6 FORESTRY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
oft times bare to their very summits, and at other times covered with 
piion and pines; its wide plains watered by inconstant, treeless streams 
and occasional ponds or lakes, traversed by but one stream of magni- 
tude—the red, turbid Rio Grande, its banks destitute of trees or verd- 
ure save where the patient Mexican has dug his acequia or irrigating 
ditch. Then to the westward lies Arizona, a country of mountains, 
bearing everywhere the traces of volcanic action, extinct craters, lava 
beds, and the veritable sandy desert. As the border of Mexico is ap- 
proached the barrenness increases. Nothing relieves it save where man 
has overcome it by irrigation. The Mexican does not rely on trees for 
his wood, but digs for fuel the heavy, branching roots of the mesquite, 
If the traveler, when within sight of Pike’s Peak, turns northward in- 
stead of southward, and keeps his course parallel with the mountains, 
his way will lead him over the high plains, better watered and less deso- 
late than those of New Mexico, but equally destitute of trees. Such is 
a general view of the country under discussion. 
When the first settlement of this region began, the north half of 
Minnesota was covered with white pine, and south and west of the pine 
belt was a large body of hard wood, consisting of white, red, and burr 
oak and sugar maple. Of the total forest of the State (pine and hard 
wood mixed, and hard wood), it is safe to say that fully one-half has 
disappeared. Of the total area of hard wood, it is estimated that but 
4,000,000 acres remain, the area of the State being, in round numbers, 
54,000,000 acres. | 
The history of Iowa is that of the prairie States generally. The set- 
tlers found on the banks of the Mississippi, the Des Moines, its principal 
tributary, and other streams, a considerable amount of timber. This they 
proceeded to use up, after the manner of the American pioneer, particu- 
larly when he encounters timber on the government lands. Nature 
has since been repairing damages, but native timber has long since 
ceased to be a matter of reliance. In 1875 the forest area of Lowa 
was estimated at 2,300,000 acres, the area of the State being 35,000,000: 
acres. 
Nebraska, as opened for settlement, was almost entirely destitute of 
timber. The supply was confined to the belt along the shifting banks 
of the Missouri, largely composed of willows and cottonwoods, with a 
hard growth in the bluffs and the ravines which intersect them. At 
the mouth of the Platte was a heavy body of cottonwood, and along the 
banks of that stream, where it was entered by tributaries, were groves 
‘of white and burr oak in area from 100 to 500 acres. Within the 
original limits of the Omaha land district, containing 2,560,000 acres, 
and comprising the most heavily timbered district of the State, the 
original plats showed but 75,000 acres of timber. 
Kansas, although counted among the “treeless” States, was, in the 
beginning, blessed with more forest than Nebraska. Pike, who ex- 
plored the country in 1806, speaks of the region now comprising the 
