The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-03-14
TO GROW FORESTS
IN SAND Hills
Probable Experiment on a ':liI-
lion Acres of Land in
Nebraska.
NOT AN IDLE DREAM
Bureau Of Forestry Believes The Plan
Is Entirely Feasible and tho
President Is Said to Be In
Favor Of II.

oiooho d - ISSeINt.
If this is done-and so far there has
been only the heartiest approval of the
scheme-the bureau of forestry will I'M
dertake the novel work of transform
Ing what is now a barren. sandy, tree
less waste into a timbered area which
shall be Of value to succeeding genera
tons.
An open plain is to be made over into
a forest.
A supply of merchandise timber is
to be placed within easy reach of the
farmers of a rich agricultural country.
An attempt is to be made to moder-
ate and temper the hot winds that do
such damage to field crops.
The American Forestry association
last December put its approval IN this
reserve; the bureau of forestry, which
represents the most intelligent ideas Of
forestry in this country, is eager to
have the reserve declared, and the
president. as his message clearly shows,
Is in sympathy with the plan of maxi
ing waste areas productive by forestry
or irrigation.
If this reserve is declared, the bureau
of forestry will undertake the stocking
of the land with bull pine-or rock pine,
as 1t Is sometimes called-red cedar n
other trees which have been found TO
do well in the country.
" oASaoy OoAtIdSo!
The work will proceed on a moderate
scale at first. Small plantations of
O III or five acres each will probably
be set out in the low places between
the sand hills and will be fenced in to
keep the cattle out.
The idea the experts Of the bureau
hold is to extend these plantations grad
ually, or allow them to extend them
selves, by a sort Of group system until
111fjr m n ta1y thny chall ,,orro ;~t~ 49,
another and completely cover the whole
reserve.
This undertaking would be of the
greatest Importance not only to the
state of Nebraska, one-third Of whose
area is included in the sand hill coun-
try, but to the whole Of the t~reeless
regions of the middle west, to which it's
success would mean much.
This work, if authorized, will be the
first great systematic attempt of the
bureau Of forestry to prove what it
has long been preaching, that under
favorable conditions trees can be
proftably grown in regions that are
now treeless. If the experiment Is sue
cessful in Nebraska, western Kansas
will undoubtedly receive much bene-
ut from 1t by tree planting On its own
open plains.
The confidence Of expert foresters,
that trees will thrive in the sand hills,
is based on sound reasoning and prac-
teal experiments. Abundant proof
exists already that several valuable
species of western pines will not only
grow in the sand hills, but find there
conditions which are peculiarly favor
able for their growth.
Surprising Growth In Sand.
No more hopeful place for an expert
ment in reforesting the plains could be
found than in the sand hill country.
In 1890 the bureau of forestry-then a
division merely-made an experimental
planting Of pine trees of several west
ern species in the southwestern part of
Holt county, where the annual rain
fall is about twenty inches and the
other conditions are the average of the
sand hill country. Several acres were
planted and, though the plantation was
partly destroyed by fire, what trees
We're unburned have made an astonish-
Ing growth. In this hot, dry, open
country, exposed to the full force Of
the northwest gales, pines that were
planted eleven years ago have grown to
be fifteen to eighteen feet high. Some
of the jack pines were found to have
made a growth of tWenty-Seven inches
in the year 1901
The rainfall in Holt county is twenty
inches, and this is rated as the mini
mum which will support tree growth.
Theoretically in such a climate the
trees should be small and stunted and
slow growing. But other factors ex-
plain why the sand hills are an ex-
ception to the rule. Although only
from seventeen to twenty inches of
rain falls in a year in the sand hill
country, the soil is always moist un-
~derneath. On the hottest August day
one has only to dig q few inches into
the sand to n moisture, nj at a few
feet below h surface water fills the
newly sunken hole. No matter how
dry the surface appears, the sand I'M
derneath is always saturated, and a
tree like the bull pine. which buries its
tap root deep into the ground, finds
abundant moisture.
Why b Sand Is Wet.
The explanation Of the quantity of
water in the sand hills is very inter
esting. Biologists believe that the
sand hills are the result of the decom-
position and crumbling away of a sort
of sandstone which formed the bed of
an ancient inland sea. The sea dried up
and h sandstone, exposed to weather
influences, gradually crumbled into
sand, Then the wind, which blows pre-
yailingly from he northwest, piled it
up in heaps like snow drifts, at right
angles to the course Of the wind Itself.
that is to say in a direction running
from northwest to southwest.
All the sand hills of She country pre-
serve this uniform direction, and the
four streams that run through theiland
run in the direction Of the hills. These
four streams, the North Loup, the Mid
die Loup, the South Loup and the Dis
NAL, water the whole country. They
" no tributaries and no watershed.
and yet 1T is a remarkable fact that
there is scarcely ever any variation in
the amount Of water they end down.