12 THE FOREST TREE CULTURIST. 
The farmer is certainly more interested in these implements 
than any one else, and it devolves upon him to see to it 
that the requisite quantity and quality are supplied. 
To one who has traveled through some of the great for- 
ests of the North and Northwest, it may seem unnecessary 
for Americans to ever attempt the cultivation of forest 
trees. But when we ask ourselves how these great forests 
can be transported to those regions where they are needed, 
the question assumes another phase, and we soon learn 
that transporting timber, especially by land, is a very 
laborious and expensive business. Even where railroads 
have penetrated regions abundantly supplied, we soon 
find that all along its track timber soon becomes scarce. 
For every railroad in the country requires a continued 
forest from one end to the other of its line to supply it 
with ties, fuel, and lumber for building their cars, Cars 
are continually wearing out, the ties are rotting, and the 
time is not far distant when these great monopolies will 
find that it would have been cheaper for them to have 
grown their own timber than to have depended on others 
to supply them. How simple it would be for the railroad 
companies to have a few acres of forest trees every few 
miles all along and contiguous to the line! Yet the farm- 
ers along these roads remember that timber will always 
be needed; and it is not always economy to cultivate 
with grain every piece of land from which you have taken 
the trees. Better let the sprouts grow, and the young 
seedlings which always show themselves soon after the 
large trees are cut away. A little thinning out of the 
least valuable kinds, and an occasional pruning of those 
