218 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and the land is opened for entry. Then go west to some 

 point where a large body of it lies and let it be known in 

 some little town nearby that you are in the market for 

 a "relinquishment" of a 640 acre tract. (Memo. Safety 

 first. After letting this fact be known "watch your step" 

 lest you be hurt in the rush of would be sellers.) 



A relinquishment, be it known, is a document by means 

 of which an entryman, tired of his bargain, can reconvey 

 to the United States his entered land without prejudice 

 to any further entries he may wish to make elsewhere. 



Ordinarily you will secure a relinquishment, which 



carries with it, of course, all improvements your predeces- 

 sor has placed upon the land, for just about one-third of 

 what they cost him. (Memo. Don't be in a hurry to buy, 

 take your time and choose the one that suits you best.) 

 Armed with this relinquishment, you can go to the 

 I^and office and the same clerk that notes the relinquish- 

 ment on the plat books of the office, will record your 

 entry for the land reconveyed by it. Then, if you have 

 in you the stuff of which pioneers are made, and are 

 determined to succeed no matter how hard the way may 

 seem, you have a fighting chance to make good. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF SOME PIONEERS 



BY AVIS GORDON VESTAL 



TF credit is due to a man who makes two blades of 

 -* grass grow where but one was grown before what 

 shall be the reward of the thrifty pioneer who has been 

 provident toward his own old age or the legacy of his 

 grand children by planting scores of sturdy walnut trees ? 

 On a motor trip through Illinois, last summer, the writer 

 came upon a splendid hedge of tall walnut trees, about 



TREE ON STILTS 



'T'HIS elm tree is about 200 years old, and is situated 

 * on the Delaware River, near Phillipsburg, New Jer- 

 sey. The rushing waters of the Delaware in the spring 

 freshets have carried the soil away until the great tree 

 was left on stilts as the picture shows, yet it is still able 

 to stand the mighty force of the storm and has baffled 

 it in this way for about seventy years. The oldest resi- 

 dents in the neighborhood say the tree was on stilts 



A HEDGE OF WALNUTS LINING THE ROAD 



An investment of thought and effort some years ago shows its result in 

 these splendid trees today. 



eight miles north of Quincy. There must have been hun- 

 dreds of these valuable trees, for they stretched far along 

 the road and turned at right angles at the corner to 

 border a side road. Within a few minutes' ride further 

 we passed another similar walnut grove set like soldiers 

 going single file. 



A CASE OF THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 



With roots exposed to a depth of more than ten feet, the right of this 

 sturdy old elm to claim fitness cannot be denied. 



when they were small boys. The exposed roots cover 

 a space of about 12 x 15 feet. Some of the roots are 

 fifteen inches in diameter and ten feet long, the tree 

 having two main stems one about thirty-two inches thick 

 and the other twenty-four inches in thickness. 



