FOREST PLANTING IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 3 



to induce planting by systems of tax exemptions, bounties, or prizes. 

 Such provisions, however, have not always been carefully drawn. 

 In some cases the application of the law has been restricted to a cer- 

 tain list of trees from which valuable species well adapted to planting 

 have been omitted; the number of trees per acre specified for planting 

 and the regulations regarding thinnings have not always been drawn 

 in accordance with scientific principles of forestry; the period of 

 exemption, or bounties, has sometimes been too short, applying only 

 when the trees are small and the taxes on them normally fight. 

 Assessors, moreover, have sometimes adopted the practice of adding 

 enough to the assessment of some other property of the timber owner 

 to make up for the reduction on his plantation. Laws of this kind, 

 however, even though they may have shown little in the way of 

 results, indicate a willingness on the part of the various States to 

 encourage forest planting. 



STATUS OF FOREST PLANTING IN THE REGION. 



PRAIRIE REGION. 



The settlers in the prairie region came from wooded countries and 

 knew the value of trees for protective purposes. In consequence, 

 they planted timber trees primarily for protection against the cold 

 winds of winter and the hot, drying winds of summer. Wood pro- 

 duction was a secondary consideration. By 1885 Kansas had 147,340 

 acres of forest plantation, and Iowa, at about the same time, had 

 100,000 acres. From 50 to 75 per cent of the trees set out were the 

 hardy, rapid-growing cottonwood, silver maple, and willow. Among 

 the other species represented were green ash, black walnut, butternut, 

 balsam fir, European larch, Norway spruce, white spruce, black 

 cherry, arborvitse, red cedar, Scotch pine, white pine, black locust, 

 osage orange, honey locust, and hardy catalpa. In one portion or 

 another of the prairie region each of these species has found conditions 

 favorable for growth. 



However, the hardwoods that were most generally planted are 

 not so good for windbreak purposes as are the conifers, which retain 

 their foliage through the winter. Because of this fact, and also 

 because many of the older plantations are maturing, the latter are 

 now being removed. Much of the land they have occupied is worth 

 from $100 to $150 or more per acre when put in agricultural crops. 

 For this reason forest planting is no longer being carried on to any- 

 thing like the extent it once was, though extravagant claims made 

 for hardy catalpa by certain tree agents have resulted in a consider- 

 able quantity of this species being set out recently for post and pole 

 production. 



