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FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 11 
plains, and from the Nebraska line to the Indian Territory. The high- 
est of high prairie and the low level bottoms of the Arkansas, but a 
few feet above the level of the river, alike send the same report, ‘‘ Tim- 
ber culture seems to be made profitable in this county.” 
Taking the older counties, Leavenworth reports: 
Timber groves were planted in 1860, of cottonwood chiefly, and on upland, many 
of which are 50 feet high. 
And taking the newer counties, Saline reports : 
The age of the oldest successfully grown timber lot or grove in the county is not 
over ten years old; was planted on low lands, and composed of cottonwood. The 
average diameter of these trees is 12 inches and the height 50 feet. 
The correspondent from Sumner County reports: 
Timber-growing can be made a profitable investment. My first planting, now eight 
years old, affords me posts and poles for their uses on the farm and considerable fuel. 
I would not be without it for $50 an acre. 
These extracts are from the report two years old; as to laterevidence, 
Hon. Martin Allen, of Ellis County, an old resident of extreme western 
Kansas, writes: 
I have myself been cutting and using timber for a number of years that has grown 
on the prairie since I came here, and many others within my knowledge are doing 
the same. Even the slow-growing black walnut has made annual additions of near 
an inch in the diameter of its trunk. 
Hon. H.C. St. Clair writes from Belle Plain, Sumner County, Kansas: 
In this county there are thousands of acres of cultivated timber. Every good 
farmer, one that has now come to stay, has from one to ten, and some twenty, acres in 
timber, consisting of cottonwood, walnut, ash, elm, box elder, maple, ailanthus, and 
catalpa. It is true that some varieties are of slow growth, and a beetle destroys the 
cottonwood on the high lands; but where timber lots are cultivated like an orchard, 
as they should be, timber-raising is a success, and money spent by the government to 
encourage timber culture on the plains is well spent. 
Theodore Boggs writes from McPherson County, in Western Kansas: 
There have been a great number of timber filings made in this county, and while 
some of them have been changed to homestead or pre-emption entries, there are a great 
many timber claims under a good state of cultivation, and the trees in most instances 
are heaithy and doing well. I have trees on my farm near McPherson planted in the 
spring of 1873 that are as large at the butt as a man’s thigh, and they are healthy and 
show no signs whatever of decay. The repeal of the timber-culture act would be a 
very bad thing for the plain regions, and I should be sorry to have it done. There 
are timber claims in this county that could not be had for $5,000, and inside of five 
years they cannot be had for $10,000. There is no question about the success of tim- 
ber on these prairies if it is only planted and cared for. ~ 
So much may be gathered of the results of tree-planting in Kansas. 
Nebraska in the matter of systematic forestry is far in advance of 
Kansas. Possessing a much smaller area of natural timber than Kan- 
sas, the efforts uf the people to cultivate artificial forests have been more 
vigorous. The statement is made by J. T. Allen, forester of the Union 
Pacific Railroad, that Nebraska has now growing, and in the best pos- 
sible condition, oe ty-five million of forest trees, a this planting ex- 
tends 300 ales west of the Missouri River. 
