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young and thrifty trees, sprung up as it' by magic on a treeless prairie, 
and the lesson in arboriculture imparted by their future development 
will be of undeniable value to the country a< large, demonstrating not 
merely the possibility of successful timber growth ou open, stormy 
plains, but also the advantages gained by stocking idle and otherwise 
unproductive lands with valuable seedling trees which will develop into 
majestic forests. 
The time cannot be far distant when the attention of capitalists in- 
vesting so lavishly in railway properties will be directed towards a 
closer investigation of this financial question, and when once convinced 
of the feasibility of timber culture from a financial point of view, the 
step towards action will not appear so problematic as it must neces- 
sarily be before the hard crust of doubt and the uncertainty of eventual 
success is broken by actual experience, gained by the liberal invest- 
ments of the comparatively few far-seeing and philanthropic pioneers 
of American forest culture. 
Railway corporations are deeply interested in the perpetuity of suit- 
able material for the maintenance of their thousands of miles of track. 
The leading managers of the railways of the sparsely-timbered sections 
cannot fail to see the advantages to accrue in future years from a gen- 
eral interest in favor of timber culture aroused amongst the owners and 
tillers of the soil; a forward movement which can be most effectually 
promoted by making the people of every section along the various lines 
familiarly acquainted with the value and ease of culture of certain kinds 
of timber, in which not only the railways, but the people at large, are 
most prominently interested. 
No more effectual mode of arousing this interest can be suggested 
than that of railway corporations planting in various suitable localities 
along their lines specimen groves or blocks of such kinds of timber trees 
as are worthy of the greatest possible dissemination amongst the agri- 
cultural people. Let this timely enterprise, entailing but compara- 
tively small outlay, and within the reach of nearly every corporation, 
be conducted in accordance with the best arboricultural knowledge 
and experience of the day, and above all let the young plantations be 
properly cultivated until able to take care of themselves, and be pro- 
tected as far as possible from destructive fires, and success can be 
looked for with certainty. Let it be remembered, too, in this connec- 
tion, that a few successful, well-paying orchards, planted in early days, 
have done more service in the rise and spread of American fruit cult- 
ure than all the combined efforts of authors and orators on horticult- 
ural topics. 
