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Price. | 208 j Nov. 16 & Dec. 7, 
purpose ; but with the city’s growth her needs will increase of conserving 
her water supply at a distance, that our second beautiful river may con- 
tinue adequate to the wants of a metropolis of millions. 
flere should be specially brought to notice, the necessity of a vast 
amount of tree planting in the prairies and plains that extend over the 
central length and breadth of our northern continent. With great depths 
of alluvial soil, protected by the heavy prairie grasses, which through 
the centuries have annually added their decaying richness to the vegetable 
mould, the rolling or flat prairie regions have but occasional groups of 
trees. The cause of the absence of trees seems to have been the frequent 
fires that swept over the prairies, for wherever protected by the settlers 
from fire a thick and flourishing growth of trees springs up, and the plant- 
ings also thrive. 
The prairies need trees the more, to induce precipitation of rain, snd to 
protect the soil, springs and streams from evaporation, by reason of the 
immense extent of wheat and corn crops now grown in continuous fields 
of a thousand or more acres, each spring sown or planted, thus exposing 
the bare ground for more than half the year, in the intervals of the crops, 
to the drying sun, to be swept away alike by winds and rains. And heavy 
belts of growing timber are wanted for more than the attraction and reten- 
tion of rain and water; are wanted to make it something more possible to 
arrest the great prairie fires ; and also, to break the force of the storms and 
tornadoes that so destructively sweep the central parts of our continent ; 
where no sheltering mountains or hills exist to arrest the force, and dis- 
perse the winds. Some such benefit has already been perceived and ac- 
knowledged. 
In the prairie and treeless regions of the central West, where settled, the 
settlers have perceived it to be their interest to plant, and to save the spon- 
taneous growths of trees, and beyond the incentive of interest, the pleas- 
urable occupation has kindled an enthusiasm for Arboriculture. The fires 
are fought, and iess frequently lighted ; coal, when at hand, is preferably 
used for fuel, and the spontaneous second growth is generally better than 
the original forests where these had been. In the State of Minnesota, 
Martin County, ‘‘thousands of acres of young timber trees are growing, 
some spontaneous, others planted ;’’ in Redwood, ‘‘ The cultivation of 
forests on the prairies will amount to from 1 to 20 acres per quarter sec- 
tion ;’ in Steele County, *‘Some attention has been given to planting forest 
trees, and the interest is on the increase, as the experiments have been 
quite successful; many small groves of quick growing varieties being 
planted near dwellings ;” in Watonwan, 1,000 acres are under cultivation, 
in groves of from one to 12 acres ; in Nobles County, ‘‘ An association has 
been organized, and the children in each school are being organized into 
Centennial bands of little foresters, with promises of badges and more 
valuable prizes for planting trees.’’ In the State of Iowa, Crawford 
County, ‘‘ Large numbers of the more thrifty farmers have planted groves 
of maples, cotton wood, black walnut and box elder, which have grown 
