FOKEST CULTURE IN KANSAS. 

 Stalist'ics of Fences in Kansas in 1875. 



573 



From ei{?lit counties no returns were received, and from several others 

 the returns were manifestly defective. 



Treeplanting in Kansas — Suggestions hy Mr. Kelsey. 



Mr. Kelsey, in an essay read before the Kansas State Horticultural 

 Society December 15, ISGS, from an experience of twenty years in plant- 

 ing, of which six had been spent in Kansas, gave the results of his 

 observation, especially with the black walnut, cottonwood, and silver 

 maple, which he preferred as best adapted for this region. In planting 

 black walnuts he directed they be gathered soon after they drop, and 

 to be spread and covered two or three inches deep with moist earth, or, 

 better, with sawdust, to keep them moist through the winter. They 

 should be planted two inches deep, early in spring, and with fair soil 

 and good cultivation they would grow so as to be of some use as fuel in 

 five or six years, and in ten years would make good fence-posts or rail- 

 road-ties, and begin to bear nuts. In fifteen years they would make a 

 fine forest, and if judiciously managed would go on increasing in value 

 for a century, returning fair jirofits annually, and without expense. It 

 should not be transplanted, but the seed should be placed where the 

 tree is to stand. 



Gotiomcood might be started from shoots of last year's growth cut in 

 the fall and packed in moist sawdust, or buried in the earth till spring. 

 They should be a foot long and might be set with a narrow spade, leav- 

 ing an inch or two out, and pressing the soil firmly about them at set- 

 ting. Small plants with roots might be easily got ; they would begin 

 to be of service as wind-breaks and shelter for stock in four years, and 

 the wood makes a fair fire-wood. He suggested planting cottonwood 

 alternately with black walnut, to make the latter grow taller than if 

 grown alone. 



Silver maple should be started from seed, which ripens from the 15th 

 to the 18th of May, and should be sown immediately in drills and cov- 

 ered with an inch of good mellow soil. It will come up in six to ten 

 days, and by fall of the first year will be two feet and a half high. The 

 next spring it should be set in forest rows, two inches deeper than it 

 stood in the seed-bed, the earth being pressed firmly about the roots. 

 In ten years it will be 25 to 30 feet high and 10 to 12 inches in diameter. 

 It forms a beautiful tree while young, and its wood is more valuable than 

 cottonwood, being useful for cabinet-wares. Its sap will make sugar of 

 good quality, but less in quantity than the sugar maple. It has the 

 fault ot forking, so as to make two or more stems, and except in favor- 

 able circumstances is not likely, if left to itself, to make a large straight 

 tree. It is also split down too easily by the wind and by sleet. 



In planting a forest he recommended laying out the ground, after 



^See this article in detail in Hutchinsou's Resources of Kansas, p. 151. , 



