Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-05-27
Communication From State Super.
intendent Of Forestry Barrett
ON Sylvaculture.
The Minneapolis Convention Hall
Ed Hedge Intervi+ we'd by a
Tribune Reporter.
Tributes of Respect to Shed Lambert
The Celebration of Columbus
Day, Etc.
The Pioneer Tree of North Dakota.

The Pioneer Tree of North Dakota.
The yellow cottonwood tree is one of
the varieties of the aapoplar family, and
of all the ~favorite and useful members of
our noble Sy Iva, it is certainly deserving
of a foremost rank, ind it's character
and favorable features are. such that the
writer cannot but claim it may we'll be
called the pioneer tree of North Da-
kota.
IL is a rapidly growing, upright and
regularly shaped tree, and under proper
conditions, it is easily and cheaply raised
either for seeds or cuttings.
When young, from two to i've years
old, it's bark has a whitish hue toned
down by shades of slate, giving it a light
ash-gray color, most attractive and
wholly unlike any other tree of the coun-
try. With time, however, 1t gradually
ssumes a tanish brown, and when old
the eperdermis of the trunk become
rough, chopped and deeply furrowed,
having a color very dark. Not unfre-
quently when young, it's limbs grow
from four to six feet in one season. At
Church's Ferry, Ramsey county, I found
two thrifty cottonwoods growing in the
grass at the edge of a garden which
measured thirteen and fourteen inches,
respectively, in circumference and we're
from twelve to fourteen feet tall. These
were raised from small cuttings stuck
into the ground five years before. Often
these trees growing in good soil for
twelve years reach the dimension Of
fifteen or sixteen inches in diameter,
with corresponding height. Indeed it is
commended by many of the best informed
tree c%ultivators and writer's that the cot
tonwood is without a rival in the rapidity
of it's growth, as it, they claim, far out
strips the growth of the white willow.
This tree is discovered scattered over
q vast area of the union. 1t is found in
almost every belt of timber and woods in
our state. 1t rises high along all or
nearly all the branches and riverswithin
our borders. Upon the hill lands of the
Turtle mountains, it grows stately and
strong. Blythe fair Red river of the
north and it's many branches it towers
and waves aloft it's green foliage amongst
it's fellows. And by the shores of the
broad Missouri-the great commercial
or&oru of n11r foir ofofo- fhoro IL
hourishes without limit or bounds. In
all these places it presents large trunks
and rises from 60 to 1875 and often
more feet high. Last fall I measured a
cottonwood neal Grand Forks, upon the
banks of the Red river, which gave a
dimension of eighteen feet in circum-
ference. And there within a radius of
one acre 1 found five others, each of
which was but a trihe smaller than the
first. These all grew to great heights.
There is a cottonwood upon North Da-
kota soil growing within a few miles of
Grand Forks, having a diameter of nine
feet.
Its heart-wood is of a yellowish color
not much dissimilar to the tulip tree. It
is classified as soft wood, and as such it
makes excellent fuel, and has q ready
sale in the market commanding good
fair prices. Last winter I learned it
sold in Bismarck at 81 per cord. It
makes frst-class fence posts, boards and
rails. An instance is given by Judge G..
E. Whiting, of Monona county, Iowa,
where he procured cottonwood posts
from the Missouri bottom lands, which
on resetting, after a use of twenty-three
years, nine-tenths of them were found
in a fair state of preservation. It is even
claimed this tree furnishes better fence
boards than pine, because tougher and
stronger. Dimension stuff and frame
material manufactured from this variety
is most serviceable. And it's shingles
and siding endure we'll, keep their place
and look as we'll as good pine. The
cottonwood is also used for many other
purposes upon the farm, in the workshop
and the factory.
Nature is often prolific with her pro-
auctions. This is made manifest by the
many millions of seeds that annually
grow upon these trees from which they
are scattered broadcast over the land,
where, taking root, they spring up as
seedlings, whilst many more millions of
seeds are destroyed by exposure to the
sun and wind. Sometimes in October
on lands broken in the previous June,
many thousands Of seedlings have been
seen growing from seeds dritted there by
the winds from trees three or four miles
away.
The cottonwood blossoms in early
spring and ripens its seeds before the
heat Of summer intervenes, usually in
the early part Of June. The seeds are
encased in elongated catkins, from which
they escape, surrounded by q light fiat
ulent or cottony material, giving them
9 bhoyancy, which results in their wide
diffusion by the winds. The seeds are