428 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
When trees of this character are removed to dry locations, as on the high, 
rolling plains, the insufficiency of water merely maintains life, but all vigor is lost. 
There are places on the prairies where water exists within a few feet of the sur- 
face. Here the cottonwood sends its roots deep and finds moisture. As a city 
street tree it has passed its days of usefulness, and wherever it exists other and 
better trees should be planted, selecting such as survive with less moisture and 
have roots of an entirely different character from those of elm and cottonwood. 
A WESTERN COTTONWOOD 
The moist lands along the Mississippi river are favorable to the growth of the 
cottonwood, and dense thickets formerly existed along the river's banks. 
Before the extensive coal mining period, the author, as a steamboat clerk, has 
eften watched the shores of the Mississippi for the well-known woodvards where 
the supply of fuel must be replenished from the cottonwood groves, since the prin- 
cipal fuel was from these trees. 
