Much of the cottonwood and willow, for example, which had done 

 well for several years on the upland, was either badly injured or killed. 

 Thus it is clear that in selecting a species for a given locality, not 

 only the average but the extremes of weather conditions must be taken 

 into account. 



FOREST PLANTING OF THE PAST. 



Nebraska is essentially a prairie State. Only about 3 per cent of 

 the total area was originall}^ covered with natural timber, and no- 

 where was the forest area large. Even in the eastern counties, where 

 the greatest amount of timber is found, probably less than 10 per cent 

 of the area was originally occupied by forest. The scarcity of natural 

 timber, together with the character of the climate, has led to an un- 

 usual amount of forest planting. The average of the figures returned 

 by the assessors for 1903 and 1904 shows that the entire State has 

 286,000 acres of planted timber. Of this amount, about 248,000 acres, 

 or nearly 87 per cent, is in the territory east of the ninety -ninth 

 meridian. 



The object in past planting was primarily to secure protection 

 against the storms and winds that so frequently visit Nebraska prairies. 

 Its commercial side was considered only incidentally. The tendency, 

 therefore, was to select the quick-growing species, especiallj^ those 

 near at hand, which could be had cheaply. Tho there has been a com- 

 paratively large amount of planting done, the major part is in poor 

 condition to-day. This may be accounted for in several ways. The 

 trees chosen were often ill adapted to the conditio'ns. Thus it frequently 

 happened that a species adapted primarily to the bottomland soils was 

 planted indiscriminately on the uplands, or that a species was planted 

 on sandy land which could succeed only in a loam with a clay subsoil. 

 Still another cause of failure has been lack of care and management. 

 There is scarcely a plantations in Nebraska which has been managed with 

 the same care that the enterprising farmer gives to his field crops. 

 Instead, the vast majority of plantations have had little care or none 

 at all. Almost invariably they have been made free range for live 

 stock. In many cases they have been severely damaged by unchecked 

 fires. Again, instead of improving the plantation b}^ cutting out the 

 dead, dying, and defective timber as material was needed, the better 

 trees have usually been selected. 



PRESENT STATUS OF FOREST PLANTING. 



In general, the planted area in eastern Nebraska is decreasing, tho 

 not uniformly so, for in some of the newer counties, particularly those 

 in the northeastern part of the State, there is an increase. However, 



[Cir. 45] 



k 



