INTRODUCTION. Xxxi 
mens of elms in Douglas County, planted in 1859, were 
six years ago thirty-eight inches in circumference four 
feet from the ground, and over thirty feet high. A honey 
locust planted at Omaha, at thirteen years old was thirty- 
four feet high, and measured thirty-five inches in cir- 
cumference four feet from the ground. Cotton-woods in 
Douglas County, Nebraska, thirteen years old measured 
twenty-two inches in diameter, and were forty-five feet 
high. A box elder, growing in my yard at Omaha Bar- 
racks, shot up in a single season seven feet. Judge 
Crounse had a tree that grew seven feet for three con- 
secutive years. All the trees about Omaha Barracks 
while I was stationed there grew from five to seven feet 
annually. Many more instances of the rapid growth 
of trees might be given for the encouragement of tree- 
planting, but these will suffice here, and those who are 
curious to learn can read, further on in the pages of this 
book, hundreds of instances. 
What comes of tree-planting is profit, honor, health, 
and wealth. The progress made by the friends of for- 
estry in America during the past few years is a matter 
of great congratulation to them. This year we have 
had a Forestry Congress well attended ; Honorable John 
Sherman of Ohio has brought forward a healthy forest 
bill, which will be sure to pass at the next meeting 
of Congress, and the people of the country everywhere 
are awakening to the importance of both forest-saving 
and forest-planting. To aid in a humble way this 
good work the following pages are written, and if they 
shall make for the trees one true friend I shall esteem 
myself repaid for writing them. In closing this part 
of my work it will only be proper for me to make 
my most humble acknowledgment to Charles Bryant, 
