230 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
and eminenees, which have run out by pasturing, scratch over the ground 
with a plow where practicable, and pick over the remainder, and plant 
thickly with the seeds of valuable timber trees, as white oak, hickory, 
locust, or other desirable species which are adapted to the climate, and 
will grow in such places; and keep down the weeds for a year or two 
till the young trees get a start. In five years the small oaks and hicko- 
ries may be cut out for hoop poles, and the more promising be allowed to 
grow. In two years after, another crop of poles may be removed. In 
this way the forest, after the first four years, may become a source of 
annual profit. The shade and leaves of the trees will destroy all the 
grass and weeds, induce moisture, and in twenty years the land will be 
covered with valuable timber. No better investment can be made, in 
his opinion, than working up these unsightly and barren lands into tim- 
ber forests. 
Mr, A. Tracy, of Spillville, Winnesheik County, Iowa, says that the cost 
of planting a grove of forest trees on prairie land is trifling. The first 
crop of wheat will pay for breaking the land, and then, after one deep 
plowing the next year, the ground is in a good condition for planting 
trees. The quickest and cheapest way to geta groveis from cuttings of 
the cotton-wood, Lombardy poplar, Balm of Gilead, (Populus candicans,) 
and the white willow. He makes rows four feet apart each way, plants 
the cuttings in the angles, and cultivates them at least two years. He 
plants acorns, chestnuts, black walnuts, butternuts, &c., in the same 
way, but cultivates them two or three years longer, as the trees from 
these nuts do not grow so fast as those trom cuttings of the cotton- 
wood and other trees named. An acre planted in this way, with proper 
allowance for margins, contains 2,722 trees, and ten acres, 27,220. ‘The ° 
trees from cuttings would grow about an inch in diameter yearly. 
Aside from the profit, Mr. Tracey thinks the increased value of the farm, 
the beauty and cheerfulness which the trees would impart, and the 
ameliorating climatic influences which they would produce, would 
doubly compensate for the expense of planting. é 
Mr. C. K. Whiting, of West Fork, Manona County, Iowa, has planted 
the cotton-wood and soft white maple (Acer dasycarpum) largely and sue- 
cessfully. He plants the seeds on cultivated ground, in rows four and 
one-half feet apart, and twenty-six inches in the rows, making about 4,350 
trees to an acre. The first year they grow one to three feet, the second, 
four to eight, and at the end of the third their height is usually eigh- 
teen feet. They are cultivated for the first two years only, and when 
large enough for rails are thinned out to a proper distance. Cotton- 
wood will make four rails in seven to ten years, and maple the same 
number in eight to ten. Sugar may be made from the soft maple here 
referred to in eight years from pianting. Some own planted forests, 
from which they make three to four hundred pounds of sugar in a season. 
Mr. Whiting has also cultivated the black walnut largely, having 
planted sixty-five bushels of nuts in a single season. They are planted 
_in rows five feet apart and two and a half in the rows. The young trees 
grow rapidly, making five to six feet the second year and five to seven 
the third. After the third year they grow nearly as fast as the maples, 
but cannot be so safely transplanted. The trees were planted upen the 
Missouri bottom, the soil of Which is exceedingly rich and of great 
depth. The greatest difficulty which he has found is, to grow them 
Slowly enough to avoid injury from winter frosts. He regards cotton- 
wood, soft maple, and black walnut as the most desirable trees for forest 
planting. 
Mr. N.S. Ames, of Humboldt County, Iowa, estimates that six acres of 
