10°. FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
The first efforts to repair the deficiencies of nature were those made 
by individuals. All through the country embraced in the limits of this 
report is found a tree of quick and early growth, requiring little in the 
way of sustenance, living a long time on water alone, planting itself in 
the most unexpected places and sowed by the busy winds. This tree 
is the cottonwood, and being the first at hand it was everywhere seized 
upon by the settler and planted by thousands about the homestead 
shanty, along the boundaries of the prairie claim, and in the little public 
squares and along the streets of the villages which spring up in a week 
ora month. Although time and trial have proved that the cottonwood 
will not sustain itself on the high prairie unless carefully cared for, 
dying like the Indian with the growth of civilization, it will yet be held 
in remembrance in this western country as the first of trees, and its 
planting as the beginning of forestry. Many a settler in years to come 
will recount how the armful of little cottonwoods, whicl: he pulled with 
his hands on the sandy bank of the river and carried to his claim, fur- 
nished in time the first shelter from the fierce winds and the burning 
sun. : 
In time the pioneer tree was followed by others, the black walnut, the 
maples, the box elder, the catalpa, and with wonderful success. The 
denizen of the town in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska proved 
quite as enthusiastic a tree-planter as the farmer in the country, and 
in Kansas the newer the town, as a rule, the more zeal has been dis- 
played in the matter of tree-planting. Lawrence, the university city 
of Kansas, after twenty-five years is a town full of verdure; but the 
same is true of Wichita, a town which seven years ago stood treeless 
on the bare, sandy bank of the Arkansas. 
As to the results of individual effort, without encouragement from 
the State or from societies, a small portion of the immense amount of 
evidence which might be furnished is herewith submitted. 
The latest standard authority on tree culture in Kansas is the ‘‘See- 
ond report on Forestry, by the Kansas State Horticultural Society.” In 
this pamphlet, in the shape of county reports, is briefly summarized the 
results of tree-planting in Kansas, together with the teachings of expe- 
rience in regard to proper varieties, Wc. 
The counties reporting, through careful observers and practical tree- 
growers, are Allen, Atchison, Barbour, Barton, Butler, Chautauqua, 
Cherokee, Crawford, Cloud, Cowley, Davis, Dickinson, Edwards, Ellis, 
Elk, Harper, Harvey, Jackson, Jefferson, Jewell, Johnson, Kingman, 
Labette, Leavenworth, Lincoln, Lyon, Marshall, Miami, Mitchell, Mac- 
‘pherson, Montgomery, Morris, Pratt, Ness, Nemaha, Neosho, Ottawa, 
“Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Reno, Rice, Rush, Russell, Saline, Sedgwick, 
Sumner, Wallace, Washington, and Woodson. <A glance at the map of 
Kansas will show that these counties represent every variety of soil and 
climate within the limits of the State, and from the earliest settled coun- 
ties, on the banks of the Missouri, to the newest, far out on the high 
