Mar. 1910.] Conditions in Central and Western Kansas. 319 



PLATE 18. Osage orange at Ogallah Station. 



fourteen feet high and three and a half inches in diameter. 

 At Dodge City the Osage orange trees have been more for- 

 tunate. Located near a field that has evidently produced some 

 corn husks, and more Russian thistles, the rows have been well 

 mulched and the soil has blown into the mulch until the trees 

 now stand in a ridge or bank from two to four feet high. A 

 number of these trees are nineteen feet above the bank and 

 four inches in diameter. They are valuable for many pur- 

 poses, but too handsome and useful as trees to be sacrificed for 

 any purpose, however important. 



Occasional specimens have been noted in many trying locali- 

 ties that attest the hardiness and resistance of this species. 

 The trail between Johnson City and Richfield passes an old 

 hedgerow that, after being deserted for many years and 

 browsed by live stock in severe winters, has a number of trees 

 which show a very creditable growth. On the site of Fort 

 Hays are a few Osage orange trees that were evidently con- 

 veniently located to serve as hitching posts. They are scarred 

 and deformed, but after years of neglect they have repaid a 

 little care by making a very fair growth. 



At Garfield a row of Osage orange planted thirty years ago 

 along the Santa Fe railroad 'presents a most valuable object 

 lesson in the possibilities of this species as a windbreak and in 

 the production of posts. A considerable number of posts have 

 been cut in former years, and at present 1000 posts, many of 



