Pe OR Sie POD IPP ete RUNS EPO ee i LONE eel 
$ ie — " : ’ - t ) 
FORESTRY AND EVERGREENS. 399 
FORESTRY AND EVERGREENS. 
WM. SOMERVILLE, VIOLA. 
Forestry. 
Forestry in its full meaning of usefulness as a moderator of 
summer heat and winter’s cold and the influence it has on springs, 
wells and water courses, is of too great a magnitude for me to at- 
tempt todiscuss. Laws should be enacted and means provided, by 
government or state, to save our natural forests from the unneces- 
sary destruction of the axman and the devouring element of fire, 
In this article I will only try to show, from my experience, the best 
method of planting and care. 
It requires the judgment of parties living in different parts of the 
state to fully understand the nature of the soil and the varieties of 
trees adapted to such soil. You can take the eastern part of the 
state for one, two, three or four tiers of counties along the water 
courses that empty into the Mississippi, and all that is necessary 
for their growth is to keep out the fire, and in a few years there will 
spring up a heavy growth of timber, such as burr oak, jack oak, pop- 
lar and ash. Even away from the water courses, on the prairie, the 
soil is better adapted to the growth of timber than in the western 
part of the state, in consequence of the groves of timber that protect 
from the wind. The evaporation is less, as there is the big woods, 
or,in other words, the Mankato timber, running from southwest 
to northeast to the park region or big timber northeast of St. Paul, 
then a heavy belt of timber on Root river on the south, and other 
small belts of timber on the different water courses. With the cool- 
ing influence the foliage has on the wind, partially retarding its 
velocity, this part of the state scarcely ever has what they call hot 
winds in Dakota and in the western part of the state; if felt atall, it 
is in an ameliorated form, not doing much harm. With these ad- 
vantages and individual enterprise, this portion of the state is well 
supplied with fuel, posts, and timber for many purposes. 
But in the western part of the state the climatic conditions are not 
so favorable, neither can we expect large groves of timber planted 
by individual enterprise, though on every one hundred and sixty 
acres of land there should be at least fifteen or twenty acres of tim- 
ber. This can be accomplished in a different manner from what 
was generally practiced in setting out the tree claims. They would 
stick in cuttings and expect a tree, but it did not come. If we 
want to grow timber,we must obey nature’s laws as near as possible. 
If we want to grow hard timber like the oaks, we want to plow the 
ground in the fall and then in the spring draw furrows four feet 
apart, same as for potatoes, and then plant the acorns in the furrows 
two feet apart along the row, cover with dirt two inches deep, and 
keep the ground well cultivated with shallow cultivation, leaving 
the surface as level as possible. Do this for two years and then cover 
the ground over three or four inches deep with old straw or slough 
hay or anything else that will check evaporation. As they grow, 
we must thin out. We must have our acorns on hand, as they have 
_to be gathered in the fall and can be planted at that time. It is bet- 
Oe I alee iy: 
Pe PO Be. ee OME OT ee ee ae Cee Poe ee yee 
Te ee 
