35 
Nebr. The result of this experiment is recorded in the Report of the 
Division of Forestry for 1891. Owing to the distance of the Bruner 
ranch from the railway (25 miles), and the consequent difficulties of 
inspection, it was thought best to abandon the plantation. It is suffi- 
cient here to say that the trees were planted on the crest and higher 
slopes of a sand ridge which supported a sparse growth of prairie 
grasses. Three plats were set in different mixtures and by different 
methods, as follows: In plat i, only conifers, Jack (Banksian), Scotch, 
Austrian, Red, and Rock (Bull) Pine, Douglas Spruce, and Arbor Viti 
were used, nearly one-half the trees being Jack (Banksian) Pine. 
The land was not plowed, but furrows were turned for the trees to be 
set in, the intervening spaces being left undisturbed, the purpose being 
to prevent the shifting of the sands. In plat 2, a mixure of conifers 
and hardwoods, three-fourths of the trees being of the latter type, were 
set asin plat1l. Plats 3 and 4 were plowed, and the trees were two- 
thirds conifers and one-third hardwoods. 
The plats were examined by the writer in 1894, and the only one 
which had made a stand was plat 1, which was planted 2 by 2 feet apart, 
and had received no cultivation; the Jack (Banksian) Pine seemed 
thoroughly adapted to the locality. The growth, while not large, was 
healthy and stocky, and the plat made a bright green mass in the brown 
and dry grasses visible from a distance of several miles. None of the 
other species had become well established, a few trees only of Red, Rock, 
and Scotch Pine having grown. In the other three plats scarcely a tree 
had survived. 
The experimental plantings herein described were begun in 1896. 
The first plantations were located on thefarms of the State Agricul- 
tural colleges of South Dakota (Brookings), Nebraska (Lincoln), Kan- 
sas (Manhattan), and Colorado (Fort Collins). During the year 1896 
arrangements were made for establishing stations at the Crookston and 
Grand Rapids farms of the Minnesota Agricultural College, and at the 
State Agricultural College of Utah, at Logan. During the present year 
arrangements have been made for extending the work, the new stations 
including the agricultural colleges of Texas, at College Station; Okla- 
homa, at Stillwater, and Montana, at Bozeman. 
The basis of these experiments is the following agreement, prepared 
in the Department of Justice by request of Secretary Morton: 
AGREEMENT made this 24th day of November, 1896, by and between the Secretary of 
Agriculture, hereinafter called ‘‘the Secretary,” and the Board of Regents of the 
State Agricultural College, hereinafter called ‘‘ the College.” 
I. The College agrees that a parcel o1 parcels of land of said college, located as may 
be hereafter agreed upon, and not exceeding twenty-five acres in the whole nor ten 
acres for the first year, shall be placed under the absolute control of the Secretary to 
enable him, acting through the appropriate otticials of the Department of Agricul- 
ture, ‘‘ to experiment and continue an investigation, and report on the subject of 
forestry and timbers, for traveling and other necessary expenses in the investigation, 
and for the collection and distribution of valuable amd economic seeds and plants,” 
in accordance with the provisions of an act of Congress of April 25, 1896, entitled 
