CHAPTER III: PROFITABLE TREE PLANTING 



The establishment of the date palm in Arizona is one of 

 the latest triumphs of the Department of Agriculture. Out of 

 the oases of Arabian and African Saharas — out of antiquity 

 itself — this Old- World "tree of Hfe" has been set down in the 

 irrigated oases of the Great American Desert, in the dawn of the 

 twentieth century. It thrives and fruits in its new home, and 

 gives every promise of continued prosperity. Behind the date 

 palm is a list, indefinitely long, of fruit and ornamental trees 

 introduced from other countries. Distant parts of America 

 have exchanged species through seed distribution and otherwise. 

 The result is infinite variety in our planting — vast fortunes in 

 orchard and garden products every year and in the enhanced 

 values of land well planted. There is no doubt that where 

 horticulture is concerned, tree planting has proved profitable, 

 in spite of losses that experimentation has involved. 



DOES IT PAY TO PLANT TREES FOR TIMBER? 



This is another question. Fifty years ago it would generally 

 have been answered in the negative. The pioneer was still 

 clearing land for his farm, the great lumber companies were 

 but beginning their work, and the Great Plains were not yet 

 peopled. Conditions have changed. The virgin forests are 

 about gone. The question is no longer: "How can we get rid 

 of this superfluous timber? " It is now: "Where is the lumber 

 supply of the immediate future to come from?" It is no longer 

 a problem for children's children. It concerns us all to-day. 

 The man who builds a fence, a house or a railroad reads the warning 

 in the price list of the lumber dealer. 



The forests of the country are not gone yet, nor nearly gone. 

 In regions originally in woods Nature is the great planter. Land 

 lying idle "goes back to forest" in a few years. Local wants are 

 supplied from the woodlots of farmers. No general alarm over 

 shortage in the lumber supply will break out in such communities. 



