222 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



000,000 cubic feet. It is estimated that this is equiv- 

 alent in volume to ten Mississippi Rivers running con- 

 stantly. 



FRUIT OB NUT BEARING TREES IN REFORESTATION. 



Professor J. Russell Smith, of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, who has made a careful study of soil 

 erosion in this and other countries, is of the opinion 

 that of all the means proposed for controlling soil ero- 

 sion, including the terracing of the fields, deep plowing, 

 pasture, grass crops, et cetera, the most important and 

 effective is reforestation of some kind. The growing 

 of ordinary forest trees, which are valuable only for 

 their timber, postpones to so remote a date any income 

 that the ordinary farmer is slow to consider the merits 

 of the proposition. 



As I have already pointed out, there are certain 

 kinds of trees, like the locust, which will be available 

 for fencing in perhaps fifteen or twenty years. Lum- 

 ber trees, however, such as the tulip or poplar tree, 

 and the oak, require even a longer period before the 

 beginning of their harvest. Other kinds of lumber 

 trees, such as the pine, require still longer time. Pro- 

 fessor Smith is of the opinion, therefore, that the re- 

 forestation should be accomplished by the means of 

 crop-producing trees. Among these first of all is the 

 fruit tree. The orchard, however, is hardly possible on 

 land already denuded and in which erosion takes place 

 on the smallest provocation. There is not much of the 

 eroded soil of the United States which can be planted 

 to the tree which Professor Smith considers to be the 

 king of all crops, namely, the date tree. 



He recommends as a suitable covering for soil sub- 

 ject to erosion what he calls tree forage. He finds 



