586 FRANKLIN COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 



healthy and growing condition, at the expiration of ten years a 

 patent should be issued for it. 



The provisions were considered so liberal that large num- 

 bers of claims were soon taken, wherever the public lands 

 were receiving settlers. As a result, people heretofore indif- 

 ferent, were at once engaged in investigating the most econ- 

 omical system for cultivating them. A theory became preva- 

 lent that by plowing strips six feet wide for each row, a saving 

 of one-half of the breaking could be made, without expense 

 to the growing timber ; but the first experiments proved it was 

 not economy. The entire ground needed breaking to receive 

 and absorb the water that fell, and so this practice was aban- 

 doned. 



MISTAKES IN PLANTING. 



Some of the early timber culture claims were planted with 

 trees from six and eight feet high, but those who planted 

 thrifty young trees, from eighteen inches to two feet high, or 

 who sowed seed, met with far better results, and the practice 

 of ^1 anting large trees within the forest or orchard has gener- 

 ally bee^n given up. It has been found impracticable to trans- 

 plant large trees with sufficient roots to feed themselves, even 

 with the tops cut back. They start slow, and in their thrift- 

 less condition are more subject to the ravages of insects, while 

 the economy of labor in transplanting is greatly in favor of 

 the young trees ; but the more universal practice now is to 

 plant the seed where the trees are to grow. It is true that 

 •they can be cultivated more cheaply the first season in a nur- 

 sery, but considering the expense in transplanting, and the loss 

 in doing it, together with the more vigorous growth they make 

 if undisturbed, it is considered economy to plant the seed 

 where they are to be grown. 



It was soon discovered that young trees planted twelve 

 feet apart threw out strong lateral branches, instead of one 

 straight, vigorous shoot ; that they grew low and bushy, lack- 

 ing in characteristic symmetry, and that they would prove less 

 valuable for timber purposes, than if grown with a longer 

 trunk. With this knowledge it soon became a practice to 



