Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-12

| Wnere is the lanQ that can furnish 9
greater variety of such productions
grown in the open air than California
FORESTRY.
observations I'm California and
Elsewhere.
The Legislature, of the State O
California, has granted an appropria
ton for the establishment CT expert
mental stations for testing fruit, orna
mental and forest trees. This expert
mental work cannot be commenced
too soon, for while individual enter
prise has been employed, in thorough
ly experimenting with every kind o.
fruit, to an extent which is simply
wonderf, |, the BILE, indigenous trees
of the State have been sadly neglected
Indeed, with the exception of few
noble specimens, except cupressus mar.
crecarpa and pinus insignis (the Mon.
terey cypres } planted every where ;
while specimens of sequoia gigantea,
8. semper vireus, arpressus lawson
lana, c. govermiana, thuja gigantea,
Libocedrus decurreus Pseudetruga
Douglasii, Abies Menziesii Picea
Sitcheusis of England, Abies concolor
and other noble silver frs and nobler
pines, are rarely to be met with.
Forestry is a subject of great i'm.
portance to this State, and the time
will soon arrive when it cannot longer
be neglected. The conditions here
differ so materially from the Atlantic
slope, that our experience will not
avail to any great extent here. For
estry here must be confined mainly
to desert and hilly lands that can moi
oe irrigated.
A transient visitor from the East
looking from the window of a sleeping
car would see a very discouragine
prospect, the desert is certainly moi
promising to him, and the hills look
little better. > ,-.s
| This word desert is not we'll under
stood, many agriculturists and horticul'
urists in Kansas and Nebraska claim
that they have brought their land
from desert, to rich fertile land,
within two or three decades. They
tell you that their States are part Of
the great American desert, and refer
you to school geography to prove
what they say, but they do not
seem to notice the fact that in the
same school book, there are wood
cuts of Indians chasing immense
herds of buffalos wading through very
tall grass.
When the emmigration of 1849,
went through the territory of which
Kansas and Nebraska are now part,
and that was before there was a white
settler in the territory the land lying
between the Missouri river and the
Rocky mountains was called the
plains. The desert of the Forty. min.
er's lay between the sink Of the Hum.
toldt and Sierra Nevada mountains,
and many years previous to that
time, the Santa Fe traders crossed
the plains from Leavenworth to Santa
F6. The settlers, in Kansas and Ne
braska, claim that they can grow cul.
tivated crops where they could not be
grown twenty-five years ago; this is
undoubtedly true and can be account.
ed for: Before the whites settled west
of the Missouri river, the land through
Central Kansas and Nebraska was
covered with buffalo grass, which
kept the rain from penetrating the
ground almost as effectively as would
a shipgled roof. l have run my
cane into the ground few minutes
after it has been flooded with rain aud
found it as dry as dust two inches
from the surface. The rain ran off II
torrents into the ravines and draws
without having perceptible effect ex
cept on the surface. You might SEE
the plains covered with water, looking
like a lake with many islands, anC
within two hours from that time there
was scarcely sign that there had been
anv rain at all. Since that time mil
lions of acres have been plowed ir
Kansas and Nebraska, and, aside from
this, 147 900 acres have been planted
with forest trees in Kansas (asids
from large number planted last year.
and a great many more have beer
planted in Nebraska than in Kansas.
When we consider that an inch o
rain is equal to one hundred tons
of water per acre, and multiply the
millions of acres of plowed land by
the number of inches or hundreds o.
tons that have been absorbed in the
blowing which formerly ran of, we
can see that the settlers have materi
ally changed the conditions OF the
plains.
While your desert lands look very
unpromising to the tourist, even wher
com pared with the plains, the clos,
observer will see many things, aside
from climate, in your favor Any ont
studying these deserts carefully will
see that lying neglected they must bt
gradually growing drier and drier
This is plain. We see, where deep lake.
once overhowed, no water stands now
J, Where monstrous trees once grew, al
shown in the petrified forests, only
pigmies in comparison grow there
now. We see the channels of tn,
|, streams are generally being Gu
deeper, which, of course, drains til,
r country more rapidly. We now ant
} then ste an article very prettily writ
! ten, attempting to show that the irol
, bands laid across the continent pro
5 duce electricity and increase the rain
3 fall. Unfortunate y | cannot explain
: to YOU Just how this is done, neithe
: can the writer of those articles.
81 The railroads have certainly had
8 wonderful effect increasing the intel
8 gence of settlers. 1t is apparent t
4 any one who has travelled over tn
D country to any great extent that th
y people living along the line Of : raj
81 rod. improve In intelligence moz
4 a|1rr " thHn thoee livipR