FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 3D 
when railroad ties cannot be secured at any figure. Why should nota 
ereat railroad company, with millions of acres at its disposal, raise its 
own railroad ties? Wehave spoken elsewhere of the very praiseworthy 
experiments of the railroad companies in the direction of tree-planting, 
But the experience of tensof thousands of practical men, farmers and oth- 
ers, has shown that as far as Minnesota, lowa, Kansas, and Nebraska are 
concerned, the era of experiment has passed. Itis, for instance,as well 
known nowas it ever will be, that the catalpa, the black walnut, the osage 
orange will thrive, and that they may be profitably cultivated. Instead, 
therefore, of continuing the discussion of a settled question, the rail- 
road corporations should set out trees; not by the hundreds of acres, 
but by the thousands. Thisis a case where timidity, conservatism, and 
niggardliness mean loss. There are many ways, too, in which railroad 
corporations may foster the forest interests, as the distribution of forest- 
tree seedlings, nuts, and seeds. <A private firm, R. Douglas & Son, of 
Waukegan, have sent out millions of trees in packages by mail. A 
ereat railroad company could do this on an even greater scale with 
the prospect of a sure return. Ina few years they wouldnot be obliged 
to seek remote and almost inaccessible mountains for ties, but would 
have them growing within sight of their own tracks for hundreds of 
miles. We do not doubt that the facts here set down will be recognized 
as the truth sometime, but every day of delay is a day of loss. But 
after the national government has done what it may, after State gov- 
ernments have done what lies in their power, the question of reforesting 
and of supplying with forest the region now destitute depends upon the 
people, and their action depends on an affirmative answer to the ques- 
tion, ‘* Does it pay ?” 
LET US PLANT FOR OURSELVES. 
We have, in a previous chapter, demonstrated that the planting of 
forest trees does pay; but the evidence which can be given within the 
limits of a report like this is but a drop in the ocean of procurable 
testimony. From tke sandy plains of Cape Cod, swept by the bitter 
winds of ocean, where pine plantations have successfully been culti- 
vated, to the sage-brush plains of Colorado, the answer is the same, 
that trees as a crop are profitable, paying as surely as corn or the other 
cereals. Those who have not made the subject a study have no con- 
ception of the amonnt of printed matter that has been and still is con- 
stantly accumulating on this subject; the observations of individuals, 
the reports of committees, the transactions of societies, cover hundreds 
of thousands of pages, and in them all there is not the evidence of a 
single human being to the effect that he had lost time or money in 
planting trees. Much sentimental talk has been indulged in concern- 
ing our duty to the next generation. We should plant trees, it is said, 
under which our grandchildren may repose. This is doubtless a fine 
and ennobling sentiment, but the average American citizen cares little 
