The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-04-01
Tree-Seed Planting.

AhE ioiio"lHS paper was 1Cdd lCCeutiy
by George May Powell, Chairman of the
Forest Committee, before the American
Institute, New York city:
Promotion of forests by sced-planting
is destined to be the motto of the grand
movement for the advancement of the
arboreal interests of the nation. We
have suggested, in previous papers, that
the labor necessary to transplant even a
small tree would collect and plant the
seed to rear scores of trees. Reducing
the labor necessary to accomplish a
given object by dividing it by two is
often equal to multiplying the probabili-
ties of its being done by tens, sometimes
by hundreds. In other words, it is often
the point on which hinges the question
whether thing shall be done at all or
not. Dividing that labor by tens or hun
dreds has corresponding effect on
final results. A clergyman, Rev. Mr..
Potts, now Of Morrisania, n. Y, tells
me that he planted elm seed nineteen
years ago, from which trees with trunks
nineteen inches through are now grow
ing, near Newburg, on the Hudson
He gave hundreds of tiny seedlings
to his neighbors also, on condition that
they should plant them along or in sight
Of the road. Thus a few hours seed
planting on his part has resulted in the
addition of thousands of dollars of
actual market value to his own and to
adjacent properties by their being so in
extensively beautifed that the cost
of the same is almost intangible. The
same gentleman, and his friends
through him, had similar experiences in
seed-planted maple, ash, locust and nut
bearing trees. During only a few min
utes of spare time, when in the Jordan
Valley, in June, 1878, in the work Of the
Oriental Typographical Corps, planted
more than score of orange seed along
the water course running from the foun-
tain of Elisha, near Jericho, perhaps
| near the spot where poor Bartemeus had
his vision restored by the Master. A
few days after l planted some at the
lower end of the middle of one of Solo,
mons pools, and, two weeks later, while
hurrying along on an experimental Pc
destrian tour from Jerusalem to
Mount Lebanon, l put hundreds
of tree seeds of various kinds in
the ground Among the latter were
five plumpits on the further bank of the
Leontes, to the right of and near the
bridge crossing it, on the road from Tyne
to Sidon, and few more about a fur
long below the bridge. 1t is hoped that
some members of the American Institute
may, in certain sense, become the
guests of the corps when travelling there
in future years by partaking Of fruit
from some of these trees. 1t is also
hoped that many residents of both Syria
and Africa, among whom we organized
movement for the seed-planting in
those regions, will not only continue
steadfast in their work, but become en-
thusiastic in it. Many of the oldest and
most methodical observers of events
there testify that within the last quarter
of a century the rainfall is becoming so
regulated by some cause that it begins
earlier" in the autumn and continues
later" in the spring than formerly.
They believe, many of them, that the
well-known increase of trees in that time
by planting, to tenfold, has been chiefly
instrumental in bringing this blessed
change about.
The intellectual life and activity which
have been awakened among the masses
of the people there by Christian teachers
sent among them has led them to see
that it will "pay" in the south country
to plant orange and lemon, fig, almond,
olive and other trees for their fruits, and |
east, west and north of the Leontes to |
plant the mulberry for silk-raising. When
they come to comprehend the practical |
philosophy of this tree-seed planting
still greater climatic changes may be
looked for from their action. By seed
planting 1t is distinctly meant, in the
main, planting tree seeds in the identical |
places where the trees which grow from |
those seeds are to remain. OF course !
there are cases where transplaniing Of |
the little trees very. soon after they are |
sprouted will be the best economy. Nut
producing trees will como in bearing
sooner by being transplanted. Even
this point can probably often be secured |
quite as economically, however, BY root |
pruning tree few years after the seed |
u planted, or by promoting the growth Of |