128 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



Still more wasteful was the practice in the valley of the Kansas and 

 Marais cles Cygnes Rivers, in Kansas, where walnut and oak logs of giant size 

 were rolled into the fence rows and thus used as barricades against stock, it 

 being too much labor to split them into rails and build fences. 



Walnut was very abundant in the valleys of Eastern Kansas, yet, but a 

 dozen miles away there were treeless prairies of great extent, which were at 

 an early day considered as part of the Great American Desert, but which now 

 are highly cultivated. It was thought no lumber would ever be required to 

 improve this "desert" region. 



The walnut was distributed over a great extent of territory, but never 

 existed in exclusive forest, but always in mixed woods, owing to the method 

 of its distribution by Indians who camped in old woods. 



Grown in fence corners or open field, away from other trees, the walnut 

 becomes a low-spreading tree, with a minimum of sawing lumber in the trunk. 

 The same may be said of many other forest trees. 



But when grown moderately close the timber becomes tall, upright and 

 free from branches to great height. 



This does not prove that the nuts should be planted with a wheat drill. 



PLANTING THE NUTS. 



Trees may be too close together as well as too far apart ; both extremes 

 should be avoided. We think 7x7 feet a good distance at first, thinning as 

 becomes necessary. 



For the improvement of small growth forests, and where the trees are of 

 slight value, the walnut may be introduced to advantage. 



Presuming the second growth of such woodlands to be dense enough to 

 keep down grasses, and to give some forest conditions, the nuts may be 

 planted with some system among the standing wood. 



A hole may be made with the mattock, three or four inches deep, a nut 

 dropped in and the earth covered over it with the foot. This is the simplest 

 and quickest method in such cases. 



The young plant is very hardy, and being crowded by the surrounding 

 brush will shoot upward without side branches. In a few years the walnut 

 will occupy the land, destroying slower growths. 



The importance of changing the character of the wood growths through- 

 out a very large portion of our country is not sufficiently appreciated. Mil- 

 lions of acres which are covered with scrub growths ranging from ten to 

 thirty feet height, and of no commercial value, give the appearance of a forest, 

 and in theoretical estimates are classed as timbered areas, causing the false 

 impression that we have vast areas of valuable forests still remaining. These 

 inferior growths do not produce an income for the owners or a revenue for 

 the State. 



By introducing the walnut, and other valuable trees of greater stature and 

 higher financial importance, these low-valued tracts may be brought up to a 

 much higher standard. For instance: 



