584 FOREST-CULTURE IN NEBRASKA. 



the county on different farms. The oldest of this is fifteen or sixteen years old ; — Cot- 

 tonwood and black locust. The former is now 65 to 70 feet high, and the latter 25 to 35. 

 More recently white ash, white elm, black walnut, box elder, soft maple, silver maple, 

 honey-locust, European and American larch, and a few other kinds have been planted, 

 and when properly tilled are in good growing condition. Probably .500 acres of these 

 groves have been'planted. From 20 acres of my own planting, and now mostly six- 

 teen years old, I have had plenty of fuel for the last six years, besides considerable 

 material for fencing and building. The wild forests arc gradually growing up again, 

 but frequent fires too often destroy the young growth of trees.— (Trm. Stolley, Grand 

 Island, Hall County, Nebr.) 



In a more recent paper, Mr. StoUey says : 



In 1870 I noticed ihe workings of a borer, and only the black- walnut trees have en- 

 tirely escaped. If applied in time, and when the sap is ascending the tree in spring, 

 sulphur is eft'ective in driving out the borer. As near the ground as possible I bore 

 two-inch holes opposite each other, and put in two spoonfuls of sulphur, and then plug 

 the holes tightly. Of course this is a slow process, and can scarcely be applied except 

 to choice trees, and before they "have suffered much. Where the trees have growu 6 

 by 6 the borers have done more harm than where they have grown 8 by 8, and if al- 

 lowed to form a good top they have not been attacked. The little borer is found in 

 the forks of the limbs, but have not done much harm ; the birds assisting in their de- 

 struction.— (Tmws. Nehr. St. Hort. Soc, 1877, p. 85.) 



Two hundred rods of hedge, of gray or white willow, were set in Hall County in 

 1873, and since then it has been set out extensively for hedges, and with success. 

 There are many hedges also of honey-locust and Osage orange, the experience being ia 

 favor of the former and against the latter. The locust succeeds wherever protected 

 during the first winter after setting out ; still the native black willow is believed to be 

 the best hedge-plant, and both this and the white willow are thought to be as good 

 and efiflcient hedges as can be made. — (7&.,p. 71.) 



Jeffersox County. — Sufficient interest is not shown in forest-growing, but the 

 interest is increasing. The favorite kinds are ash, soft maple, box-elder, and walnut. 

 Cottonwood is not a favorite, though planted on account of its rapid growth. The 

 Osage orange has not succeeded as a hedge-plant, but the gray willow cannot be spo- 

 ken of too highly for groves, windbreaks, and hedges, being hardy, of quick growth, 

 and ornamental withal.— (Trans. Nehr., St. Hort. Soc, pp. 69,81.) 



Nemaha County.— In April, 1868, I obtained from the bluffs on Mission Creek, near 

 the Otoe Indian reservation, about 700 young red cedar trees, mostly 2 to 3 inches high, 

 some 6 to 8. I plan ted them 4 inches apart; in rows a foot apart, keeping them cov- 

 ered with fresh-cut grass. At least 95 per cent, lived, and in two years 420 were trans- 

 planted, 6 feet apart in a single row, being then from 6 to 12 inches high. They are 

 now (1877) 7 to 12 feet high, two-thirds as wide as high, and well branched from the 

 ground. Those well manured are much larger and finer in every way than those that 

 were not.— (Mr. Aldrich, in Trans. Xebr. St. Hort. Soc, 1877, p. 78.) 



Otoe County. — A writer in the Nebraska Farmer (May, 1877) says: 



Twenty years ago cordwood sold in Nebraska City for $7 or $8, and sometimes $10 a 

 cord, and that, too, at a time when her population was not one-fifth what it is now ; 

 and, notwithstanding the demand for fuel is at least ten times greater now thau in 

 1857, it is a fact that good merchantable wood can be bought in our streets for from §3.50 

 to $5 per cord. The reason of this is simply from the ftict that the natural groves have 

 been protected from fire, and the artificial groves are turning out an abundance of good 

 wood, such as the necessities of the country demand for fuel. It will agreeably sur- 

 prise any one not acquainted with the fact to know the amount of timber one acre of 

 land will produce in the course of ten years. Mr. Richard Justice, who came here in 

 1857, and planted about ten acres of cottouwood in 1859, has one or two outhouses 

 built from hewed logs taken from that grove, and the family have all the fuel they 

 need. Hundreds of such cases might be mentioned throughout the eastern portion of 

 the State, did space permit. 



In an historical address delivered at Nebraska City, Nebr., July 4, 

 1877, by the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, the importance of tree-planting 

 was strongly urged, and the citizens of Otoe County were invited to 

 sign a pledge agreeing to plant on the IGth of November following the 

 number of trees set opposite their names. About forty persons engaged 

 to plant numbers ranging generally from 25 to 1,000, and in all some- 

 thing over 7,400. Most on the list left the kind to be planted indefinite, 

 although the box-elder, black walnut, maple, red elm, ash, and cotton- 

 wood were named as having preference with others. 



