FOREST PLANTING IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 3 
to induce planting by systems of tax exemptions, bounties, or prizes. 
Such provisions, however, have not always been caret drawn. 
In some eases the applicnsion of the law has been restricted to a cer- 
tain list of trees from which valuable species well adapted to planting 
have been omitted; the number of trees per acre specified for planting 
and the regulations regarding thinnings have not always been drawn 
in accordance with scientific principles of forestry; the period of 
exemption, or bounties, has sometimes been too short, applying only 
when the trees are small and the taxes on them normally light. 
Assessors, moreover, have sometimes adopted the practice of adding 
enough to the assessment of some other property of the timber owner 
to make up for the reduction on his plantation. Laws of this kind, 
however, even though they may have shown little in the way of 
results, indicate a willingness on the part of the various States to 
encourage forest planting. 
STATUS OF FOREST PLANTING IN THE REGION. 
PRAIRIE REGION. 
The settlers in the prairie region came from wooded countries and 
knew the value of trees for protective purposes. In consequence, 
they planted timber trees primarily for protection against the cold 
winds of winter and the hot, drying winds of summer. Wood pro- 
duction was a secondary consideration. By 1885 Kansas had 147,340 
acres of forest plantation, and Iowa, at about the same time, had 
100,000 acres. From 50 to 75 per cent of the trees set out were the 
hardy, rapid-growing cottonwood, silver maple, and willow. Among 
the other species represented were green ash, black walnut, butternut, 
balsam fir, European larch, Norway spruce, white spruce, black 
cherry, Pee red cedar, Scotch pine, white pine, black locust, 
osage orange, honey locust, and hardy catalpa. In one portion or 
another of the prairie region each of these species has found conditions 
favorable for growth. 
However, the hardwoods that were most generally planted are 
not so good for windbreak purposes as are the conifers, which retain 
their fohage through the winter. Because of this fact, and also 
because many of the older plantations are maturing, the latter are 
now being removed. Much of the land they have occupied is worth 
from $100 to $150 or more per acre when put in agricultural crops. 
For this reason forest planting is no longer being carried on to any- 
thing like the extent it once was, though extravagant claims made 
for hardy catalpa by certain tree agents have resulted in a consider- 
able quantity of this species being set out recently for post and pole 
production. 
