FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 23 
which protected the land from the ravages of fire. It was called Bird Island. I 
could refer you to any number of illustrations to show you that trees will grow on 
these prairies if you will only let them, and also that by the slightest effort nearly all 
of the valuable timber-producing trees may be successfully grown out on the prai-_ 
ries. 
The evidence of E. T. Byram, county surveyor of Jewell County, Kan- 
sas, is to this effect: 
If any one has any doubt about this matter he has only to pass through this and 
adjoining counties and see the beautiful small groves and windbreaks of different 
varieties of forest trees to be fully convinced that trees will grow on the prairies 200 
miles west of the Missouri River. There has no doubt been a great deal of decep- 
tion and fraud practiced in regard to timber entries; but the same may be said in re- 
gard to homesteading. I do not know how these evils can be remedied, but I do 
know that, although I have less than three years remaining of my threescore and 
ten, yet if I needed to do so I would plant forest trees with an abiding trust that I 
would live to reap the benefit of my labor, and that in less than ten years I would 
have all the fuel I would need year in and year out. 
Loren Listoe, of the United States land office at Fergus Mills, Minn., 
gives his opinion as follows: 
In this land district but three timber claims have so far been proved up; upon all 
of these the trees were in good condition, and one of them which I have myself in- 
spected presents to-day as fine an appearance as if it was a regular nursery, com- 
posed of cottonwood, ash, and white willow; the trees are from 12 to 20 feet high, and 
some of them fit to be used for fence-poles to-day. I think it can be safely said that 
any man who will prepare his ground properly, and cultivate the trees after they are 
planted, can raise timber successfully in this State, and in Dakota, where I am ac- 
quainted. 
T. G. Clark writes from Osage County, Kansas, a hundred miles west 
of the Missouri River : 
Tree-planting on the prairies is no longer an experiment, but a successful business. 
The time has come in the history of this nation to encourage the planting of forest trees, 
and I think it unwise to repeal the timber act. I think the law should not restrict the 
planting of every valuable variety of trees, but let the settler plant such kinds as will 
succeed best. 
FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 
It is asserted that a vast portion of the interior country of the conti- 
nent, including portions of the States of Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and 
the Territories of Dakota, Wyoming, and New Mexico cannot be culti- 
vated without irrigation, and this brings up the very natural question, 
why should they not be cultivated with it? It is admitted that forests 
affect the rainfall, or at any rate the general humidity of the atmos- 
phere; whyshould not the rule be made towork both ways, and forests 
be sustained by the water now available, even in the most arid portions 
of the country, and the forests, on the other hand, be made to pre- 
serve and increase the supply of moisture ? 
The great open, high, and dry country of which we are writing, esti- 
mated in extent at three hundred miles wide and eight hundred miles 
long, is not naturally unfertile. It is not a sandy desert, or a rocky 
waste, of no intrinsic value for agricultural purposes, but the soil for 
