202 



Garden and Forest. 



[NUMHER 21 8. 



City, Nebraska, 130 miles west of Omalia, or very near the 

 ninety-eiglitli meridian and not too near the arid region for 

 trees to ilo fairly well. Tlie farm is on the south side of tiie 

 Platte, wliich here comes near the bkiffs, and lies on the mar- 

 gin of the plain, wliich rises considerably higher than the river- 

 valley. The plain is carved along its edge into irregular 

 masses of knolls, which form the bluffs. These are separated 

 by numerous little valleys called "draws," which come down 

 from the plain to the river-valley below, and through them the 

 water hows from the edge of the plain above when it falls in 

 sufficient quantity. There is scarcely any trace of a stream- 

 bed, for there are no pebbles or stones to mark it, and the little 

 hollows are soon overspread with grass and other plants. The 

 draws are an evidence of a climate dry at some seasons, 

 but with rain enough at times to run down tlieslopesand wash 

 out the earth. 



It was on the slope of one of the draws that the principal 

 plantation stood, near where it started from the plain, so that 

 it had essentially the same prairie-like soil. This is a dark 

 clay or marly loam, mi.xed with some sand. The quantity of 

 sand in the soil of the bluffs increases, and the soil becomes 

 less productive as the river-valley is approached. The aspect 

 of this tract of trees was eastward, with a slight bearing to the 

 north. Smaller areas had been planted on the tops of the 

 ridges nearly on a level with the plains and more exposed to 

 the wind, for it was evident that the slope protected the trees 

 to a certain extent, since they were smaller on the west side, 

 where most exposed to the prevailing winds. When the claim 

 was approved by the Government tliere were 6,Soo trees on 

 five acres of ground. This amount is far from excessive when 

 compared with what may be borne on an acre, but they stood 

 quite close together and would soon need thinning, though a 

 natiu'al process of thinning would soon begin. The species 

 chietly planted were Black Walnut, Elm, Box Elder, Ash, 

 Catalpa, Red or Silver Maple, Sycamore and Honey Locust — 

 the first three kinds predominating. The Cottonwood was dis- 

 carded as undesirable, though a few had obtained a foothold. 

 The owner took the most pride in the larger tract of three and 

 a halt acres, where the trees had been planted six years and 

 most of them were from two to four inches in diameter and 

 from eight to fifteen feet high. Tlie majority of the vigorous 

 trees on the larger area would average three inches in diam- 

 eter and ten to twelve feet high. As yet all species had 

 grown to about the same height, allhough there was a differ- 

 ence in the character of the tops, which varied somewhat in 

 accordance with the natural habits of the trees. The bark 

 showed a healthy growth, being close, even and free from 

 fungi, insects or anything injurious. The few Cottonwoods 

 accidentally present served for comparison, having made a 

 larger growth in the same time, the boles being from six to 

 eight inches in diameter and the trees from twenty to twenty- 

 five feet high. 



The Black Walnuts were of special interest on account of 

 their greater economic importance tlian most of the other 

 kinds. Most of them were fine straight specimens, and in suf- 

 ficient quantities in many parts of the grove to occupy the 

 ground exclusively wh.en they needed the space for develop- 

 ment. How high they may grow or what dimension of trunk 

 they will attain can only be determined l.>y the future, butatsix 

 years of age they were very promising. As the Black Walnut 

 is indigenous to eastern Nebraska, this is also in its favor. It 

 is found north of Central City in the vicinity of the Elkhorn 

 River and north-west near the boundary of South Dakota, on 

 the blulTsof the Niobrara and its tributaries. Professor Bessey 

 has foimd it as far west as the one-hundredth meridian. In 

 central Kansas, Indian Territory and in Texas it reaches ninety- 

 eight and a half degrees west. Trees on the Niobrara were 

 two to three feet in diameter, and lumber had been manu- 

 factured from them. The altitude of Central City is about 

 1,800 feet; that of the region about the Niobrara (Long Pine 

 Creek) 2,250 feet. Fruit v,'as observed clinging to the branches 

 of the Box Elder (a common tree also along the streams where 

 any timber was seen). Sycamore, Ash, Honey Locust, Catalpa, 

 and I was fold that some of the Black Walnuts had borne. 



These groves had been carefully attended, and the weeds 

 kept down till the trees were large enough to care for tlietti- 

 selves or did not allow the ready passage of a horse and culti- 

 vator between the rows. The main implement used besides 

 the hoe was a triangular harrow, like the old-time corn-culti- 

 vator, with drag-teeth extending two or three inches below the 

 beams, not far enough to interfere with the roots of the young 

 trees. The tops now form a canopy sufficiently dense to shade 

 the ground and prevent the growtli of grass and injurious 

 weeds, and the leaves are already lodging about their roots and 

 beginning to form a mold, so that forest-conditions of soil have 



already begun, and such wood-plants will only grow as flourish 

 in the shade. The trees had also been judiciously pruned. 

