32 FOREST BELTS OF WESTERN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 
heart of the plains by following up the water courses tributary to the 
Missouri River. It is therefore quite certain that with protection 
they will in the future steadily win new territory. 
VALUE OF FOREST EXTENSION. 
The study that is here reported makes it clear that the forests of 
western IXansas and Nebraska are much more restricted in area and 
poorer in character than they need be. In many localities soil and 
climate are hospitable to trees, and enough has been learned about 
the reproductive powers of the various native species to warrant the 
assertion that where old trees capable of furnishing seed exist, in such 
places forests may be established at no greater cost than is entailed in 
keeping cattle and fire from the land. 
The pine areas are commonly of little value for agriculture, and the 
question 1s simply whether they will yield a higher rent in forest or 
as stock range. That it takes a long while to grow trees fit for any 
practical purpose is true, yet a region without trees can never be per- 
manently prosperous, and few farmers can do better for their prop- 
erty than by establishing groves upon it. The Government is so well 
convinced of the practicability of growing trees from seed in this sec- 
tion that it has created two forest reserves, containing 208,000, acres, 
in the sand hills of Nebraska, and proposes to plant trees upon them. 
There are now about 2,500,000 pine seedlings in the nurseries at 
Halsey, Nebr., and young trees have been planted in their permanent 
places in the near-by hills. A> similar sand-hill reserve of 97,280 
acres has recently been established near Garden City, Kans., for the 
sale purpose. 
Definite figures regarding the profitableness of maintaining forests 
in this region can not be given because the growth has been so rarely 
fostered. It is possible, however, to learn from the data given in the 
foregoing tables that on pieces of land now given over to stock a 
stand of trees can be obtained in a comparatively few years whose 
value will exceed the accumulated rents as pasture. Thus, according 
to Table X. in favorable situations white elm grows at the rate of 1 
inch in diameter in about two and a half years. This means that it 
takes thirty years to produce a tree 12 inches in diameter. Green ash 
grows somewhat more slowly, and cottonwood and willow more 
rapidly. 
Tables VII, VIII, X, and XI show that a hundred 12-inch trees 
can easily grow on an acre, so that it is safe to assume that an acre 
of land will produce 20 cords of wood in thirty years. Leaving ov 
of account the value of some of the trees for lumber, and assuming 
that all are sold at $2 per cord on the stump for firewood, the net 
return is $40. This is equivalent to 60 cents received yearly and 
placed at 5 per cent compound interest. As the annual return froi 
