8 



largely to his prosperity is compelled to take a long look ahead and 

 to consider the whole problem of farm arrangement. In well-settled 

 regions the possibilities of farm designing are apt to be severely 

 limited by what has been done in the past. The location of the 

 buildings, the division into fields, and in many cases the situation of 

 the timber, are now fixed facts. Nevertheless, even here a decided 

 improvement may often be made, as will be illustrated later. What 

 needs to be emphasized now is that even in the older parts of the 

 country a farm should be run according to a definite and carefully 

 considered plan, designed to secure economy of operation and the best 

 use of every part; that tree plantflng for farm purposes ought always 

 to take into account this plan; and that even where standing timber 

 is already present it may be in the interest of the best use of all parts 

 of the farm to cut this down and plant elsewhere. 



THE NEED OF FOREST PLANTING. 



Forests are indispensable to the highest material development of 

 any country. We have learned that, besides furnishing the useful 

 timber products resulting from the growth of trees, they conserve 

 moisture, ameliorate climatic extremes, and purify the atmosphere. 

 Where they are not found naturally, or where they have been thought- 

 lessly removed from wide stretches of country, it becomes desirable in 

 behalf of the public welfare to plant trees in great number. Obvi- 

 ously the benefits of such plantations will be most widely felt if the 

 planting is well distributed over the region. Further, it is a work the 

 benefits of which are shared by all, and which all should join in per- 

 forming. 



The plantations in a definite region should be made after one gen- 

 eral plan, in order to allot to each farm its proportionate amount of 

 forest. The method of planting and the position of the planting sites 

 should evidently be made with reference to a system of farm manage- 

 ment, since a forest is the most permanent thing that can be planted 

 on a farm. An example of such a plan and such a system is shown in 

 fig. 1. 



MISTAKES OF THE PAST. 



It is unfortunate that a large percentage of the plantations made by 

 farmers have been disappointing. Yet some commercial plantations, 

 such as that of Mr. L. W. Yaggy, at Hutchinson, Kans., have been 

 financially successful. 



Farm forest planting has been practiced, in some of our prairie 

 States for more than half a century, and great good has resulted from 

 many of the plantations, but the measurable increase in the wealth 

 of the country attributable to forest planting has been small, owing to 



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