A MUTILATED LAND. 7 



possession of a worn-out farm. There is mucii White Pine in the 

 East, but I think you seldom see a grove witli trees of a cen- 

 tury's growth. Old as the country is and crowded with eventful 

 history, it does look refreshing to see kindly Nature cleaning up 

 after men and making the country new and fresh again. 



The same condition is found in the South. The old wornout 

 plantations are buried with fresh forests; everywhere the trees 

 are edging into the fields and there is a constant warfare be 

 tween the forest and the plow. 



Again, the soil of the ' great prairies is absolutely hungry 

 for trees. I came to this place, where the city of York now 

 stands, in 1871. There was not a bush or a tree growing then. 

 We began immediately*to plant. Now ours is called the Forest 

 City. In compaj'atively few years we have trees three feet 

 through, and some of them would make 500 feet of lumber. 

 Conifers planted in the early days have done remarkably well, 

 and if, thirty or forty years ago, forests of Ponderosa and 

 Austrian Pines had been planted by this time they would have 

 brought fabulous returns. 



Every farmer on his own place can help in this universal 

 work of restoration. He can stop the wash from the side hills 

 by planting them to trees. He can dam up the ravines and 

 catch and hold the soil which would otherwise go to the gulf. 

 He can plant his lowlands to oottonwoods where nothing else 

 will grow and those trees will pump gold out of the rich mud. 



