122 FOREST PLANTING. 



the new station, Wallace, about two miles eastward, and on higher 

 ground but with different soil, silver-maple and Lombardy poplar 

 seem to do much better than at Pond Creek. 



NO IRRIGATION. 



The experiments were all without irrigation. Except to soak some 

 of the seeds, or to puddle the roots of the trees as they were set out, 

 not one drop of water was applied by human agency. The trees had 

 not the benefit of good care and cultivation ; they were not aided by 

 mulching the ground ; nor had they any shade or shelter from the 

 winds. All the conditions of the experiments were such as the ordi- 

 nary farmer may easily imitate. 



One object was to test the possibility of growing trees and other 

 plants on the plains depending on the rainfall alone. It was deemed 

 important to show that the settler in the open waste may adorn his 

 home with trees ; may grow fruits and timber ; may raise grains and 

 other vegetable food for his family and his live stock without resort 

 to expensive processes of artificial watering. So far as we may judge 

 from a single season, the object has been accomplished ; and it is 

 not doubted that future years will sustain the promise of the past 

 season. 



SETTLEMENTS ON THE PLAINS. 



Within the past two years settlers, in families and colonies, have 

 spread westward, along the line of the Kansas Pacific Railway, and 

 also on streams north and south of the road, nearly to the one hun- 

 dredth meridian. The purpose is generally to grow and deal in cattle 

 and other live stock, and this purpose will be greatly aided by the 

 capability of the country to produce grains and other products of 

 general agriculture. The first settlers keep near the streams, as a 

 general rule, for the convenience of water ready at hand and the lim- 

 ited supply of timber. If we look backward twenty-five years and 

 reflect on the westward extension of settlements during that time, 

 we must see that the causes which have pushed the " frontier " nearly 

 three hundred miles west from the mouth of the Kansas River, are 



