The Kansas herald of freedom., 1859-03-19
For Me Hern,d of HtAadon,.

The season for planting trees is now upon
us; and word of encouragement to
those prepared to improve the precious
hour, can hardly be inappropriate.
Nothing will pay the husbandman in
our Kansas prairies SO literally as the
culture of trees-even cottonwood, where
the young sprouts can be obtained with
facility, will pay an hundred fold, where
they are cultivated with taste and judg-
ment upon the north and west of our hab-
itations. The writer has planted few
thousand cottonwood trees, and has known
Others to plant, and he feels justified in
saying that those who have planted would
not be deprived of their young forests for
five times their cost.
Locust, however, as a general thing, is
probably the most convenient and impor-
tant of all Others to propagate as a forest
tree. Having had some experience in the
cultivation of locust in the vigorous soil of
Kansas, I claim to know whereof | affirm
And am free to say, should feel my
sell remiss in duty, if should fail to urge
upon each of our prairie farmers to COM
mence at once the propagation of locust
grove. l must be allowed to say. how
ever, that we had better make up our
minds to perpetuatea cherries, shadeless,
bleak and dreary homestead, than to
waste our time and energies in the propa-
CATION of any kind of tree or shrub, upon
anything but well and deeply cultivated
soil, or where they will be exposed to the
depredations Of stock while small.
HOW TO vEGETATE LOCUST SEED.
After the twentieth of May, when the
ground is warm and in good condition,
put one-half pint of seed into one quart of
boiling water; if the seed have generally
become soft and of whitish color after
remaining in the water until cold, they are
ready for planting; if there should re-
main many black, hard, unswollen seed
after scalding, they should be separated
from the soft, and scalded again, as they
will not otherwise vegetate. The seed
should then be planted within one or two
days, in drills, about four feet apart, with
about six seed to the foot in the drills
Care should be taken to cover with fresh
moist soil, about as you would corn.
Managed in this manner, have found
them as certain to grow as corn. And in
Kansas, the past two years, 1 have found
the plants, when small, equally certain to
be visited by slim, lead-colored fly,
which have destroyed nine-tenths of all
my plants. I would suggest, as remedy,
the sitting of fresh lime or ashes upon the
rows at the first appearance of the fly.
HOW TO TRANSPLANT FROM THE NURSERY.
The ground selected for grove should
be well plowed, and the deeper the bet
ter; and for convenience in planting, the
plants should have but one seasons
growth, and should be moved off about
three inches from the ground before taken
up; and still further, to facilitate rapid
planting, would furrow off the ground,
as for corn, about eight feet apart; the
roots should then be taken from basket
and set in the row by hand, about six or
eight feet apart, then follow with a hoe
and bring up the earth about the plants,
packing well with the foot in this man.
ner each plant will be planted with about
the usual cost of planting hill of pota-
toes. If desirable, about the first of June,
after the plants have been well plowed,
row of corn can be successfully cultivated
between each row.
Every farmer who will plant at once,
from three to five acres only, will have,
in afew years, perpetual grove or forest
where he can cut small posts and stakes
to his hearts content, at his very door,
With straight posts and plenty of rye
straw, who cannot have thatched covering
for all the fine stock he may desire "a
word to the wise is sufficient"
Seed can be had at Leavenworth or St.
Louis, and single dollars worth, man
aged with care, will produce many thou
sands of trees, and ultimately, when
planted in a grove, will be worth hun
dreds if not thousands of dollars. The
venders of seeds can hardly do better
thing for Ksnsas than to keep on hand q
constant supply. One intelligent farmer
tells me that he has one hundred pounds
to plant for his own use the present spring;
and another, that he has ordered the same
quantity.
The undulating and varied surface of
our Kansas prairies, affords native scenery,
perhaps, the most beautiful and fascinat-
ing of any portion of the vast prairie ex-
panse of America. But when artificial
groves are tastefully interspersed upon
slope and hill top, we will doubtless have
the most chaste and resplendant scenery
known upon the habitable globe. Yours,
truly, LYMAN SCOTT.
Or The JAY-HAwKER will be COM
menced in the next number of the Her.