste land to the growth 

 of trees, it is yet as true in regard to trees as it is in regard to other 

 vegetable growths, that the better the soil the better the crop, and that 

 if it will i)ay to be careful and painstaking in the cultivation of the corn 

 plant or the cotton, it will as surely do so in the case of the maiile or the 

 walnut. 



Many persons, from their mode of treating trees, would seem to think 

 that the planting of a tree requires no other care than is requisite for 

 the setting of a post. They actually exi)end more time and care often 

 in the setting of a post, wliich they expect to last but a few years at the 

 most, than they do in planting an oak or an elm, which has in it the pos- 

 sibility of growth and constantly increasing value for hundreds of years. 

 The post is dead matter ; the tree is a living thing, endowed with a deU- 

 cate organism, sensitive to whatever it is in contact with and to all its 

 surroundings. In the case of the former, care is usually taken to place 

 it in the ground at the proper depth and to see that the earth is com- 

 pacted around it on every side, so that it will stand firmly in its place. 

 With the tree, how often is the planter careless whether the earth is 

 excavated to a sufficient depth and width to admit its roots and allow 



