December 3, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



583 



Notes on the Distribution of Some Kansas Trees. — 

 I. The Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana). 



A STUDY of the distribution of trees in Kansas furnishes 

 many facts of interest to the student of forestry. On the 

 east the dense forest growth of Arkansas and southern Mis- 

 souri extends but a short distance into the state. Of about 

 seventy species of trees with which Kansas is credited, the 

 majority can be found in the eastern tier of counties. Along 

 the line of the hundredth meridian the number of species 

 is reduced to a dozen, of which not more than two or 

 three will reach the Colorado line. This gradual thinning out, 

 first of species and at length of entire genera, under the more 

 trying conditions encountered as we move further west, will 

 afford suggestions to one wishing to select the most hardy 

 trees for the planting of timber-claims or shelter-belts in the 

 prairie region. 



A peculiar feature of timber growth in the western part of 

 Kansas is that the trees on the main stream may entirely 

 disappear, while upon many of its tributaries, back but a few 

 miles, quite a heavy growth may be found where there is 

 not water enough in the stream to float a canoe. The only 

 explanation that I have seen offered for this was that the beaver 

 had kept down the young trees on the larger stream, where 

 there was a sufficient volume of water for them to work. 

 Perhaps we should add to this the work of fires, floods and 

 grinding ice, which could readily be carried over the low 

 sandy banks of these streams. The nature of the soil may 

 have been the most important factor of all, for the bottom 

 lands along these treeless streams are very sandy, and the low 

 banks slope so easily to the water that where the grass is dense 

 enough the fire could sweep to the water's edge. Superficial 

 observers of Kansas timber have often been misled by this 

 lack of trees along the Saline, Smoky Hill and Arkansas Rivers, 

 and supposed that they had passed west of the timber limit of 

 the state. 



The commonly planted Cottonwood, though one of the most 

 westerly trees in distribution, is a moisture-loving tree and is 

 seldom" found growing naturally far from streams or springs. 

 It is not surprising that of the many thousands of these trees 

 planted on high prairie the majority die after a few years of 

 encouraging growth. It is to trees which are found growing 

 on more dry and elevated locations that we must look for the 

 greatest success in maintaining forest-conditions on the up- 

 lands. The Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), for example, is 

 often found along western streams growing upon the face of 

 some rocky bluff where only the most scanty supply of mois- 

 ture can reach its roots. The farmers in these localities report 

 it as being one of the most successful trees that they can use 

 in dry situations. 



The Red Cedar is found in Kansas in a much more western 

 habitat than has usually been assigned to it, and often grow- 

 ing in such dry and sterile places that it would seem as if it 

 could thrive anywhere if once its roots obtained a hold upon 

 the soil. Throughout the carboniferous formation of the 

 south-eastern part of the state this tree is frequently found, 

 usually growing along rocky banks and rugged bluffs over- 

 looking the streams, and by the very barrenness of the spot 

 fully protected from the approach of fire. Here they give a 

 picturesque touch to the landscape which is very pleasing, 

 especially during the winter months. West of the lower Re- 

 publican Valley they disappear, only to be found again in 

 isolated stations much farther west. In the eastern part of 

 Trego County the geological formation is a soft, chalky lime- 

 stone ; and on the south side of the Smoky Hill River this rises 

 in considerable bluffs. In Ranges 22 and 23 west, or within 

 about twelve miles of the 100th meridian, a group of these 

 chalk hills is known as Cedar Bluff, and at one time their 

 abrupt northern slopes were covered with a fine growth of 

 Red Cedar over an extent of several hundred acres. A 

 small tributary from the south, entering the river at this 

 point, is locally known as Page Creek. Near its head is an- 

 other chalk bluff, which was once equally well timbered. With 

 the settlement of the prairies these trees were cut and hauled 

 away to furnish ridge-logs and rafters for the sod-houses, 

 while every branch, and even the stumps and roots in many 

 cases, were used as kindlings for the cow-chip fires. The 

 Page Creek Cedars were almost exterminated in this way, and 

 all the more valuable growth on Cedar Bluffs was taken ; but 

 here young trees are coming in to some extent, and in time, if 

 protected, the growth may be restored. 



