FOREST PLANTING ON THE 

 GREAT PLAINS. 



[UBLIC attention has been so frequently called 

 of late years to the subject of the wasteful des- 

 truction of our native forests, and the necessity 

 of adopting energetic measures of relief by means of 

 an extended system of forest planting, that it is unneces- 

 sary to attempt to set forth its importance in stronger 

 language than has been repeatedly used in scientific 

 essays, in agricultural addresses, and in congressional 

 speeches. 



I propose, therefore, to avail myself of the evidence of 

 well known authorities, in proof of the necessity of action 

 and of the penalties invoked in delay, referring those who 

 wish for more detailed information to the publications 

 from whose pages I shall quote, and then offering such 

 suggestions as to measures of relief as seem to me to be 

 worthy of consideration. 



In the well known " Report on the Trees and Shrubs 

 of Massachusetts," by George B. Emerson, published by 

 order of the Legislature in 1846, the following passage 

 occurs : 



" The importance of the forests as furnishing materials for ship- 

 building, house-building, and numerous other arts, is so obvious that 



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