The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-11
BARRENS INTO FORESTS.
4 GREAT GOVERNMENT EYPER-
 INTENT.
With the "Buil Pine'' in Central Ne-
 braska,

q OCoCIL plO0uGL4fC ny growing forests where probably no trees ever grew before, to modify cli- mate and protect field crops by check ing the hot winds which wither and destroy, to place within convenient reach of a rich agricultural country a cheap and permanent source of timber suppiy-these are the results which the bureau of forestry confidently expects to secure by the work it has just begun In the sand-hill country of Nebraska. This spring the president put his ap- proval on the scheme by declaring two hundred and eleven thousand acres of the public lands of Nebraska forest re- serves. Two reerVes were created one, called the Dismal river reserve, be- tween the Dismal and Middle Loup rivers, with eighty-six thousand acres; the other, the Niobrara reserve, with one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres, between the Niobrara and Snake rivers. The division of tree-pIanting of the bureau of forestry has now it's ex- perts in the field selecting suitable places for forest nurseries and planta- tions. In a few years thousands of acres of trees will have been set out, and forests created by artificial meth ods will have begun their struggle for life in one of the great deserts of the middle west
 The Nebraska work marks an ad- vance in forest policy in this country, and a very important one Hitherto the government has been content to ac- quire and administer lands which were already wooded. The very definition of the words forest reserve would seem to imply that the land reserved contanied timber of some sort, no matter how small and scattered. But in undertak- ing the Nebraska work the bureau has declared it's policy of growing forests as well as administering those which already exist; it has undertaken the task of creating sources of timber sup ply on land that cannot profitably grow field crops. If the undertaking suc- ceeds, or even if it shows in the next few years the proof of it's ultimate suc- cess, it's result is sure to be manifested in the creation of more reserves in the prairie lands of the middle west and the planting of forests on far greater scale.
 A lUIcSL IGSSlNG W NdS OICG ISSdIUC uS land which actually bore timber; now it may not bear stick of timber and still be a forest reserve. And it may be far more valuable for a forest re- serve if entirely barren of forests than if heavily wooded. There are few places in this country on which trees cannot be made to grow, and there are millions of acres which will not profta- bly, grow field crops, but will produce valuable forests with very little care.
 The sand-hill country of Nebraska comes within the latter classification. The land is utterly useless for field crops, and the grazing value of most of < it is inconsiderable. But it will grow forests and grow them with profit to the owner, as the government has proved by experimental planting. This idle waste contains within it sources of great wealth and usefulness, this des- ert of shifting sand has the capacity for producing timber crops where every tree finds a ready market.
 Around the sand-hill district is a wide belt of rich agricultural lands popula- ted by prosperous farmers. The one great need is for convenient and
 
 farmer must have wood for fence posts and poles, and lumber forhis houses and barns. Timber is a rare article in the middle west; it must be trans ported for long distances. and prices are high. A forest in the sand-hill country would cheapen the cost of wood for the farmer. and thus be of great and general benefit and it would be a lasting benefit for under the man. agenent of the governments foresters it would not be swept away in a few years by the lumberman, but would be made to yield crops perpetually.
 Until very recently practical Ameri- can foresters have regarded the plant \ ing of trees for profit with disfavor. Many experiments have been made of tree planting in the middle west by private enterprise, but seldom indeed have they met with success. The cost of setting out the plantations has been great and the results generally have not justified the expenditures But within the last few years experts of the bureau of forestry have found methods of planting far less expensve than those formerly practiced, and have so reduced the percentage of fail ures by a proper selection of species and care in planting that money 7 invested in aising timber crops in some parts of the country is reasonably cer- tain to bring good returns. This is es- pecially true in the middle west, where timber is scarce and there is good market for all forest produce.
 The principal tree selected for plant ing in the sand-hill country, the tree in which the government puts it's confi- dence, is the bull pine or rock pine Pinus ponderosa scopulorum of the Rocky Mountains. In the wet valleys along the rivers this tree has been found growing naturally, and it seems specially adapted to the soil and cli- mate.A dozen years ago the bureau of bull pine in Holt county on land that showed the average conditions of the sand-hill country. Although the plan tation was partly destroyed by fire, what trees escaped showed remarka- ble growth. Exposed to the dry, hot winds which sweep over the country, in a place where the rainfall is seldom above twenty inches a year, and often as low as seventeen inches, this hardy western pine has grown from fifteen to eighteen feet.
 The minimum rainfall under which trees will grow is reckoned at twenty