50 
opinion that it is better to plant as soon as the Jand can be properly prepared after 
breaking. My own personal experience leads me to coincide with this view, as the 
best stand of trees on my own place was treated in that way. The land had been 
broken in the spring and was planted with potatoes, the seed being dropped in the 
furrows after the breaking plow, a method often adopted by lazy farmers on the 
frontier. After the potatoes had been dug in the fall the land was plowed or “‘ back- 
set,” and marked out with the plow 4 feet apart one way. Into these furrows box- 
elder seeds were sown and a little dirt scratched over them with a garden rake. I 
called it the most slovenly job I had ever done in Dakota, but the trees from that 
planting have flourished better than any others on the place, and I am not sure but 
the newer the ground, if it is fit, the better. Of course the trees were hoed and kept 
clear of weeds every year. The trees have defied summer’s drought and winter's 
cold, and are now large enough to take care of themselves. I may add that the seeds 
thus carelessly planted were what remained after planting 5 acres on well-pulverized 
ground where no tree is to be seen to-day, so that the failure on the old ground can 
not be attributed to poor seed. 
A DISCOURAGING BUSINESS, 
From the above brief and imperfect presentation of the subject it will readily be 
inferred that tree culture on the western prairies is a very discouraging undertaking 
and one that has no poetry at all in it. The great obstacles in the way of snecess are 
the natural perversity of the soil and climate; the dry, hot summers; the intense, 
cold winters; the windstorms; the late frosts in the spring that cut down the young 
trees; the early frosts in the fall that prevent the sufficient ripening of the wood; 
the cutworms; poor seed; worthless varieties of trees; and last, but not least, neg- 
lect on the part of the owner. And vet, notwithstanding all these obstacles—and 
I appreciate their force to the fullest extent—I declare my belief that the time will 
come when these yast treeless areas will be ornamented with fine groves of timber 
that will shade the farmhouse from the burning rays of the suammer’s sun and afford 
shelter from the fierce blizzards of the pitiless winters. 
2, FOREST-TREE CULTURE IN DAKOTA. 
By J. W. SMITH. 
In giving my experience in tree-culture, after planting 60,000 trees in Central 
Dakota within the past 6 years, I will try to be brief and practical, dividing the 
subject as follows: 
First. Selection and preparation of soil. 
Second. Kinds of trees; how and where to plant; trees or seeds. 
Third. Aftercare and culture. 
Fourth. Errors of the past; the teachings of experience, and suggestions for the 
future. 
Almost any soil will produce trees under favorable circumstances, but soils differ 
greatly and the proper preparation of any soil is essential to success. Deep cultiva- 
tion and the total destruction of the prairie grasses and weeds is also necessary to 
secure the best results. An Iowa cultivator of evergreens once remarked to me that 
‘‘only time and thorough tillage could get the rawness out of new prairie soil so 
that evergreens would thrive.” This truth doubtless also applies to most deciduous 
trees. Thorough and deep preliminary cultivation, then, are essential to successful 
tree-growing on the prairies. 
The kinds of trees to be selected must vary with the climate, soil, locality, ete., ex- 
perience being the only sure guide. Native trees growing near in similar soil can 
hardly fail. Beyond that, where possible, it is best to be guided largely by the ex- 
perience of others, White and green ash, water or white elm, and box elder seem about 