Scattering groups of Cedars are remembered by the old set- 

 tlers along the upper Solomon River growing in this same 

 chalky formation. Somewhere on the upper Republican 

 River, in early times, a large raft of these trees was cut and 



floated down the stream to the lower part of Clay County, 

 where it came to grief on a sand-bar, and was distributed 

 among the settlers. The presence of these isolated groves of 

 Cedar so far west would seem to indicate that the climate is 

 not so arid that they could not be grown artificially on a much 

 more extensive scale. These trees were all in such situations 

 as to be secure from fires and from the rush of thousands of 

 sharp hoofs when this country was the pasture land of the 

 buffalo. 



On account of the expense of procuring young trees and the 

 difficulty in making them live .through the summer drought 

 following their planting, but few Cedars have been set out, 

 except for ornament or as an occasional shelter belt. So far as 

 they have been tried near their native stations they have been 

 found very successful when once established. Accurate 

 measurements of growth for any of the more western speci- 

 mens are not in my possession, but trees can be found around 

 Manhattan twenty years old which are eight to twelve inches 

 in diameter at the ground and twenty to twenty-five feet high. 

 Up to about fifteen or twenty years old, if not too crowded, 

 they retain their limbs to the ground, and form a beautiful 

 spire-like top. Beyond this age the lower branches die and 

 the top becomes more round or irregular. An old specimen 

 with grotesquely distorted trunk and gnarled and twisted 

 branches is occasionally found growing from a cleft of a rocky 

 ledge, where it is very picturesque. 



It is to be hoped that the experiment may soon be tried of 

 planting considerable tracts of these trees on high prairie and 

 rocky land. As it is too expensive an enterprise for the aver- 

 age homesteader to undertake, state or government aid should 

 be given in the matter. Those railroad companies that have 

 to meet the heavy expense of keeping up miles of snow-fence 

 along their lines would do well to try the Red Cedar on a small 

 scale, and might find that a living wall of evergreens would be 

 a more effective snow trap than a board fence, and maintained 

 at a fraction of the cost. The comparative beauty of the two 

 as seen from the train need not be dwelt upon. 



The valuable suggestion contained in a recent editorial of 

 Garden and Forest on the Improvement of Trees would 

 doubtless apply well in this state, and seedlings grown from 

 these native acclimated Cedars of the far west might be ex- 

 pected to endure the drying summer winds of the prairies bet- 

 ter than stock derived from eastern forests. 



Kansas Agricultural College. o. L. AlaSOH. 



The Cranberry Scald. 



THE last crop report of the Secretary of the American Cran- 

 berry Association states that the present harvest is the 

 smallest in New Jersey since 1884, and the Cranberry crop is 

 twenty-two per cent, less than that of last year. The primary 

 cause" of this falling off in the yield is the trouble so well 

 known as the "scald." I have made some study of this se- 

 rious disease during the past two years, and hope that some 

 light can be thrown upon this subject which may lead to im- 

 proved bog management and at least to a partial mitigation of 

 the trouble. 



The disease makes its appearance in the fruit when it is 

 about half grown, and may be detected as soft spots, quite 

 small at first, but usually extending throughout the berry, 

 when it takes on the appearance of one that has been partly 

 cooked, although the skin remains unbroken. The skin being 

 tough, the berry hangs as a collapsed cornelian bag for several 

 weeks, when it finally falls to the ground. It is, 

 however, not uncommon to find many scalded 

 berries upon the vines in early spring. Fre- 

 quently the berry remains half rotten, with a 

 distinct line between the healthy and decayed 

 portion, as shown in Fig. 75. After a time 

 dark patches form beneath the skin, and pim- 

 ples make their appearance upon the surface 

 of the decayed part, as indicated in the en- 

 graving. 



When a diseased berry is studied with a compound micro- 

 scope, the soft tissue is found to contain a great abundance of 

 threads, which are no part of the substance of the healthy 

 berry. The pustules upon the skin are made up of aggrega- 

 tions of these threads, in which a cavity forms as a small pit 

 or cup. A section of one of these pits is shown very highly 

 magnified in Fig. 76, and the internal structure is made plain. 

 It consists of a multitude of fine threads, forming the wall of 

 the cavity, with the inner surface lined with small projecting 

 threads that bear minute spores upon their tips, and falling 

 away escape through a slit or opening in the pustule. 



All of this filamentous portion above described is a Fungus 

 that is parasitic upon the cranberry, and feeding upon its 



Fig. 75. — A Berry 

 Partly Scalded. 



