92 North American Forests and Forestry 



devoid of tree growth. This will be a surprise to 

 many people who hear only of the destruction of 

 forests, I have in mind not only the planting of 

 timber strips on the plains, which is rapidly redeem- 

 ing the older settled portion of the region between 

 the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains from the 

 opprobrium of being treeless ; I am also thinking 

 of what is going on in the eastern prairie zone, 

 and in the forest region proper. Since destructive 

 prairie fires have become rare in Illinois, Southern 

 Wisconsin, and other prairie States by the almost 

 complete conversion of prairies into cultivated fields 

 and pastures, the neighboring trees, both from the 

 " openings " and the "heavy timber," have begun 

 to occupy such prairie territory as the hand of man 

 has not appropriated to himself. In many parts of 

 these States there is actually to-day more forest 

 land than there was twenty-five years ago, and as 

 no lumbering on a large scale is carried on in these 

 regions, the extension of the forest area is likely to 

 continue for some time. Again, in the forests of 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where open 

 peat bogs are gradually drying, they are being 

 covered by the spruce, tamarack, and arbor-vitae of 

 the neighborhood. The same process is reported 

 from the bogs in Western New York, and is prob- 

 ably going on in many other localities. Finally a 

 large acreage of woodland is being added each 

 year by the natural reforestation of abandoned 

 farms and " old fields " in the States of the Atlantic 

 border and the South. 



