The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-04-15
Plant the Trees,

We haye often urped upon our readers,
especiolly in the country, says the Chica-
G, Later Ocean, more attention to tree
culture. We have from time to time given
them statistics of the amount OF timber
llnds remP lining in this country, and of
the rap d t. at which they are. disap
p airing from year to year. As an cconom-
al question, that of the timber supply
b DE- fair, at no distant day, 10 become
one of the most important as well as the
most serious with which we shall have to
ontend. The subject may be hackneyed
elt ugh, for it is repeatedly presented
through the columns of almost every
journal in the land, still, as what is every
body's business always seems to be no
body's in particular, it does not seem to
attract that attention at the hands Of those
who own the acres and cultivate them
which it so eminently deserves. People
everywhere are almost criminal in their
neglect of this legitimate branch of farm
industry and production There is no ex-
cuse whatever for such Reconstruction.
Forest trees can be raised from the seed
quite as easily as corn or potatoes; and
they are sold BY most of our cpterprising
nurserymen, by the thousands and Sens of
thousands, for rates which seem merely
nominal 1t costs much less for thou
sand yearliDg trees of some of the useful
standard varieties excellent for shade and
fuel both--than it does for Il thousand
very bad cigars! A farm which is encir-
cled with double row of these cheap
trees will in five years command several
dollars per acre more than the adjoining
domain OF Mr.. Slothful, who never gives
the subject thought. Considering the
value of growing trees, Immediately and
remotely, and the ease with which they
can be secured, it is one of the things at
which we never cease wondering, that
there is not perfect mania among the
farmers for planting them. We advert to
the subject at this time for two reasons:
1. Because the time for planting them is
at hand, and we wish to give our readers
an emphatic hint in short article which
they will not tire of reading; and 2, to call
attention to one direction in which they
afford protection. We have just passed
through hard winter, during which the
winds have ragged with more than wonted
ferceness. One consequence OF these
winds, on thousands of farms throughout
the West and Northwest, has been the
|
Glowing away of immense quantities OF
the rich top soil. In many places the
great snowd.ifts which have been melting
away during these past two weeks have
been coated deep with fine black dirt from
the plowed fields We miss this but little
now, because of the immense fertility of
the soil; but it is large and most unproit-
able drain upon any mans farm, and in
time il will produce sterility 1t is almost
as bad for a field which is kept in tillage
year after year, as many of ours in the
| West are, as for man to have tubercles
in his lungs. He may manage to go about
. his business for few years, but the con-
slant waste will take him under sooner or
later. But this waste of the soil from
hese bitter winter winds may be measur
ably arrested by judiciously planting belts
of timber on the lines from which they
generally come Another benefit: Ii your
neighbor is too lazy to do anything OF the
kind, it will pay you to plant trees SO as
to catch the soil which is blown from his
fields, as the railroad snow fences catch
/ the snow.
] To make this subject as practical as
possible, we advise our readers out on the
4 prairie farms West and Northwest to send
4 a postal card to their nearest nurseryman
and ask for his catalogue, and they can
see for themselves that it would be but
the merest bagatelle to purchase thou
sand trees, and they know without our
telling them that it is scarcely more work
| to plant and cultivate them than it is as
many hills of potatoes or corn. Their
value is so great that we need not urge
other reasons why they should be planted,
and planted largely. We trust that no
rural subscriber Of the CHRONICLE will
let the present spring 80 by without doing
his own part in this most necessary and
profitable work.