Sina FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
Dakota is a prairie country, and resembling in its general characteris- 
tics the adjoining portions of Nebraska and Minnesota. 
It will be seen that the region west of the Mississippi and east of the 
Rocky Mountains comprises a great variety of soil and climate, and 
really the region should be divided into great districts, each to be made 
the subject of investigation and report. In such a division one district 
might be properly made of Minnesota and Iowa; another of Eastern 
Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; another of Wyoming, Western Dakota, 
Montana, Idaho, and Colorado; another of New Mexico and Arizona; 
and yet another of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and the-In- 
dian Territory. In some sections timber grows naturally in abundant 
supply; in others the need is planting and cultivation; in others in 
addition to planting and cultivation, irrigation seems a necessity. In 
other districts the question is that of preservation. 
Every portion of our country is interesting in connection with the 
purposes and labors of the bureau of forestry, but the most interest- 
ing field of research and labor is that portion of the continent which is 
embraced within the limits of the States and Territories we have men- 
tioned, and the boundaries of which were defined as follows by Mr. H. 
M. Thomson, of Lake Preston, Dak., in a paper read before the Forestry 
Congress at Montreal at the meeting in August, 1882: 
The Great Plains extend from the southern limit of the Staked Plains in Texas 
northwardly about 20 degrees of latitude to the Saskatchewan River and Hudson’s 
Bay, and from an irregular east line, commencing in Texas, running through the 
eastern part of the Indian Territory, Eastern Kansas and Nebraska, Western Iowa, 
the big woods of Minnesota, and the Red River of the North; westwardly of this 
irregular eastern limit an average distance of about 10 degrees of longitude to the 
foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, and containing an area of about 950,000 square 
miles. If all this region possessed a propitious climate, and all the soil were suscep- 
tible of cultivation, the area is sufficient to make 3,800,000 farms of 160 acres each, 
and which, by the aid of a proper forest economy, may be made capable of supporting © 
an agricultural and pastoral population of fifty millions. 
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. 
The first great step toward the promotion of forestry in this country 
was what may be called a change of sentiment in regard to the value of 
forest trees, a change which has taken place within the last half century. 
The pioneers on the continent made their settlements along a heavily- 
timbered coast, and for the better part of two centuries literally hewed 
their way toward the interior of the country until the great prairies 
were reached. Trees were not only cut down for use, but were slashed 
and burned and girdled. It seemed to be the purpose of the early 
American settler to destroy as far as possible the native forest. The 
woodman’s ax was the symbol of civilization, and the State seal of In- 
diana bears the figure of a wood-chopper. 
The setting out of orchards was, of course, the work of the earliest 
pioneers, a passion for fruit trees having been brought from England ; 
7 a al Es le 
