Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-01-09
Two State Nurseries.
Wa-Keeuey World Editorial, February II,
y3Sy

Wa-KeeNey World Ed,toyial, February ~,
1851.
No nobler duty devolyes upon state
legislator than the exercise of his powers
as representative of the zvAoie state. He
who believes himself the representative of
only the peculiar, or special, interests of
merely the constituency which elected
him, fails to comprehend the scope of the
powers, if, indeed, it may not be said
commands, delegated to him by the fun
damental law Of the people, the state con-
stitution.
1t is upon this hypothesis, as well as
upon the proposition that the law would
be beneficial to the whole state, that the
attention of the legislature is called to
the necessity OF an act authorizing the es-
Enlistment of two nurseries in the west
ern part OF Kansas-one in the south
west, the other in the northwest.
SNch d id1v is necessayr. The welfare of
the people OF this section of country calls
for the benefits to be derived from such
an act. The highest degree of success in
agriculture is impossible as long as the
country is treeless. Trees are needed to
lend their very material assistance to the
bringing on OF more equal distribution
of rainfall, and to shade the ground so
that it will more effectually retain the
water which falls. Our people generally
show willingness to cultivate timber on
their land, but many of them are unable
to buy extensively of young trees or seeds.
.Such Il kazv 7u0uld 6cgeft tie 7vhole state.
The impetus which law of this character
would give to tree growing in western
Kansas would lead to there being twenty
acres of timber here in five years to every
one acre which there would be under the
present order of things. This benefit
could not accrue to this portion of the
state without so enhancing the value of
our lands and other property as to in
crease materially our portion OF the state
taxes. This increase OF taxes in this re-
gion would decrease, to the extent of the
increase, the taxes in the eastern portion
of the state. To support such measure,
then, becomes simply a business propo-
sition with the legislators from the east
ern portion of Kansas. At the same time
the western people would be paying in
increased taxes for the benefits which they
derive from such law.
A similar law prevails in Minnesota for
the benefit OF the western portion of that
state.
The western half of Kansas should be
embraced in the provisions of
this act About midway between
the eastern line of this half of the
state and the Colorado line, one
nursery should be located on the Union
Pacific railway ard another on the Atchi-
son, Topeka u Santa Fe. An appropria-
ton should be made which would be
sufficient for the purchase of section of
land at each point, and teams and ma
chinery, as well as for the erection Of
suitable buildings for the thorough de-
velopment of the scheme. The trees
propagated at these nurseries should be
free to all applicants who are residents Of
the territory embraced in the act, upon
proper re4uisition being made by them.
People would go hundred miles after
trees in this way who are now unable to
pay for them, however near they are to
be found.
Apropos to this subject, the Kansas
City :foHrnal Of the 9Th inst, after men,
tioning /. number of topics for which
legislatures should refuse to grant ap-
preparations, says: "And so we might go
on, and enumerate a score of other Oh
iects, all OF which are movements on the
public treasury to have done by
appropriations something the movers can
not DO without. We do not confound
with these devices such measure, for ex-
ample. as tree planting. a policy of the
most far seeing economy, because it
makes dollars in compound ratio to the
expenditures. If million dollars was
expended in tree planting, it would return
to the state ten fold, yes, twenty fold, in
as many years. Enough stock has been
lost in Kansas and Nebraska this year to
plant forest shelter on all the streams
in the ranges where they have died. But
then we don't hear about this, for nobody
has trees to sell that are unstable, and
there is no room for patriotism.
"He that makes two blades of grass
grow where one grew before is bene-
factor, and the man who succeeds in
devising a policy that will give trees to
the prairies OF Kansas will be in history
her greatest economist, while the horde of
patent reformers viii not be heard of
after the next full crop"
"Rather Poor Concerns"