Mar. 1910.] Conditions in Central and Western Kansas. 315 



by borers and demonstrate the possibility of this species when 

 well grown and free from insect injury. Some of these trees 

 are fifty feet high, eighteen inches in diameter two feet from 

 the ground. 



Not many of the plantings made in accordance with the pro- 

 visions of the timber culture or "tree-claim" act have added to 

 the forest area of Kansas, but a few have been visited which 

 by their success and the possible weight of their influence upon 

 future plantings have certainly achieved what the authors of 

 the bill hoped the law could accomplish. 



PLATE 14. Black locust, McCauley timber claim. 



The McCauley timber claim, about forty miles southwest of 

 Dodge City, is one of these. The first plantings were made of 

 cottonwood cuttings and box elder seedlings and were not suc- 

 cessful. Black locust seed was planted in nursery rows, and 

 the trees thus grown were used to replace the cottonwood and 

 box elder. They made good growth for a few years, but were 

 afterwards badly injured by the borers. Ten years ago the 

 owners decided to cut it to the ground and found the posts and 

 poles considerably worm-eaten, but they were so much in de- 

 mand that the ten acres netted them nearly one hundred dol- 

 lars per acre. The value of the fuel secured was considered 

 equal to the cost of cutting. The brush was burned to check 

 as far as possible the increase of the borers. 



After ten years growth this plantation is in a most promis- 



