TREE SPECIES. oe 
pasturing this kind of land in western Kansas and Nebraska is 
usually not over 50 cents per acre, the tree crop actually yields 20 
per cent more than the pasture. 
The eagerness with which the natural forests were destroyed proves 
the value of timber to the people of this region. A second crop is 
sure to be worth no less. 
TREE SPECIES FOUND IN WESTERN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 
The great majority of the trees found within the regions covered 
by the present report entered it from the Missouri Valley region. 
This is true of all the trees of western Kansas, except the mesquite, 
wild china, and shittimwood, which reach up into the State from the 
south, and which, though interesting from a botanical standpoint, are 
not otherwise important. None of the Rocky Mountain species has 
succeeded in crossing the arid barrier interposed between them and 
western Kansas. The Arkansas River is the only highway of any 
consequence leading down from the mountains, and it has brought 
but a shrub or two. 
Much of western Nebraska is really a foothill region, and in it 
eastern and western species mingle. The rock pine, western red 
cedar, Bebb willow, aspen, narrowleaf and lanceleaf cottonwoods, 
western birch, valley mahogany, western serviceberry, buffalo berry, 
and dwarf maple have, without doubt, come down from the Rocky 
Mountains. 
Were it not for the first two of these mountain species, the pine 
and the cedar, the extreme western part of the State would contain — 
little tree growth of any value. 
The following pages contain a brief account of the trees found. 
The range given is in each case that within which they are definitely 
proven to occur. Later investigations may discover the same species 
in other localities, but it is believed that no species of any importance, 
from the forester’s standpoint, has been omitted. 
ROCK PINE. 
The rock pine (Pinus ponderosa scopulorum), commonly called bull 
pine or yellow pine, is a variety of the western yellow pine of the 
Rocky Mountains, which it closely resembles. Smaller and hardier 
than the western yellow pine, however, and preferring lower situa- 
tions, it is further distinguished from it by smaller cones, shorter 
needles, and the fact that the needles are often borne in bundles of 
two instead of three. It is most abundant in Cheyenne, Banner, 
Scotts Bluff, Sioux, Dawes, Sheridan, and Cherry counties, Nebr., 
and reaches its best development in Sioux and Dawes counties. 
