FOREST PLANTING. 



such improvement brings its own reward in its immediate 

 vicinity, and the only successful solution of the problem 

 of converting the plains into arable and habitable lands, 

 > is through the medium of forest planting. Settlement 

 and civilization are absolutely impossible without pro- 

 viding timber for the wants of the settlers. Railroads 

 may be built as the Pacific railroads have been, by the 

 constant efforts of construction trains in bringing forward 

 supplies from the rear. But it has already been shown 

 that the natural supplies of the older regions are running 

 short of the demands upon them, and it is idle to sup- 

 pose that they can be relied upon for the wants of a new 

 country nearly as large as the whole region between the 

 Mississippi and the Atlantic coast, which is entirely bare 

 of trees. But even if it could do so, the cost of trans- 

 portation of all the timber required for the infinite var- 

 iety of purposes of domestic use, to say nothing of fuel, 

 would be such as to prevent the possibility of settlement 

 except in the comparatively few localities where an 

 investment of capital was warranted by special objects. 

 The class of pioneers who are usually the first to develop 

 the agricultural wealth of a new country, and whose 

 labor and productions are the foundation of its pros- 

 perity, could gain no foothold in a region which, whatever 

 might be the capacity of its soil, is destitute of the timber 

 which is essential to its settlement and cultivation. 

 Until this want is supplied, therefore, the region in ques- 

 tion must form a natural barrier, or line of separation, 

 instead of a connecting line between the eastern and the 

 western portions of the country, contributing by its 



