FOREST PLANTING. 143 



the moisture of the rainfalls for a great length of time, 

 preventing the heating and baking of the earth, and ef- 

 fecting the same object which in the natural forest is se- 

 cured by the annual fall of the leaves. No one who has 

 not witnessed the effect can realise the amazing difference 

 in the health and vigorous growth of trees thus treated, 

 in comparison with those where the ground is left bare. 

 Wherever it is possible to procure material for the pur- 

 pose, it should be applied. Doubtless a great deal might 

 be procured in the sloughs and swales of the prairies by 

 mowing the rank grass and rushes which grow in such 

 places, and with railroad transportation at command, it 

 would not be difficult to procure very large annual sup- 

 plies from swampy tracts wherever they occurred along 

 the line, and deliver them at the stations where they were 

 wanted. An experienced Cincinnati grape grower told 

 me some twenty years since, on seeing the effect of such 

 an application to my vineyards, in New Jersey, that he 

 was richly paid for his journey by what he had learned of 

 the value of the operation. 



The primary nursery should be devoted exclusively to 

 propagation and experimental cultivation. The second- 

 ary nurseries should receive annually from the primary a 

 stock of young trees, not over three years old from the 

 seed, sufficient to keep up their supply to a fixed stand- 

 ard to be determined by the demands upon them, which 

 would be constantly increasing. These trees should 

 remain at least one year in the secondary nursery before 

 being sold to settlers or removed to the point where they 

 \.f,re permanently to remain. I shall speak presently of 



