NEWS AND NOTES 



Forest Plant- [f the young fanners and 

 mgpnthe thc c hjl c i rcn o f the o](K . r 



Prairies 



farmers in the prairie 



States are during the later years of 

 their lives to be supplied with cheap 

 fence posts and cheap fuel, whether 

 there is a car shortage on the railroad 

 or not, there must be a great deal 

 more attention paid to forest planting 

 on the farm than there has been here- 

 tofore. 



There was considerable forest 

 planting in these States in the early 

 years of their settlement. The object 

 then in view was not to secure post 

 timber or building material or fuel, 

 but to protect the farm houses and 

 other buildings from the storms of the 

 Western winter. 



Times change, and farmers must 

 change with them. The forest tree 

 planting in the West, small as it ap- 

 pears to be in comparison with the 

 acreage, has done much to modify the 

 severity of the winters ; more than any 

 one would think. 



What is needed now is timber for 

 fence posts, for fuel and for lumber, 

 as well as protection against the bliz- 

 zards of the winter and the heat of the 

 summer. IVallace's Fanner. 



A Few 

 Acres of 

 Trees 



The importance of tim- 

 ber on the farm is be- 

 coming plainer each 

 year. The uses and needs are many, 

 and these increase as the farm be- 

 comes older. The one feature of 

 fencing creates within itself almost a 

 constant demand for timber for posts. 

 Iron and stone are sometimes sug- 

 gested as the coming fence post. This 

 sounds as though the farmer was ab- 

 solutely helpless in thc matter of sup- 

 ply. The farmer need not look to any 

 source outside his land resources for 

 fence posts or fuel, if he decides that 

 he will plan and produce these him- 

 self. The grove of quickly growing 

 timbers will in a few years supply 

 fence posts and fuel for all thc needs 



of the farm. 1; 



planting and preparing f. u- 



gfrowth. 



It doe- not require the lifetii 

 man to do this and reap the b.-i 

 True, it will take from ten to twenty 

 years to see these trees satisfactorily 

 serviceable, yet this time is 

 spent on a prairie homestead with 

 any effort being made to plant, culti- 

 vate, or grow a tree. ll'csl Tc.rus 

 Journal. 



Census of The IJureau of the Cen- 

 sus has just issued a 

 bulletin ( No. 91) on 

 transportation by water. The bulletin 

 contains a summary of the main feat- 

 ures of a census of transportation by 

 water which covered the year ending 

 December 31, 10,06. further details of 

 which are reserved for separate re- 

 ports of the shipping on the Atlantic 

 Coast and Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific 

 Coast, the Great Lakes and St. Law- 

 rence River, the Mississippi River and 

 its tributaries, and all other inland wa- 

 ters, respectively. 



During the year 1906, according to 

 the census, ferryboats carried 330.- 

 737.639 pass. : over 1.3 per cent 



of whom were carried by the ferries in 

 and around Xew York harbor. 



I'.y far the large-t part of the Am- 

 erican shipping is on the Atlar 

 Coast and the Gulf of M The 



next largest is , m the V ''pi Riv- 



er ami its tributaries; but s , many 

 the river vessels are coal ! -id 



,vs. that the value of both 



and freight in in the Gf< al I 



reater. 



The total freight n 1 an 



increase of over ion per cent from iS 



to 



On thc ba 



is the most important : ' [ " ^ht 



in tin water commerce of the I 'nit 

 Stat 



isiderah'e der--< -hown 



in the shipments of lumber and of i 



