THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
SlrboiiiidtMral> 
TREE PLANTING.—No. 3. 
DR. JOHN A. WARDER. 
What are Forest-Trees? Rulings of the 
General Land Office. Why are Ca- 
talpa speclosa; Maclura au- 
rantiacaand Ailanthus 
glandulosaall re¬ 
pudiated ? 
What are forest trees in the eye of the law, 
as set forth in the Act of Congress for the en¬ 
couragement of Timber Planting—passed 
June 14, 1878 i 
This matter has just been so forciby brought 
to the front by rulings of the Land Depart¬ 
ment, it is one of such great importance as a 
question in forestry, aud, withal, it is of such 
vital importance to the poor settlers who 
have been struggling on the treeless plains to 
secure homes on the public domain bj plant¬ 
ing trees, that it is now asking a place in your 
columns appropriated to forestry, 1 hough not 
in the order proposed in the programme sent 
with this series. 
The following extracts will sufficiently ex 
plain the situation in which tho tree-planters 
find themselves placed—they must lose their 
timber claims and tlx hr labor uuder this un¬ 
fortunate ruling of tho General Land Office. 
Reply to the appeal of CL G. Brackett, Sec¬ 
retory of the Kansas S,;ate Horticultural 
Society on behalf of settlers under the Timber 
Act, whose plantations of certain kinds of 
trees had been ruled out. 
Reply:—“ The Honorable Commissioner of 
the General Land Office has decided that 
Osage Orange, Cutalpa and Ailanthus, are not 
“ timber trees” within ttie meaning of the Act 
of J uuo 12. 1878, consequ mtly the planting of 
either of those is not—under present ruling— 
deemed a compliance with the requirements 
of said act.” * * * Signed by 
Sept. 13, 1881, B. F. Hanna, Register. 
Extracts from a letter of Hon. N. C. 
McFarland, Commissioner General Land 
Office, Washington, D. C., to Hon. D. C. 
Haskell, M. C., from Kansas, who had pre¬ 
sented the alignments of G. C. Brackett in be¬ 
half of the settlers under the Timber Act. 
“ It is only to the varieties which from 
their superior size or other qualities are com¬ 
monly used for building and the manufacture 
of lumber that the term timber is applied. 
“So far ns I have 
been able to ascertain, 
the varieties of trees 
enough for economic uses, and possessing 
pi-operties that will adapt them to the various 
needs of the arts of civilization; such as are 
good for fuel, for construction, for railways, 
bridges and for various arts and economies. 
Of the several numerous species that may 
be selected, some are larger, some smaller, 
some are more, some less, valuable, some fur¬ 
nish soft woods, some hard woods, some ai'e 
very durable, some are perishable; so also 
some are adapted to oue soil, some to another, 
and this is of great importance to the prairie 
planter. 
As to the higlxt required to make them rank 
as ti'ees, an arbitrary standard of 30 feet has 
been proposed, but many plants of less size 
have been found valuable accessories of the 
forest and are used as nurses to occupy tem- 
porarily the interspaces between the more 
valuable permanent trees. 
By the decisions above quoted, it would 
seem that the authorities have ruled out some 
of our most valuable aud promising forest 
ti'ees, important factors of the groves and 
plantations of those who are taking advan¬ 
tage of the so-called Timber Acts of Congress; 
meanwhile many trees of far inferior charac¬ 
ters have never been questioned. Surely, 
while they accept the Cotton-woods, the Box 
Elders, the White Maples, with the foreign 
Lombai'dy Poplars and White Willows, which 
very properly constitute the vast majority of 
trees planted on these timber claims (and 
most worthy they are as pioneers), it does 
seem passing sti ange to intelligent planters to 
hear that such trees as tho Western Catal- 
pa, the Osage-Orange and the Ailanthus 
should have been tabooed. Surely the Land 
Office cannot have been in consultation with 
the U. S. Department of Agriculture and its 
Commissioner of Forestry, much less with its 
distinguished botanist, or such a decision 
would never have been reached. 
