FOREST CULTURE IN KANSAS. 



571 



iu tlie eastern border ; but it is probable that the list would be much 

 reduced in going west, until toward the elevated regions bordering upon 

 Colorado, irrigation would be indispensable to success. 



In the order of preference, Mr. S. T. Kelsey' has placed the black 

 walnut j^rs^, the cottonwood second, and the soft maple t/iircZ, suggesting 

 that the cottonwoods might be planted among the walnuts for their 

 protection while young, and to secure an upright growth, to be thinned 

 out from time to time as the trees become larger. He estimates the cost 

 of planting and cultivating 25 acres of land in forest, as follows: 



Breaking the prairie sod, at $4 per acre $100 00 



Gathering seeds, and cutting and growing plants 20 00 



Ee-plowing one-third of the ground, at $3 per acre 25 00 



Harrowing for the rows of trees, and staking out rows 10 00 



Planting, 25 days, at $2 per day 50 00 



After-culture, first year, $1 per acre 25 00 



After-culture, nest three years, 50 cents per acre 37 50 



Total "$277 50 



This estimate contemplated planting in rows, 12 feet apart, and cul- 

 tivating between for the first three years. 



The success of tree-culture, as well as the cultivation of the cereals in 

 Kansas, under existing conditions of climate, must depend very much 

 upon the amount and distribution of the rain-fall. For data, we must for 

 the most part depend upon recent records, the observations in but one 

 case (Fort Leavenworth) extending more than forty years, and most of 

 them scarcely a quarter of this period. 



A summary of results, shows very clearly the decreasing rates as we 

 go westward, and for convenience, the State has been, for this study, 

 divided into three belts or regions running north and south across the 

 State, and called the eastern, middle, and western belts. The shading 

 off from one into the other is so gradual that a boundary-line must be 

 arbitrary, but Fort Eiley may be assumed as the western limit of the 

 eastern belt, and the west line of Ellis County as the line between the 

 middle and western. The aggregate results of over two hundred and 

 fifty years of observations, to 1874 inclusive, will give the following gen- 

 eral averages by months and seasons : 



MOITTHLT AVERAGES OF KAIN-FALL IN KANSAS. 



Variations from the mean of wliole State. 



Transactions of Kansas State Horticultural Society, 1872, p. 146. 



