The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1873-06-12
TIMBER PROSPECTS FOR THE WEST
BY c.. S. HARRISON
Of May Fower Colony, York, Nebraska


Of May Flower Colony, York, Nebraska.
Thousands in the East would like to
have western homes. They have heard
OF the returns which reward the laborer,
and the ease with which farming can be
carried on by machinery "but then"
say they. "there is the scarcity of timber"
Having lived thirty years in FIVE Western
States, we are prepared to say something
OF our timber prospects.
Timber with US grows with wonderful
rapidity. Thirty years ago people made
the same objection to going to Illinois
which they now make to going to Nebras
ka; but Notwithstanding the wood that
has been burned, and the millions of rail
road ties which have been furnished,
there is more timber in Illinois to day,
than ever. All through Nebraska timber
planting is an enthusiasm Every farm
er plants. Stock companies plant large
tracts and Railroad Companies are rails
ing timber. Millions of trees are annual.
y set out from the forests, and hundreds
OF nurseries are propagating on grand
scale. Cine firm raise over twenty mil
lions OF cOnilere alone, and cannot sup.
ply the demand. One Patent Office Re.
port estimates that $50, 900 acres are an
nualy planted to timber. Last year one
third more trees were planted than two
years ago
Tree culture has proved success. 1t
is no uncommon thing to see groves of
evergreens in the heart of a once bleak
prairie. ConlerG succeed much better
in the loam of the West, than in their ma
tive Michigan or New York. Arthur
Bryant, of Princeton, Illinois, brother of
the poet. has great variety. Some of
his evcrgreens are forty feet high, and five
feet in circumference, though only TWEEN
ty years old. Mr.. Sco6eld, of Elgin, has
European larches fifteen years old, forty
feet high, and a foot in diameter-capable
of making two railroad ties and two fence
| posts, to the tree. A few months ago we
visited Mr. Edwards, one of the tree plan.
! ters of the West, and it seemed as though
the wand Of magician had passed over
that prairie land. What a transformation
had been produced in score of years.
Walks wind through his grounds, en-
powered with perennial green. Here are
| frs which you would think half cen.
tuary old there pines, large enough for
house timbers; and the Norway spruce,
serving as stable FOR fowls and cattle
Many cattle raisers are planting ever
greens for the protection Of their stock !;
and the shelteris so compile that few
dollars save the expense of barn. The
Norway spruce, by its foliage, with limbs
overlapping, is especially adapted for stock
shelter and we have seen hedge of this
tree, six years planted aud four feet apart
in the raw, so interlaced that the snow
could hardly Lloao through it.
La Iowa and Nebraska, fine artificial
forests diversity the once unbroken prai
ries and We have seen soft naples so
thrifty, that after six years, ten acres
would supply family for ever. Black
walnut, eighteen years old has yielded at
TIE rate of forty cords of wood per acre.
Cottonwoods, fifteen years old, are found
that will yield cord to the tree. In one
instance row Of Lombardy poplar, ten
rods long, and twenty years old, yielded
twenty cords Of wood cords to the
rod. White willows, set out as a hedge,
soon yielded ample returns of fuel
There is an alarming prospect for our
Northern forests. Having visited the
centers of our lumber trade, we find that
seventeen years will complete the destruc
tion of our pneries. Soon after our pine
is gone, our hard wood forests (Which
now supply our manufactures, our agri-
cultural enterprises and car works. will
also be destroyed
Thirty years will, inevitably, see the
East deuuded of timber, while groves,
large enough for building and manufac-
turing purposes, will adorn the West. If
properly tended, trees will grow to good
size in thirty years. There is great diff
ference between a natural and an artificial
forest Before US, as We write, is sec
tion of Scotch pine, thirteen years old,
and thirteen inches through, and the tree
was thirty FIVE feet high. Go into arti-
fetal forests, and you will find trees often
make diameter of one inch year, and
height OF two feet and We have known
white pines to grow even three and four
feet a year. The solt woods sometimes
show yearly circle of an inch in thick
ness, giving diameter Of two inches a