FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION 385 



adapted. Sometimes, on early breaking, a crop of sod corn or flax is 

 grown the same year. After one crop is removed, the land is back- 

 set, when an inch additional is turned. For tree planting the depth 

 should be increased from 2 to 3 inches at a time, until at the end of 

 the third year the land may be plowed 10 to 12 inches deep. The 

 advantage of this gradual preparation is in the complete subjection 

 of the native growth of grasses and other herbaceous plants. This is 

 a most important point in the economic growing of trees on the 

 plains. If the native growth is entirely subdued, so that no live 

 grass roots are present in the soil when the trees are planted, a great 

 deal of after-labor is obviated. 



One of the most obvious difficulties in the way of successfully 

 meeting the requirements of the timber-claim law, which resulted, 

 in spite of its defects, in so much good to the Western States, was the 

 short time allowed between breaking the prairie sod and planting the 

 trees. It was almost impossible under the methods of farming in 

 vogue in the West to kill out the native vegetation in two seasons, 

 but by gradually increasing the depth of plowing and by planting 

 hoed crops the season preceding the setting of trees, the land can be 

 completely subdued. Deep-plowed land will absorb much more of 

 the melting snows and the spring rains than shallow-plowed land 

 with the compact underclay within a few inches of the surface. By 

 the time the planting season opens, in a year of ordinary rainfall, a 

 deep-plowed field will be in excellent condition to receive the trees 

 so far as moisture is concerned. 



Thorough pulverizing of the soil is but little less essential, as a 

 preparation for trees, than deep plowing. The particles of the soil 

 should be fine in order that they may be brought in close contact 

 with the roots of the trees, and thus supply them with moisture. If 

 the field is rough and full of clods, the land will dry out rapidly. 

 The thorough use of the disk harrow, clod crusher, pulverizer, and 

 smoothing harrow is quite as important in preparing land for trees 

 as in the preparation of a field for a crop of wheat. Not only will 

 trees start more quickly when set in well-prepared soil, but the 

 growth will be more uniform and strong. 



As in all other hoed or cultivated crops, it is important to keep 

 the surface of the soil in fine tilth until the trees have grown suffici- 

 ently to shade the ground. Deep plowing and shallow cultivation 

 should be the rule in all kinds of Western farming. The deep 

 plowing gives a large absorptive area, and shallow cultivation places 

 over the moist soil a dust blanket that acts as a most effective mulch, 

 checking evaporation and thus retaining the soil-moisture for the 

 use of the trees. The Western planter must keep constantly in mind 

 the necessity of saving, by every possible means, the moisture of the 

 soil. In the Eastern States, which have a well-distributed rainfall of 

 from 30 to 50 inches, this is a point of comparatively little conse- 

 quence; but beyond the Mississippi its importance increases as one 

 goes westward. 



Planting trees. In planting trees careful alignment will save 

 much labor in cultivation. It will pay to mark the land as care- 



