124 FOREST PLANTING. 



" We have planted a variety of seeds and have up at Wilson 

 butternuts, coffee bean, box elder, hickory, locust, honey-locust, osage- 

 orange and black walnut. 



"At Ellis the same except coffee bean also, white ash is up. 



" At Pone Creek Box elder, locust, honey-locust. 



"Ailantus is up at Pond Creek and Ellis at each place, larch plant- 

 ed this year looks well. Will succeed at Ellis. I have not been at 

 Pond Creek for a month, and cannot report on it. 



" Transplanted ash, catalpa, box elder, honey-locust, silver-maple, 

 black walnut and osage-orange do well at Pond Creek and at Ellis. 

 Pines are doing well at each place, but better at Ellis and Wilson 

 than at Pond Creek. At Ellis, last year's pines (Austrian and Scotch), 

 have made shoots eight or nine inches long. 



" Corn, sorgum, millet, pumpkins, potatos, melons, pea-nuts, etc., 

 etc., are all doing well at Wilson and Ellis ; rye at Pond Creek ; rye 

 and wheat at Ellis ; corn was doing well at Pond Creek, my men say, 

 but was all pulled up by gophers or prairie dogs. 



" At Wilson, a variety of trees and shrubbery sent by Thos. Meehan, 

 of Philadelphia, are doing well spireas, altheas, forsythias, etc., also 

 paulownia, mountain ash, hornbeam, judas tree, etc. 



" The experiments will go on this year, not in a large way, but suf- 

 ficient to prove a great deal. The Railroad Company is only testing. 

 but it is something to have even a small test going on. All who ex- 

 amine the little fields are surprised. Other railroads are operating. 

 The Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe Railroad Company has made ar- 

 rangements with S. T. Kelsey to plant part of a section every ten 

 miles west of the ggth meridian. 



" You may safely say that tree culture on the plains is possible, 

 without irrigation." 



It will be seen that Mr. Elliott's efforts have been di- 

 rected to prove that the growing of trees is possible, even 

 with the slight care they are likely to receive at the 

 hands of the average pioneer settler. No irrigation was 

 made use of, and no cultivation was applied after the 



