Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-19
FACTS ABOUT FORESTRY.
Leonard B. Hodges EnlIghtens the Benighted
Minds of the Minnesota State Hor-
tieuitural Society.
Some Good Practical Suggestions as to the
Best Methods of Cultivating Trees
on Our PrairieS
The Kind of Trees Adapted to Forestry and
the Way to Prepare the Soil for rheir
Accommodation Pointed Out.

Accepting an invitation of the Minnesota
State Horticultural society to address them on
the subject of Forestry, I offer this paper. No
economic question of the present has a greater
bearing on the future we'll being of the State
than forestry. l use the term Estate" in its
broadcast sense. The old-fashioned word,
commonwealth, is more significant, inasmuch
AS on its broad face it suggests the idea that
there is a species of wealth that can be enjoyed
by all the citizens of the State The wealth of
forestry, with attendant comforts, is of that
kind, and its blessings reach out beyond the
immediate control of the legal proprietor of
the forest, land embrace within its anticipating
influences his moro immediate neighbors
whether friends or foes and so, as the good
work goes on, from one ne;ghborhood to an
other, the actual wealth first developed by
few, to very large extent becomes the COM
mOq wealth of the many
The pioneer farmer out on our oceanic prai-
RES, who surrounds his quarter section with a
broad belt Of forest trees, protects not only his
own fields and crops from the damaging effects
OF storms, but also to great extent protects
his adjoining neighboTs, who in common with
him enjoy the wealth he has developed, and he
can no more prevent them from the endowment
thereof, than from the benefits of sunlight or
RAINFALL which are the common wealth OF all of
Gods creatures. Hence I take the ground that
1t is not only eminently proper, but that it is
the duty of the State in every suitable way to
aid by appropriate legislation in the develop
ment or creation of this kind of common
wealth. further on in this paper, If I find
have room, shall advert more fully to the
pressing necessity of State and national legis-
latlon for the protection and encouragement of
forestry, and If L succeed in stirring up
THE WHOLE LEGISLATIVE aENAGERIE
to realizing sense of their duty in this behalf,
L shall feel that have not lived in vain. For
estry, III Its true sense and meaning, as [
understand it, consists in the planting cultiva-
non and management of larger areas of ground
than has been attempted; in the rearing of
long lines Of wind-breaks or belts OF forest
timber, so arranged as to arrest the force OF
prevailing winds; in the care protection and
preservation of our native forests, and in en-
couraglng and assisting nature IN the rehabili-
tatlon OF extensive tracts of original forests
that have been destroyed by IRE, and where,
ph9nix-like, new crop of young forest trees
are springlng up from the ashes. In its broad
est sense its scope is larger but so far as we are
practically concerned, this is about the size Of
It, The DEVELOPMENT of new forests and the
preservation of the native forests in Minnesota
are the particular subdivisions of forestry
which more nearly concern Us Geographical
~ located as the State of Minnesota is ION the
eastern border, and including within her
boundaries a portion of that immense interior
treeless region which stretches from the south
Saskatchewan, and nearly to Hudsons bay on
the north-from Eastern Kansas and Nebraska,
Western Iowa and the Big woods of Mime
sofa on the east, to the foot hills of the Rocky
mountains on the west-practically taking in
20 deg. of latitude and 10 deg. of longitude
in round numbers covering 100000 square
miles. or 10000, 600 acres-enough for
1000, 900 farms of 160 acres each, and room
for 20, 600, 900 of people,, the subject under
discussion Is necessarily one of great local in
terest to Minnesota, as well as the nation at
large. This vast interior region is
PRACTICALLY TREELEsS.
The exceptions are portions of the coteaus in
the vicinity of the Sisseton reservation, the
Black Hills, Turtle mountains, Pembina
mountains, and narrow strips and small groves
along some of the water courses and Iakes-in
comparison with the whole hardly enough to
swear by. With such a neighbor adjoining
and thanking US in the rear, L have often
thought while traversing the great prairies of
Dakota that, for all practical purposes, she
was q part of, or, at the furthest, simply
suburb of Minnesota; and it is extremely diff
fcult for Minnesotian to talk forestry without
taking cognizance of Dakota as a prominent
factor i'll the solution of our own forestry
questions. Not Ouly Dakota, but her adjacent
neighbor, Manitoba-the Prairie Province
with the vast outlying prairie region stretching
west and northwest TO the feet of the Rockies
all that open region through which the fierce
blasts of the polar regions find unobstTucted
passage, culminat ng In Minnesota "bliZzards;n
and, in the other direction, the vast prairie arid
region of the Southwest, whence come the
simOon-l like winds so whitening and antagonis-
tic 10 growing crops, forest culture and human
comfort. All these are factors not to be ig-
noTed. They force themselves upon You, as
hortculturists, as your most bitter deter
mined, incorporating foes; blasting your
hopes, destroying at one sweep the results of
years of patient toll, confounding your calcu-
lations, and every now and then setting you up
on your beam ends in the most unexpected
manner. The prairie farmers suffer from the
same causes to an equal, If not greater extent,
than yourselves, and their misfOrtunes entail
corresponding disasters upon our commercial
and manufacturing interests. Now that we
have finally settled up our old railroad bonded
Indebtedness, and on basis satisfactory to our
creditors, the enemies of Minnesota have moth
ing left them to harp on but our climate, and
even that we can so modify by tree planting.
as not only TO temper the wind to the shcrn
lamb" but
DIsAR8r OUR ENEMIES
OF their last remaining weapon. These elemen-
tai forces are undoubtedly all right and play an
important part in the economy of nature. We
have only to guard against them when on the
rampage, and in doing this forestry is the
prime factor, the central figure in the whole
business. have neither time nor patience 10
even attempt to answer the puerile arguments
and unfounded assertions that trees won't grow
on our W ESlefn praifleS. LIE Is TOO snort 70
fool any portion of il away in that direction.
Facts, not theories, claim our attention. The
fact that within the last ten years hundreds of
groves, containing millions of healthy, vigorous
young forest trees, are now growing far out in
the tleeless region, where science had preor-
dained aud doomed the work an impossibility,
must be acknowledged. The fact that young
groves Of forest trees are now being success
fully grown on the line of the Northern Pacific
railroad, away out on and beyond the Tooth
meridian, has also got to be admitted, science
and its yotaries to the contrary notwlthstand-
ing.
Where weeds and grass will grow, there also
forest trees can grow, and where thev grow
the more agriculture will succeed. and the bet
ter you know how to do your work, the larger
the measure of your success. 1 am assured
that am expected to give good deal of this
sort Of knowing how to do il, in as few words
as possible Having written and spoken so
much on this matter, and time and again reit-
Grated the same instructions. it seems 10 me
unnecessary TO again repeat what has been so
often said by myself, but has also frequently
been better said by others. Like the thrice
told tale, I am sometimes weary with the hear
ing of it, and when l am asked by apparently
intelligent men if trees will really grow out on
those great prairies, 1 feel very much as the
preacher did who, after having devoted the
best part of his life to the faithful preaching
OF the gospel, was astonished one day by one
of his congregation asking him if it really was