FORESTRY. 147 



sell the same varieties here that they would sell in Missouri or Kan- 

 sas. We must learn what is adapted to our locality and cut our lists 

 down to those varieties. 



FORESTEY 



BY E. F. STEPHENS. 



Possibly some things gained in our experience in the last few years 

 in the planting of timber claims may be useful to some of the people 

 of Nebraska. We find that the varieties which succeed well in the 

 eastern and central portions of Nebraska are not so desirable in the 

 extreme west on higher elevation. For instance, the catalpa, which 

 we find a very valuable tree in eastern and central Nebraska, is apt to 

 winter kill in the northwestern part of the state ; also, the Russian 

 mulberry. In the extreme northwestern parts of the state, on those 

 high elevations, we have found that the mulberry is inclined to grow 

 a little too late in the fall, or, perhaps we may say, that the first freezes 

 come a little too early for it there, although it stands the drouth re- 

 markably well and does not seem to ever kill entirely out; the tips of 

 the branches are injured from year to year and this makes the tree 

 more shrubby and bushy than in this part of the state. In the east- 

 ern and central portions of Nebraska we find the Russian mulberry 

 to be one of the best growers that we have, shading the ground quickly 

 and standing the drouth remarkably well. We cut one tree a year ago 

 last winter, eleven years old and twenty-five feet in height and ten 

 inches in diameter. It makes a very good post, the fruit is valuable for 

 birds, and it makes a remarkably good wind-break, two rows being 

 equal to four or five rows of most other kinds of timber for wind-break. 

 We would advise planting it for a farm wind-break. We have found 

 the box-elder a fair tree all over the west where the cultivation was 

 thorough and suitable. If the ground is allowed to dry out very badly 

 from lack of careful cultivation and the fall and winter are very dry, 

 then the box- elder is sometimes inclined to injure in the top. We infer 

 that is because the seed from which the trees were grown were all de- 

 veloped on a much lower level and under very different conditions from 

 those which they are finally to meet in the northwestern part of the 



