PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 423 



An unwarranted prejudice exists in the mountain region against the Aspen, 

 and it is seldom used except for fuel. 



The old adobe houses, some built half a century ago, have flat roofs, covered 

 with Aspen poles, upon which is a foot of earth. The melting snow moistens 

 these poles in winter, while in summer they are thoroughly dry. 



Fences are made of the long poles, laid up in the fashion of the rail fences, 

 and in both situations the wood is remarkably enduring. 



Where the trees are twelve or more inches in thickness Aspen may be sawed 

 into lumber suited for boxes and all purposes where a white, soft, light wood is 

 required. There are numerous uses for this lumber in the West. 



\\ here so many mine timbers are used as in Colorado, the Aspen should be 

 utilized to preserve the more valuable spruce and fir for future growth. The 

 small coniferous trees now being cut for mine operations, often but five inches at 

 the stump, should be spared ; they will be of much greater value in a few years. 



For mine timbers the Aspen should be impregnated with chloride of zinc a 

 portable treating plant being constructed for the purpose. 



Probably not more than fifty spruce timbers are secured from an acre. Long 

 hauls over abrupt mountain roads, with but a few sticks on the wagon, make it 

 quite expensive getting out these small timbers, and being immature they decay 

 in two years. Aspen of a larger size can be treated quite cheaply, the plant being 

 located in the valleys below the thickets, all the haul being down the slope. From 

 one small valley which I examined there can be obtained three millions mine tim- 

 bers. A hundred millions could be secured on the tract which I was investigating 

 for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. 



Should the Aspen be adopted for mine timbers it would result in the perpetua- 

 tion of the coniferous forests of that region, which through the unwise policy of 

 an unworthy employe are now being exterminated, losing forever all hopes of fu- 

 ture forests. 



The Aspen thickets should be thinned severely, but not entirely cleared away, 

 as there is one provision of the Aspen which is seldom considered. The decay 

 of such a quantity of deciduous leaves each year makes a deep rich mould in which 

 seeds of pine, spruce and fir trees lodge, germinate, and protected by the Aspen, 

 become valuable forests. 



Intelligent persons now recognize the importance of these Aspen thickets in 

 holding the snow, preventing too rapid melting, and thus the season of water 

 supply is prolonged for the inhabitants of the lower valleys. 



The wonderful Stone Wall, an immense mass of rocks rising perpendicularly 

 out of the mountains to great height, extends many miles. The high, snow- 

 capped mountains in the distance are of the Sangre de Christo Range referred to, 

 and upon the summit and slopes of which are millions of acres covered with As- 

 pens. It was on one of these peaks I obtained the photograph of the big Aspen tree. 



INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF FIRE. 



It has been solely from the action of fires that the great plain and prairie 

 regions are treeless. Evidences are abundant that in former times all the now 

 arid regions of our continent were covered with dense forests, some of monster 

 dimensions. Of this we have more to sav elsewhere. 



