The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-09-12
Prsirie.Tres Planting.


Twenty-three years ago others With
myself planted many black locusts in
this and the county east of us, which
grew rapidly and made fine shade in
i've years; then the borers began to
work. and. in spite of cutting out, prob
ing, etc., they died. l have not heard
of any being planted of late years, and
don't remember living black locust in
the county. Many are putting out soft
maple. which makes q beautiful shade
in five years; but the wood is good for
little else but shade and fuel, and I
have seen them here covered with o
filthy worm which made things rather
disgusting near dwellings. Fourteen
years ago, seventy-five miles south Of
this, I told the boys in my neighhor-
hood / would pay one dollar per bushel
for black walnuts in the fall; got all
wanted. which / laid on the ground
near enough to the house to have an
eye on the rats, mice and two-legged
nut-crackers; covered them first with
two inches of leaves and prairie-hay,
then three inches of soil on top of that;
they must be kept moist and must
freeze, and the above covering prevents
drying out and is not enough to prevent
freezing several times through the win.
ter. planted /, 100 nuts three inches
deep, four feet apart each way, in we'll
prepared corn-ground.
In the same way put in some one
year-old Usage orange plants, some cot
tonwood and Lombardy poplars (Which
grow readily from cuttings); put cut
tings in ground seven inches, make
them fourteen or sixteen inches long.
| cultivated the whole three times the
first year. just as did my corn; nearly
all grew and were doing we'll last time
l saw them. Lombardy poplars look
stately, but can't be called erul tree
for Kansas, while cottonwood becomes
a nuisance from the scattering and
sprouting of the seed on plowed ground.
l have settled down on black walnut
and Usage orange as the dollar-and-
cent trees for the east half of Kansas
{knOw nothing from actual personal
experience of the west half, Northwest
Missouri (have lived there) and prob
ably the east half of Nebraska. [ pre-
fer them, first, because thrifty and
nothing hurts either of them; second,
seed is cheap aud readily got, and,
lastly, because remarkably good wood
for all mechanical purposes, and fuel,
too. Leaving the addition to beauty of
a farm out of the question; leaving the
wind-break or protection to 10th man
and beast out OF the count also: in my
opinion, nothing will pay wide-awake
man or woman on the Kansas. Ne
braska or Missouri prairies (above-
mentioned) as well as forty acres of
walnuts and Usage orange. put in we'll
prepared ground and well cared for.
And rs an investment, in proportion
to the number put in so will the profit
be. If l could not put in forty acres
would begin with 500 nuts and 500
Usage plants, repeating the dose every
spring, or trebling it if could afford it,
and right here, stick two pins. Don't
stick either black walnuts or Usage
plants into a 15x15 inch hole in the
prairie and then abuse the State of Kan
sas and me in particular because the
prairie grass got away with them; it
will do it every time; they won't grow
and be thrifty, although they may lead
a sort of kidney complaint life. / can
not find language strong enough to inn
press on the forest tree grower on the
prairie the Importance of well-prepared
ground and thorough culture; if these
two things are well done 1 am certain
that many thousands of trees that bake
to death when the terrible dry, hot,
windy days set in would live to gladden.
the heart and please the eye of the
planter or owner and encourage others
to plant, in place of the poor shriveled
trees, warning all who see them to avoid
forest tree planting on the prairie
Kansas Cor. N. Y. Tribune.