 Owing to climatic conditions there would probably be greater 

 need of this in Nebraska than in the forest-region farther east, 

 for in the western edge of the forest-belt, and where it stretches 

 out along the rivers, there isobserved a special tendency of the 

 trees to branch low down. One of the first characteristics no- 

 ticed by a person familiar with the appearanceof forests along- 

 the Mississippi and eastward, and passing through this region 

 for the first time, is the low habit and widely spreading tops of 

 the trees seen along the streams. Many of them are nearly as 

 broad as high, with very short trunks and bushy crowns. The 

 general facies is that of trees growing in an orchard. Sev- 

 eral trunks may at times be seen starting from the surface 

 of the ground, or but little above it, as if the trees were huge 

 overgrown shrubs, or had developed from stool-shoots spring- 

 ing up from the base of a tree of earlier growth which had 

 passed away. This was always very pleasing to the eve, for 

 nearly every tree with such a habit was ornamental, but it 

 would not be as useful for timber. From this tendency of the 

 climate trees that are planted wou'd doubtless share in this habit, 

 and extra pruning, or very close planting, would be necessary 

 to counteract it. An orchard of Plum and Cherry trees on the 

 farm showed the same habit in an impressive way. From 

 trimks barely more than a foot high limbs freely branched, 

 giving all the trees the appearance of dwarfs, much like an 

 orchard of dwarf Pear-trees. They had compact, well-rounded 

 tops and were very shapely, and even handsome. 



There was another view of timber-culture suggested by 

 these groves, the bluffs and draws along the Platte. Much 

 of the land is poor, especially near their margin, with soil too 

 thin for profitable cultivation and becoming diy in summer. 

 Then tlie land is rough with countless little valleys and knobs, 

 often with steep sides like those bordering a ravine. It would 

 seem advantageous for the greater part of such a region to be 

 given up to forest-culture. If furnished with trees tliey would 

 in time supply a large amount of useful timber to a contiguous 

 region greatly in need of it. The valley is broad, from three 

 to ten and twenty miles, and essentially flat, but with a down- 

 ward slope sufficient to give the river a strong current. The 

 river itself is usuallya mile or more in width, but very shallow. 

 The water in many parts of it almost, or quite, disappears in 

 the summer season, making its way as a subterranean stream 

 in the loose earth, which is reached by digging a few feet be- 

 neath the surface of the ground. Though it has doubtless 

 shifted its bed more or less from side to side in the valley in 

 the past and cut away the bluffs and widened its flats, it is 

 evident that the valley owes much of its width to the slow dis- 

 integration of the plain bordered by the bluffs, the water from 

 the edge of the plain passing down through the draws and 

 cutting them slowly back, for the elevations bordering the 

 draws, or scattered through them in their wider parts, are of 

 all shapes and sizes, from little knolls but a few feet high to 

 small hills v\'ith tops on a level with the plain, and everyvifhere 

 shows the erosive action of water. A forest covering land cir- 

 cumstanced like these bluffs would prevent additional wear 

 and transportation of the richer soil from the edge of the plain 

 into the valley below. 



The trees growing here corroborate what a study of the best 

 rain-charts indicates, which is, that fully half of Nebraska, aside 

 from the region of sand-hills where they come into its eastern 

 part, is so situated with regard to precipitation as to make the 

 growth of timber practicable, while belts along' the streams ex- 

 tend the region still farther west. Then it is to be borne in 

 mind that the dry season, or time of least precipitation, is the 

 winter, the period of rest for trees, so that they receive their 

 supply of moisture in the growing season when most in need 

 of it. 



Englewood, Chicago, 111. E. J. Hill. 



Correspondence. 



Transplanting the Trailing Arbutus. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Admirers of the Trailing Arbutus, or May-flower (Epi- 

 gsea repens), may be glad to know that this charming plant 

 can be successfully transplanted to one's home grounds with 

 reasonable certainty of success. At least such is my expe- 

 rience after having transplanted several, which at this writing 

 (April 20th) are in full bloom for the second time since they 

 were placed beneath the Laurels, Huckleberry-bushes and 

 scrub Pines skirting my lawn. The first plants set out ^'Qve. 

 taken up February2d, 1891, having been brought from an open 

 hill-side about a quarter of a mile distant. On the following 



