EUCALYPTUS TBEES. 83 



ment of these tree-belts will supply the wood neces- 

 sary for the farm. There are one million and four 

 hundred thousand square miles of treeless plains in 

 the United States, which, in due course of time, will 

 necessarily be converted, to a great extent, into agri- 

 cultural areas on account of the generally excellent 

 soil. The Locust-tree is much chosen for shelter pur- 

 poses. Denuded wood-land, of poor soil, left undis- 

 turbed to natural renovation, has become, in some 

 populous localities, five times as valuable as the ad. 

 joining inferior tillage or pasture-land. For the great- 

 est profit in fuel, the trees, in some parts of North 

 America, are cut about every sixteen years. "We 

 here, commanding Eucalypts, Acacias, and Casuari. 

 nas, would gain wood -harvests still speedier. The 

 increased value of less fertile lands, through sponta- 

 neous upgrowth of timber, is estimated at sixteen 

 hundredths of simple interest annually in woodless 

 localities, no labor being expended on this method of 

 wood - culture. Judicious management in thinning 

 out enhances the value of such forest land still more. 

 Wet and undrained grounds can be made to yield a 

 return in Elms, Willows, Cottonwood, Swamp Cy- 

 presses, and other swamp trees, or stony declivities 

 in Pines and Eucalypts, at a trifling cost. For details, 

 the forest literature, which is in Germany particularly 

 rich, should be studied. Capitalists would likely find 

 it safer and more profitable to secure land for timber- 

 growth than to invest in many another speculation. 

 After the example set at Massachusetts our agricul- 

 tural societies might award premiums and medals for 

 the best timber-plantations raised in their districts. 

 We have societies for the protection of domestic am- 



