THE CALL OF THE LAND 



course, let well enough alone. Upon the 

 average farm in the relatively level parts of 

 the country there is more to do. Art is 

 required to render the farm scene as delight- 

 ful as it may be. You can straighten water 

 courses or beautify their curves, wall in 

 their banks, create a few artificial lakes or 

 ponds and put in some timber patches. 

 These last, if the trees are properly chosen, 

 will create profit as well as beauty. Prop- 

 erly selected and cultivated trees can be 

 produced on any farm in any state in the 

 Union enough to supply, when they are 

 mature, by culling out one here and there, 

 all the timber needed on the farm. Mr. 

 Clothier, the government forestry expert, 

 says that hackberry, white elm, bull pine, 

 Platte red cedar, western red cedar, green 

 ash and red ash will thrive upon the most 

 arid land in Nebraska, which means, I pre- 

 sume, that they will grow anywhere in this 

 tier of states. Almost everywhere burr oak 

 also will grow, and, in the lowlands, cotton- 

 wood. Cross strips of these trees east and 

 west several rods wide, leaving long narrow 



