200 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



trees when those now occupying the ground shall be removed. The 

 present iudulgence will be dearly paid for in the future. 



Happily the Southern States are so amply stocked with timber of 

 valuable quality, having 50 per cent, of^their area clothed more or less 

 densely with frees, that if the facts bro*ughtto view at the recent con- 

 gress are properly set before the people of those States there is reason- 

 able ground to think that the destruction of the forests maybe arrested 

 before it shall have gone so far as to imperil hopelessly the great inter- 

 ests of the country'. 



TREE PLANTING BY RAILROAD COMPANIES. 



In view of the .great and constantly increasing demands made upon 

 the forests by the railroad companies for the supply of ties and other 

 material for their use, ic has become an important question whether 

 those companies sbould not plant trees along their roadway, or on tracts 

 of land adapted to the purpose, in sufficient quantity to supply all their 

 needs, thus greatly benefiting themselves while at the same time re- 

 lieving the existing forests from an onerous demand which is now made 

 upon them. The laud-grant companies have 'an abundance of land 

 either already covered with trees or which might be planted so as to 

 furnish them, with proper care, a perpetual supi^ly of timber, and these 

 and other companies, by planting belts of trees along their lines, might 

 not only provide themselves with all the timber needed by them, but 

 could at the same time protect their tracks from that great impediment 

 to locomotion, drifting snows; and from the fierce winds, which are a 

 source of much discomfort to travelers. The superintendent of one of 

 our Western roads informed me that the expense of clearing its track 

 from snow during a single winter was far more than would have been 

 the expense of planting trees along its whole line. One of the Western 

 railroad companies was induced, a few years ago, to make the experi- 

 ment of tree planting. A single section of laud was i)lauted with the 

 catalpa and ailantbus. It has been attended with complete success. I 

 have the testimony of officers of tlie road and of those who were em- 

 I)loyed in planting that tliere are now 2,000 or more healthy and thriftily- 

 growing trees on each of the G-fO acres planted. The estimates of the 

 oflicers of the road in regard to the cost of the whole operation, con- 

 tinued until such time as the trees will have attained a proper size for 

 yielding ties, and which are appended to ihis report, make it one of 

 decided economy as compared with the purchase of ties as usually ])rac- 

 ticed. There would seem to be no reason to doubt the feasibility of 

 similar undertakings on the jtart of olher ro;ul.s, and the agents of this 

 division have been instructed to ])rescnt this subject to the considera- 

 tion of the railroad companies so far as possible. 



Mr. M. G. Kern, an agent of this Department, made inquiry of the 

 general manager of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad 

 Company, Mr, George W. Xettleton, relative to success of its tree-plant- 

 ing experiments at Farlington, LCans., and received in answer the fol- 

 lowing statement : 



You ask if it is my judgment that tbo money rxpcndod hytliia company in tlie Far- 

 lington tree plantation will prove proli table as an investment. In reply 1 will say 

 that the trees have now readied such, a size that a pretty close estimate can be made 

 as to their outcome, and I respectfully submit the foUovring: 



Six hundred and forty acres were set apart for planting, worth $6, 400 00 



The cost of fencing was - 2,400 00 



8.800 00 