These three species, with the elms, the oaks, 
tho walnuts, the maples, the wild cherry and 
white-ash will, as they deservedly should, oc¬ 
cupy prominent places among the deciduous 
ti'ees of our Western wood-lands, so soon as 
the “ cheap trees,” the pioneers above named, 
shall have erected wind-barriers for their 
protection. After these we may hope success¬ 
fully to plant many other species, among 
them the most valuable conifers, pines, 
spruces, larches, etc., that cannot exist on the 
open and wind-swept pi’airies without such 
protection. 
valuable properties. Both of them have been 
largely propagated and planted in regions far 
beyond their natural habitats, and they have 
been tested from Massachusetts to Nebraska. 
Millions of them are annually produced from 
seeds, and the young ti'ees are planted to pro¬ 
duce future economic forests over a broad 
area where they ax-e much needed. Would 
this be done were they not known to be For¬ 
est Trees in the true sense of the words ? 
The recognized importance of the Catalpa 
speciosa has induced a pi'ivate citizen to 
travel several thousand miles for the sake of 
studying its capabilities and to demonstrate 
the superiority of this Western form to the 
kind heretofoi'e cultivated, chiefly as an orna¬ 
mental shade tree. 
The Osage Orange has long been grown iu 
immense numbers for the purpose of hedging, 
but it has also been introduced into timber 
plantations, and it will be still more largely 
used in that way than for agricultural use as 
a fencing material. The tx-ee attains a good 
size, and the wood is very valuable, hard and 
durable—applicable to many purposes in tho 
arts. It was famous among the aborigines, 
and called by the French settlers the Bois 
d’ arc, or Bow-wood, hence our familiar mime 
Bodark. 
The ailanthus is an Asiatic plant brought 
from Northern China in the last century; it 
has been lai’gely planted in the reforesting of 
waste lands iu Europe, and has been long 
enough in this country for us to have made 
its acquaintance. Despite the outcry raised 
against its odor, when the male plants were 
ixijudiciously used in ornamental planting 
near our dwellings, the tree has grown into 
favor in consequence of its great value as 
fuel and as wood for cabinet-making and 
other purposes. It is so especially adapted to | 
sterile soils and arid climates that it was rec- | 
ommended 30 years ago for extensive plant¬ 
ing on these very Western plains where it is 
now vexy highly appreciated, and still moi'e i 
recently its planting has been urged by the j 
high authority of Prof. C. S. Sargent, of the 
forestry branch of the Census Bureau, and 
on his recommendation plantations have been 
made on the thin, sandy plains of the Atlan¬ 
tic coast. A single firm now have many bush¬ 
els of the seed ready for their own use in the 
propagation of plants the coining season, 
which they have contracted to set out ou 
some hundreds of acres of land in Kansas, 
where they have been extensively engaged in 
as of other native and foreign forest trees. 
Success to their efforts! 
As evidence of the high estimate of these 
forest trees among those who are planting in 
l Kansas auil chiefly iu tho open prairies of the 
wesfceru part of that State, the Secretary of 
the Kansas State Horticultural Society in¬ 
formed me that 85 counties report success 
with the Catalpa, and 30 counties succeed 
with the Maclura, says he in this connection: 
“More would be planted on claims under 
the Timber Act, if the restriction against 
these, which the settlers call “ their trees ” 
wei'e l'emoved.” 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
There is a lai'ge demand at the present 
time for horses for export, but the kinds 
wanted are not to be procured. Fashion and 
popular tastes greatly affect trade. The Eng¬ 
lish want work hoi'ses, principally for the use 
of street raili'oads—“tramroads” as they call 
them—larger than our common horses, but 
not so large and stylish as those required for 
carriages, and hardy and tough. Such horses 
come from Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and 
Indiana chiefly. The companies have learned 
that a good horse is cheaper than a poor one. 
Some of the teams at work on our car routes 
have cost §350, and at §125 to §175 there is a 
steady demand for them. 
I submit very willingly to the correction of 
your esteemed correspondent “A”,whom Ire- 
cognize as mi undoubted authority iu respectof 
what he writes in regard to the relative im¬ 
pel tanee of wool and mutton in England. And 
I admit that he is right as regai'ds the South 
Down, which is the first mutton sheep in that 
country aud perhaps the lightest wool bearer. 
This recalls to my mind the great variety of 
mutton sheep raised in England, some, if not 
all, of which are well worthy of attention 
here. The exquisite Welsh mutton raised in 
the high mountains of Wales, where the sheep 
pasture on the sweet but short herbage of the 
storm-swept slopes and the precipitous rocks 
and crags of that rough country, is in such 
high estimation that it is kept for sale even by 
the confectioners and the fancy grocerymen. 
