Connecticut western news., 1873-06-13
TIMBER PROSPECTS FOX THE
 WEST. s%
AA A A x r ,. { BIC. s. HARRISON, s Of May Flower Colony, York, Nebraska.

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 Thousands iin,the East would like to have western homes. They have heard of Ihe returns which reward the laborer, and the ease with which farming can be carried on by machinery; 'bnt then," they say, 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 tAe wood that has been burned, and the millions of railroad ties which have been furnished, there is more timber in Illinois to-day than ever. All through Nebraska timber planting is an enthusiasm. Every farmer plants. Stock companies plant large tracts; and railroad companies are raising timber. Millions of trees are annually set out from the forests, and hundreds of nurseries arc propagating on a grand scale. One firm raises over twenty millions of conifere alone, and can not supply the demand. One Patent Office Report estimates that l5O, 900 acres are an nualY planted in timber. Last year one third more trees were planted than two year ago. .'......,. .,,.
 In Iowa and Nebraska fine artificial for ests diversity the once unbroken prairies :; and we have seen soft naples SO thrifty, that after six years ten acres would supply u family forever Black walnut, eighteen years old has yielded at the rate of forty cords per acre. Cottonwoods, fifteen years oh, are found that will yield cord to the tree. In one instance a row of Lombardy popars, ten rods long, and twenty years old, yielded twenty cords of woOd--two cords to the rod. White willows, set out as hedge, soon yield ample returns of fuel
 Thirty years will, inevitably, see the East denuded of timber, while groves large enough for building and manufacturing purposes will adorn the West. If properly tended, trees will grow to a good size in thirty years. There is a great difference between a natural and artificial forest. Be fore us, as we 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 a height of two feet; and we have known white pines to grow even three and four feet year. The soft woods sometimes show yearly circle of an inch in thickness, giving a diameter of two Inches year.
 Weinust plant them both East and West, The ease with which our Western soil can be cultivated, it's freedom from stumps and stones, and it's cheaplless, give every ad- vantage 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 Nebraska appear to be we'll stored with coal. .t........ -..,
 But too much reliance should not Ike placed on coal. It does not grow, and con- scquently it must ultimately become ex- hausted. England supposed she had sup ply for a thousand years; but last summer, coal panic so severely affected the indus tries of that country that the shock WAS felt almost all over the world. H
 In the United States Land Office, Lincoln, more than 25,000 homesteaders and pre- emptors have filed claims to prairies, and nearly 5000 others have bought them of the Burlington & Missouri River railroad, on ten years credit, six per cent. interest and on contracts since 1872, no part of the principal payable till the beginning of the fifth year.