Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-09
Tree Planting In Texas.

about planting out trees. IL Is Eoou
thing 10 talk Of, to think about and TO
DO. OF late We have had good deal to
say IN these columns on the subject OF
ornamental trees and shrubs, but, WhlIe
al trees are more or less oTnhmehtal,
the present article is planned for wider
scope than that covered by the articles
preceding it, Trees for the sake OF trees
is what we are now on, without partlcu-
lar regard to kinds or species.
Thousands upon thousands OF trees
Will be set out on the praIrles OF Texas 10
the course of the present season, END
doubtless, according to our opinion,
thousands upon thousands OF MISTAKES
Will be made at that setting. The work
will in all probability, be well done,
aud the species selected will be all well
enough. but yet, as we view the case, e
mistake VIII be made. That mistake
will lie in the source from whence the
Young trees are obtained. The trees
viii. in most instances, be purely Texas
trees procured Ut the nearest accessible
point, and Is tree, comparatively
speakiug, the Texas tree does not
amount to much at best. So far es we
know the Texas tree, with an exception
or two, is about the only Texas thing of
which we cannot speak in the highest
praise, but, much as we regret It, we
cannot find it IN our hearts TO say very
much for the average Texas tree as
highly conspicuous growth and velua-
bic TIMBER ielder, especially the tree
growing west of the great long-leaf
pne belt bordering the state on the east.
In word the Texas tree west of the
region lust named is q dwarf. II does
not mount upward and take on size as
does the representative OF Its species
growing in most of the states further
Fast. Our comparative lIghtness in an
nual rainfall has dwarfed it, but there Is
every good reason for believing that
hundreds OF generations were necessary
TO bring about its now existing dwartod
character. II was simply Il work of Sc
lection, so to speak, extending through
untold ages. The laws of selection gov
erning in the improvement OF n variety
are well understood, and it would not be
at all reasonable to suppose that the
same rules would not work both WAYS.
We might by careful selection, with that
end in view, carry variety down the
scale as well as up. The people of China
have established the correctness OF THIS
theory by practical demonstration-they
have the finest and smallest dwarf trees
in the world, and investigators nave
learned in late years that il has all re-
suited from careful selection, extending
through u period OF several thousand
years.
If ell of this be correct, and there
would not seem to be any just grounds
for doubt, then 1t ought to be plain to
every one that the young trees for our
new plantations had hest come from
those regions where the species grow to
their finest development. If we set out
Texas trees we have no hope of getting
ANYTHING superior to the parents in the
forests whence we obtained them, but
If we get our trees from regions where
the species are characterized BY the full
est development known to their kind we
can have reasonable hope, at least, Of
securing results far above anything to
be hoped for in the other case.
OF course there is nothing in this be-
yond mere theory, for the thing has
never vet been put TO test, but all think
ing persons must see at glance that it
is an extremely reasonable theory. For
our mart, after weighing the why's and
whereIores in every possible light, we
nre fully satisfied that the theory is one
entirely well founded. If we start with
trees that would have developed to per-
lection in their native forests, in our
opinion they will develop in Texas to
nlmost-not quite-the same degree of
perfection. In the next generation they
would. in ali probability, fall back
another notch, in the next another.
and SO on till at the end OF thousand
years or so they would he entirely down
10 the Texas standard, but it Is scarcely
worth while for us to spend many Sleep
less nights worrying over what the off,
spring of the trees we set out this winter
will be thousand or so years In the fu-
ture.
Plenty of young trees could be had in
the eastern gulf states ut a cost of Dig
ging up and transportation. This would
amount to something, of course, but we
cannot help feeling sure that 1t would
prove a paying investment. Then, il we
didn't wish to go to the expense of get
ting young trees we might secure seeds at
a mere nominal cost. Were we a Texas
nurseryman we'd undoubtedly try a
small acreage to such seeds for the pur-
pose of seeing how the young trees would
start off.
We dc not propose pointing out any
species as most desirable. Were we
making our own selection we would
choose such common species as would de-
velop with reasonable rapidity and prove
useful after development.
There are two species common in the
Eastern gulf states that we may men,
ton, however, clearly knowing, as we
do, that under certain conditions they
might be made grand thing in many
parts of Texas. One of these Is the
long-leaf pine (Pinus australis) "a
growth of our eastern pine belt. That
pine would grow to perfection on any of
our black sandy soils, and we know OF
no tree that grows with equal rapidity
through the first twenty or thirty years
of it's age. We could not expect to do
much with IL as timber tree, for it be-
comes au extremely slow growth as Il
advances in age, but for wind breaks
and for marked effect in a region where
1t is not common nothing could equal it.
Suppose, for instance, man living on
the sandy lands across the Trinity east of
Fort Worth, should surround his prem
Uses with growth of the long-leaf pine
in ten years the young trees would be
twenty or thirty feet 10 heighth, making
his place q land mark that would attract
everybody's attention. He would be
living in a field of bright living green
and the value Of his property would thus
be enhanced to the extent of many fold.