The DeSmet leader. (DeSmet, Kingsbury Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-02-20
Tree Planting.
The Land and Labor Spy.

NHhn the iaSt uVe years thousands
of settlers have taken up timber claims,
and have been planting forest acres
very extensively. Of varieties which
were supposed to be hardy. but have
proved to be worthless for Dakota, and,
strange as it may seem. it is true that
the most enterprising planters have
been most disappointed, while the more
careless planters who have only planted
our common native varieties-bOx
elder, ash, elm and cottonwood-have
succeeded the best. cyl educated,
wide-awake and we'll to do men, who
wanted to have good groves, and had
ample means to plant and grow good
groves, have time and again, at an
enormous expense Of money and l.bor,
dug up in the forests Of Indiana. Wiz
consin, Michigan and Canada, and
brought by railroad into Dakota, mill
ions and millions of forest trees, such
as beech, maple, linden, black ash
birch, larch, arbor vita, pine. spruce
and other varieties which they thought
were sure to succeed here, because such
varieties were hardy enough, even in
Canada. But alas! after all the ex-
pense Of money and labor, after all
their energy and their best efforts, fail
ure and blasted hopes haye been the
end Of it, And millions of the sacalled
hardy catalpa trees have been imported
and planted here, but tell me, where is
there healthy grove of them to bc
found? Bat Dakota is capable of grew
ing rs good groves as any other country
in high ATTITUDES. all these failures not
withstanding. claim that were it not
for the annual prairie fires which fox
centuries have swept everything before
them, Dakota would, by nature, be one
immense forest. This can be seen by
our native groves, which are only TO b0
found in river and creek bottoms, and
in deep narrow ravines, where the fires
could not destroy them. And on land
where fires have been kept off for a few
years, elms, cottonwood and willows
spring up on the low lands, and box
elder, ash and burr oak spring up on
the high prairie lands.
In order to succeed with tree. plant.
ing we must plant groves OF our native
yarietics-elm, cottonwood and willows
on low ground, and our native ash.
FrGrinGs V1iaus mot the eastern type
of ash, which is Ffarinus AmericoaOl
and box elder tash-leayed maple) deer
Neqtnda on the high prairie after the
ground has been well prepared. As
soon as we have groves Of our native
trees well established to shelter our
fields from Tho sheering cold blasts OF
winter, and from the fervors Of the hot.
and drying winds of summer. then. and
not till then, can We succeed with treea
belonging to countries with q more
humid atmosphere than Dakota has.
The beech ard the birch, for instance.
are hardy even in the great regions
northwest of Quebec, Canada, where "a
is 60 degrees below zero. But for Ill
that they are not hardy here. They
succeed and attain great size and per.
fection in much colder countries than
southern Dakota. But in that country
the atmosphere is very humid: deep
SHOWS cover the ground in winter
abundance of rain prevails in summer.
and the ground is naturally loose. For
these same reasons several varieties OF
fruit trees which are hardy in New
Brunswick and about Quebec, Canada.
are not hardy here. Our pure, dry at
mosphere and hot, drying winds in
summer are more of a drawback to for
estry than our hard winters are. We
must work accordingly, obeying the
laws Of nature by planting only our
native varieties Of forest trees first. and
az they grow up they will help ~ %
change those laws. They viii! keep the
snow from drifting away from thA
fields into the hollows. aud they VIII
arrest the drying winds of summer ana
thus retain more moisture, making tho
climate mllder and the air more humid.