FOREST EXTENSION. 41 



woodlot, and in the great majority of cases there is some hill or slope 

 or ravine where timber growth would furnish valuable protection 

 against soil erosion. 



The advantage to the farmer of raising his own timber and fuel sup- 

 plies is, as a rule, as self-evident as that of raising his own meat and 

 vegetables in addition to staple crops. In the Lignitic Belt, in hilly 

 central Texas, and along the streams of the central prairie region, the 

 welfare of the community as a whole positively demands that a large 

 percentage of timber growth be permanently maintained. This end 

 could be secured if every farmer and ranchman would preserve the 

 timber covering on the land he could well spare from cultivation. 

 And the preservation of the timber is entirely compatible with its pro- 

 ductive utilization by the owner if a proper j>1<di of management is 

 adopted. But the latter condition is just as essential in the case of 

 the small owner as for the management of large forests in the pine 

 country. 



In many localities — in the case of cedar and pine lands, and on river- 

 bottom farms where large oaks, ash, hickories, walnut, and the like 

 now occur — the farm timber tract is capable of being made to yield 

 still larger returns by the production of marketable timber. 



FOREST EXTENSION. 



The preservation of timber on areas where it occurs naturally 

 requires little consideration of what species are to be raised or how to 

 plant them. The establishment of tree growth on land not naturally 

 timbered is a veiw different matter. In the former case nature has 

 already furnished the answer to the question what kinds of trees will 

 flourish; man has only to select. In the latter case the conditions 

 must be carefully studied, and oftentimes painstaking experiments 

 must be carried on with trees introduced from other and perhaps dis- 

 tant regions, to discover the right kinds and the way to make them 

 grow. 



The great diversity of climatic conditions in Texas presents very 

 different problems in different parts of the State. The two chief 

 factors in these problems are moisture and temperature. The absence 

 of timber is due primarily to lack of rainfall. This is true of the Red 

 Beds, the Staked Plains, the lower Rio Grande Plain (i. e., the Coast 

 Prairie west of the ninety-eighth meridian), and, in general, all of 

 Texas west of this meridian. In all these regions irrigation would be 

 necessary at least part of the time. East of the ninety-eighth merid- 

 ian tliere are large areas of treeless prairie with an annual rainfall suf- 

 ficient to support certain kinds of trees. Such are the Grand Prairie, 

 the Black Prairie, and the Coast Prairie east of the ninety-seventh 

 meridian. 