The Scotch black-faced sheep and the Cheviot 
are also pre-eminently 
mutton sheep, while 
the Dorset is unex- 
named are of Southern 
origin. They some¬ 
times grow to a consid 
erablo size, aud may be 
profitably cultivated 
for their wood, but this 
is only in favorable 
localities. In other 
localities where public 
lands exist, they ai - e 
injux'ed by frosts and 
cannot be udvautage- 
ously grown for tim¬ 
ber. 
“ Although frequent¬ 
ly cultivated * * * 
it is believed that they 
(Catalpa, Usage Orange 
and Ailanthus) are not 
ordinarily used for 
building or the manu¬ 
facture of lumber; for 
these reasons it has 
heretofore been held by 
this office that they ai - e 
not timber trees within 
the meaning of the 
Timber-Culture Laws, 
and I see no good- rea¬ 
son to change the rul¬ 
ing. * * * 
“Thisruling includes 
the ailanthus with the 
other varieties men¬ 
tioned, and such hav¬ 
ing been the decision 
of my predecessors, 1 
do not think that I 
would be warranted in 
revei'sing it at this 
time. * * * 
N. C. MuFarx^and, 
Ooin’r.” 
Backsetting with Gang-plow—Fig. 37. 
celled for the produc¬ 
tion of market iambs, 
having a habit of 
breeding twice in the 
year, and generally 
having twins. Then 
there is the Romney 
Marsh sheep, a sort 
which naturally takes 
to low la mis and marsh¬ 
es and which seems to 
be proof against the 
fluke, which destroys 
i^py other kinds of 
sheep that may pasture 
on such lands, 
All of these could be 
profitably kept in this 
country in localities 
which ai'e nowtui’nid 
to very poor uses. Our 
mountain slopes and 
the drained seacoast 
lands which are now 
unproductive could be 
made to yield a prof¬ 
itable income to many 
thousands of farmers, 
who, with a very small 
capital, could purchase 
and improve such 
tracts. 
And yet there is not 
one of these varieties 
of sheep whose wool is 
not a matter of impor¬ 
tance to their own¬ 
ers. The little Shetland 
sheep, even, which in¬ 
habits the almost bare 
islands to the north 
of Scotland, produces 
The answer to the question at the head of 
this article seems simple enough to the pi'ac- 
tical common sense of those who are endeav¬ 
oring to clothe portions of our vast Western 
plains with trees, to modify und ameliorate 
the climate, to check the force of the winds, 
to make those bi’oad expanses habitable, and 
to furnish useful material for the civilized 
human beings who are to occupy them. 
To these people “ foi est ti'ees” ai-e such as 
may be planted in masses or groups with a 
l'easouabie prospect of their becoming lai'ge 
But why and how could such a decision have 
been reached f Why should the Catalpa, the 
Maclura aud the Ailanthus be ostracized 
from the society of reputable trees • Why are 
they not acceptable Forest Trees ? The 
reasons given in the above extract evidence a 
lack of information such as is too px-evaleut, 
also, outside of the Department, but not in¬ 
curable, let us trust. 
The two species first named ai'e natives of 
our own wood-lands; they become majestic 
trees, and they are pos essed of some most 
such operations in past years. The same en¬ 
terprising nurserymen have grown and plant¬ 
ed out hundreds of acres of the Catalpa spe¬ 
ciosa in similar contracts with Western rail 
ways, and now have on hand some hundreds 
of pounds of the seed of this valuable tree 
ready for the next year’s sowing. 
Whatever may have been the decision of 
the Land Office, the people who plant on their 
own land will coutinue to set out bi'oad 
areas aud numerous groves of the Catalpa 
speciosa, of Maclura, and of ailanthus as wel; 
wool which is almost in as much demand as 
silk for the peculiar manufactures which de¬ 
pend upon it for a supply, such as the costly 
and delicate Shetland shawls and tiie fiuest 
and softest underwear and hose. Aud these 
productions give the whole reputation to this 
sheep, which would not be heard of were it not 
for its wooL 
When the first ancestoi's of the Cotswold 
sheep were brought fi-om Spain into England 
it was for their fleeces, and ever since these 
