1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



39 



the demands of the age and of the nation, or shall 

 we fall short of it? Are the devastating influences 

 which are already at work, to bo stayed ? The 

 turbid waters of the Missouri, as they flow on to 

 the Gulf, snggest to every thoughtful beholder 

 many important questions. The silt, which is only 

 another name for the wealth of these great Plains, 

 is moving on, in an unceasing current, to the ocean, 

 varying only from month to mouth in the 

 relative rapidity of its flow. But why this con- 

 stant flow of mud ? We find the soil, and often the 

 subsoil to agreat depth ,.srarcely heavier specifically 

 than water, in a state of exceedingly minute divis- 

 ion. We find every rain bearing away a portion of 

 this soil, not to come back, like the water in genial 

 showers, but to fill up the bayous, raise the bed of 

 the lower Mississippi, and to extend the coast line 

 of the Gulf The more this soil is thriftlessly 

 exposed, the more distinctive will be the flow of 

 silt to the ocean. The very capability of (mr soil 

 only renders it the more perishable. The almost 

 unparalleled minute division of the soil, its porosity, 

 rendering it capable of absorbing water until it 

 becomes like flowing quicksand, subject it to be 

 swept away by every torrent. The general desti- 

 tution of forests, and the difiiculty of renewing 

 the soil when the wild grasses are once destroyed, 

 all suggest the thought that wisdom and peculiar 

 caution are required in dealing with this whole 

 region. We have a land which, in real agricultura 

 wealth majf be made to rival the plains of Lom- 

 bardy ; but close feeding and unwise culture may 

 make millions of its acres, in a comparatively short 

 time, utterly waste and past reclaiminj.. 



There are many ways in which forests act in cor- 

 recting or staying the evils which we contemplate. 

 We find that forests protect the soil from the driv- 

 ing winds; they facilitate absorption, by supplying 

 a vegetable mold which will retain twice its own 

 weight of water ; they also keep the soil in a con- 

 dition to absorb water readily ; they serve, by their 

 roots, to retain the soil in place ; they modify the 

 climate, by making the Summers cooler and the 

 Winters warmer. It is a fact, worthy of note, that 

 forests will serve to check these floods, which, in 

 open countries, are always to be dreaded, and 

 which, in the Old World, as well as our own, have 

 proved so destructive. They would secure the 

 almost entire absorption of ordinary showers, and 

 also serve to check the too rapid and often dan- 

 gerous concentration of the water from which tor- 

 rents originate. 



We are led to believe then, that the present and 

 future interest of this vast country lies in the exten- 

 sive planting of forests. Let trees spring up every- 

 where. Especially let this be the case in lands 

 which cannot be easily "tilled. There are millions 

 of acres that should neither be tilled nor closely 



pastured. A flock of sheep would soon leave, such 

 lauds without either grass or soil, and being too 

 rough and steep for continual cultivation they 

 should be covered with forests. There are on 

 almost every farm these rough and unsightly spots 

 — blemishes on the beauty of the landscape — which, 

 if planted to fore.4s would add greatly to the 

 attraction of home and millions to the wealth of 

 the land. This remark only indicates, the point 

 where this work of improvement may begin, not 

 where it .should stop. 



The great i-apidity with which trees grow is a 

 special encouragement in Sylva-culture. Instead of 

 wasting many years for any available results, as 

 many very naturally suppose, very material advan- 

 tages will accrue in four or five years at the long- 

 ests. In that time several of the more rapid-grow- 

 ing trees may be thinned out to advantage, if they 

 have been planted thickl}' with this design. From 

 a few acres of this close-planted forest, the farmer 

 may supply him.self with wood, and also with much 

 larger material which will be of great service to 

 him about the farm. The impression obtains to a 

 large degree that he who plants forests plants for 

 his children. While this is literally true, it is also 

 true that the planter may derive almost immediate 

 advantages from his work, provided he enters it 

 with a proper degree of intelligence and care. An 

 investment in trees, judiciously planted, will add 

 many times to their cost to the salable value of any 

 Kansas farm ; indeed, it may well be questioned 

 whether there is anywhere a more desirable and 

 certain investment against the contingencies of the 

 future than may be found in a judiciously laid out 

 closely planted forest. How many thousand are 

 anxiously toiling to provide for the demands of old 

 age or for the future want of their families, who 

 after all are really accumulating but little. If they 

 would quietly plant a few acres of timber on such 

 portions of their farms as could, after a time, be 

 sold without detriment to the whole, they would 

 find in the time of need, ten or fifteen years hence, 

 an accumulated fortune, which had required very 

 little thought or care, and proportioned to the wis- 

 dom with which the varieties of timber have been 

 .selected, and attention given to their early cultiva- 

 tion. This is no mere vision of the enthusiast. It 

 may be regarded as certain that land which to-day 

 is not worth more than five dollars per acre, if 

 wisely planted to forests will, fifteen years hence, 

 realize the owner from two hundred to five liun- 

 dred dollars per acre. A gentleman whose state- 

 ment should be good authority upon a point like 

 this, realized in the comparatively wooded 

 State of Ohio, as the result of only fifteen year.s' 

 growth, eight hundred dollars per acre ; and it is 

 not at all improbable that as good results may 

 be realized here, by such persons as may be 



