TREES ON THE PLAINS. 
7 
These have both been thinned to eight feet apart each way. 
They are nearly all ash trees. The tallest tree in each grove 
is an elm. The grove north of Lansing is on a high divide, 
while the one near Logan is on flat land where it may get 
some extra water. 
There are many other places where small groves are 
still kept in good condition. Near Thurman, Mr. Joseph 
Schrock has a row of ash trees near his corrals which measure 
from thirteen to twenty-nine inches in circumference. 
These are planted where the snow piles up around them 
every winter. At the same place, a cottonwood tree grow¬ 
ing near a water tank is kept in a thrifty condition by the 
waste water. 
One of the most widely known of the groves on high 
prairie is that of Success Kerns who lives three miles north¬ 
east of Claremont. Intensive cultivation has been practiced, 
and no irrigation. Mr. S. L. Howell, near Vona, has raised 
some nice groves on the high prairie. 
I have taken records of many other groves, but these 
are the ones that seem most likely to receive continuous 
care. 
Of the trees growing where water is near the surface, 
Cope’s grove, at Cope, on the Arickaree bottom, presents 
the best example. About twenty acres were planted to trees 
there during the years 1887—1890. Cottonwood, boxelder 
and ash are the principal varieties, between five and six 
acres of trees still remaining. The best part of the grove is 
cottonwood trees which grow where water is from two to 
five feet below the surface. Many of these are forty to fifty 
feet high, and some are three feet in circumference. 
TREES — Miscellaneous . 
The best example of how one may use the natural con¬ 
ditions, as slopes, ravines, and so on, to help trees and crops 
is found at the place of James Howell, who lives seven miles 
northeast of Flagler. The forest trees which are mainly 
black locusts are set in clumps and hedges so as to make a 
dense windbreak. The orchard is on the right bank of a 
creek which runs southeast. A well at the southeast corner 
of the orchard, supplemented by a small storm-water reser¬ 
voir at the northwest corner, supplies water for irrigating, in 
a small way, where need is greatest. The ravine has been 
dammed and the extra water conducted past the grove 
through an artificial channel, leaving the old channel dry 
below a pond of water which at times is several feet deep. 
