PLANTING TREES IN COLORADO 



491 



tree in the southern mountains. It can seldom be sold 

 for lumber and it occupies ground which could support 

 more valuable timber. Consequently they are glad of an 

 opportunity to dispose of it. The officials state that pro- 

 vision will be made to utilize the tree more closely than 

 has been done in the past, and to regulate the cutting in 

 such a way as to provide for a future supply. 



PLANTING TREES IN COLORADO 



By J. B. Stoneking, C.E. 



BECAUSE of my connection with the School of 

 Agriculture of the University of New Mexico, 

 1 am interested in anything that will forward the 

 development and thriftiness of trees in the arid and 

 semi-arid regions. 



On a recent trip into Colorado, I made it my business 

 to call on Mr. J. N. Salter, County Horticulturist of 

 Pueblo County, and Mr. W. J. Morrill, State Forester, at 

 Fort Collins, to get their views on a subject that has been 

 much discussed in the public prints recently. I refer to 

 the comparatively new idea of blasting tree holes with 

 dynamite. I had both these gentlemen give me their views 

 in writing so that I might not forget what they said 

 nor misquote them. 



Mr. Salter said : " I have seen powder used in planting 

 trees and am frank to say it is the thing to do in planting 

 orchards, especially in heavy or shaly soil. I really think 

 it pays to use it in most of the soils in our state, as one is 

 more apt to get the hole large enough to receive the tree." 



Mr. Morrill wrote: "Foresters and arboriculturists 

 generally 'recognize the efficiency of blasting holes for 

 ornamental tree planting. The recent demonstration at 

 the State Farm leads me to recommend the practice in 

 street tree and lawn planting in hard soil, as the hole 

 can be very cheaply excavated, and the loosening of the 

 soil for several feet around undoubtedly will result in 

 better growing conditions." 



I found that a great many trees of all kinds, fruit 

 principally, have been planted in blasted holes in New 

 Mexico, Colorado and Montana, and the method is well 

 spoken of wherever it is known. 



The cost of explosives seems to average six or seven 

 cents a tree. This is largely or quite counterbalanced 

 by the saving in labor, as it is no easy task to dig holes 

 with spades in the soil types of this region. But just 

 consider that if it is so difficult to get a spade into 

 them, what chance a tender rootlet has to force its way 

 down and out into feeding beds for the plant food needed 

 to nurture the tree. 



The blasting work is very simple. Into an auger hole, 

 twenty- four to thirty inches deep, a quarter-pound charge 

 of dynamite is placed and tamped in. After the blast, 

 the loosened earth is shovelled out, the pot hole at the 



bottom filled sometimes with manure at the bottom 

 then some sub-soil on which the young tree rests, filling 

 around the roots with the richer top soil. The earth is 

 then tramped down firmly with the feet. 



LIGHTNING PLAYS FAVORITES 



THE United States District Forester at Albuquerque, 

 N. M., has just compiled some very curious figures 

 showing the erratic behavior of lightning in start- 

 ing forest fires. Yearly records going back as far as 

 1908 show that out of every 100 fires in the National For- 

 ests of Arizona and New Mexico, 40 originate from light- 

 ning. This general percentage of lightning fires is well 

 known to foresters, says District Forester Redington, 

 but it is surprising how widely the percentage varies with 

 different localities. In northern and central Arizona, for 

 instance, the proportion of lightning fires runs up to 70 

 per cent, while in the Manzano Forest near Albuquerque 

 only 3 per cent of the fires are started by lightning. 

 There is no readily apparent rhyme or reason in its 

 behavior. In general, those forests bearing big timber 

 and lots of grass seem to suffer worst, but a notable 

 exception occurs in southern Arizona, where the propor- 

 tion runs from 40 per cent to 60 per cent in spite of the 

 timber averaging smaller and the grass somewhat sparser 

 than elsewhere. 



Forest officers state that the accumulation of figures 

 of this kind is gradually adding very materially to the 

 efficiency of their fire prevention system. It enables them 

 to state the fire hazard on each forest in accurate figures 

 instead of in words, and to calculate the risks mathe- 

 matically, just as an insurance company does. This in 

 turn makes possible a really intelligent and economical 

 distribution of men and funds for fire prevention. 



TREMENDOUS WASTE OF WOOD 



THERE are more than 48,000 sawmills in the United 

 States, and their output of waste in the form of 

 sawdust, shavings, slabs, and other wood refuse is 

 estimated as 36 million cords per year. This is equal to 

 over 4j/a billion cubic feet of waste, which is the capacity 

 of a bin one-half mile high with a base covering a forty- 

 acre lot. Or, considering each cord to contain eighty 

 cubic feet of solid wood with all the cracks and air 

 spaces taken out, these 36 million cords would make a 

 block of wood more than a quarter of a mile on each edge. 

 Perhaps one-half of this so-called waste product is 

 not, strictly speaking, wasted, but serves a useful purpose 

 as fuel under the boilers. Much of the remaining 18 

 million cords not only serves no useful purpose, but in 

 most cases is a source of inconvenience and danger, and 

 costs the mill time and money. 



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