The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-06-07
Timber Prospects for the West.
by c. :. HARRISON.
OF May Flower Colony, York, Nebraska

turns which reward the laborcr, and the ease
with which farming can be carried on by
machinery; but then" they say, there /.
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 rap
idity Thirty years ago people made the same
objection to going to Illinois which they now
make to going to Nebraska; but notwith
standing the wood that has burned, and the
millions of railroad ties which have been fur
nishcd, there is more timber in Illinois today
than ever. All through Nebraska, timber
planting is an enthusiasm. Every farmer
plants Stock Companies are planting large
tracts; and Railroad Companies are raising
timber. Millions of trees are annually sci
out from the forests, and hundreds ofnurseries
are propagating on Il grand scale One firm
raised over twenty millions of conifer,e alone,
and cannot supply the demand One Patent
Office Report estimates that 10000 acres are
annually planted in 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 ever
greens in the heart of II once bleak prairie
Conitcrp succeed much better in the loan of
the West, than in their native Michigan or
New York. Arthur Byrant of Princeton, Hi.
nois, brother to the poet, has great variety,
Some of his evergrcens are forty feet high,
and five feet in circumference, though only
twenty years old Mr.. SCotield, of Elgin, has
European larches Is yrs. old, forty feet high,
and foot in diametcr--capable of making
two railroad ties and two fence posts, to the
tree. A few months ago we visited Mr.. Ed
wards, one of the tree planters of the West
and it seemed as though the wand of Il mag.
! ician had passed over that prairie land. What
transformation had been produced in a score
of years Walks wind through his grounds
empowered with perennial green. Here are
frs which you would think half century
old; there, pines large enough for house tim
berS and the Norway spruce, serving as stable
for fowls and cattle. Many cattle raisers are
planting eversreens for the protection of their
stock; and the shelter is so complete 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 ofthis tree,
six years planted, and four feet apart in the
row. so intcrlaced that the snow could hard
" j}on throughit.
In Iowa and Nebraska, fine artificial for.
eStS diversity the once unbrokcd prairies; and
we have seen soft naples so thrifty, that after
six wears, ten acres would supply a family
lOI CIVIL Dlttth. walnut, NiSHt'Nh yN"iS cA',
has Welded at the rate of forty cords of wood
per acre. Cottonwoods, fifteen years old, are
found that yielda cord to the tree. In one in
stance row of Lombardy poplar, ten rods
long, and twenty years old, yielded twenty
cords of wood-twO cords to the rod. White
willows set out as hedge soon yielded am
pie returns of fuel.
There is an alarming prospecs for our
Northern forests, Having visited the centers
of our lumber trade, we find that seventeen
years will complete the pineries. Soon after
our pine is gone our hard wood forests (Which
now supply our manufactures, our agricultu-
raj enterprises and car works. VIII also be
destroyed.
Thirty years will, inevitably, see the East
denuded Oftimber, while groves, large enough
for building and manufacturing purposes
will adorn the West. If properly tended,
trees will grow to ii good size in thirty years.
There is a great difference between Il natural
and an artificial forest Before us, as wei
write, is section of Scotch pine, thirteen
years old, and Thirteen inches through, and
the tree was thirty five feet high Go into
artificial forests, and you will find that trees
often make diameter of one inch year, and
and height of two feet; and We hare known
white pines to grow even three or four feet a
wear The soft woods sometimes show a
yearly circle of an inch in thickness. giving..a
supply of lumber IN few years
We must plant them both East and West.
The ease with which our Western soil can be
its freedom from stumps and
stones, and its chaapncss, give every adyan.
tage to the Western planter. But it is said
there are beds of coal at the East; so there
are in the West. Illinois, iowa, and Nebras
ka appear to be well stored with coal
But too much reliance should not be placed
IN coal. 1t does not grow, and consequently |
it must ultimately become exhausted Eng. |
land supposed she had supply for thousand
years: but last summer Il coal panic 80 severe
" affected the industries Of that country that
the shock was felt almost AL over the world.
The only trouble with the fuel question i'll
Nebraska Is for the next fen years. We can
raise wood in that time There i. II grove OF
cottonwood in Seward county, which, when
only four years old, showed trees four inches
through and fifteen feet high; andlfthere had
been ten acres Of it, it would, from that age,
have yielded family perpetual supply. |
Cottonwood from the seed often springs up
in corn fields, and grows as high as the corn,
six fcct) the same year. We'll, for the next
five or ten years what VIII you do The
herd law obviatGs the necessity of fencing, |
yet the people are planting fences, which can
not blow down CT rot; and, harsh rs 1t may
sound to Eastern ears corn makes an excel
lent fuel 1t is ascertained that a pound OF
corn is worth as, much As IA pound OF coal
and there is gererally such a plethora of this
that it can be had for fuel much |
cheaper than many Eastern households can be
supplied with coal The question of pressed
fuel, from weeds and straw, is now being agi-
lated; and in western Iowa, compressed hay |
Is also used. Seeding forest trees are fur
n ishpl ot from 81 TO $40 pcr thousand
In the United States Land Office, at Lincoln,
more than $4,000 homesteaders and pre-emp
tors, have filed claims to prairies, and nearly |
3 600 others have bought them of the Burling- |
on & Missouri River Railroad, on ten years |
credit, six per cent. interest; and on contracts
since 1872, no part OF the principal payable, till
he beginning of the fifth year
Kriegspiel is the rage in the English army
On every hand the officers may be seen with
little boards before them, something Ike