The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-01

uncertainty as to the future. That these fears for the futdure were we'll founoeo the repetition of the disaster makes sufficiently plain.
 But the conditions of the citizens Of the valley is far from hopless if they will put into active and general oper- alton plans for the protection and re- clamtion of their lands The Bureau of Forestry has devised systems Of tree planting for the river banks, the sand covered lands. and the deeply eroded lands. The object of the first Is to prevent washing of the banks. to pro- tect the whole area from the full force of floods. and in time of overflow to check the tendency to gully and cut new channels. The last two systems or planting are for ultimately reclaiming the now destroyed lands. and making them produce, in the meantime. valu- able wood product while the work or reclamation Is going on.
 The sanded lands are now useless TOT crops, but will grow cottonwood, which twenty years hence will make valuable sawlogs. In the meantime the trees will be retaining the land for field crops This they will do partly by the fertilizing effect of the decaying forest litter. But should the nooo waters return again. the timber would very. IkeIy De III u pOSltiOH tO iCh0SA m1SA greater service. Examination of the area affected year ago shows strik- ingly that where protective growths of cottonwood checked the rush of the current the land beyond was generally
 covered not with sand but with silt. and Is often if anything more fertile than before. With extensive planting of forest trees another flood would
 undoubtedly bring back at once to fer
 tility much of the land which has now
 been made barren.
 The lower part of the Kansas Valley
 was devoted chiefly to the production
 potatoes. Crops of 300 to 400 bushels
 per acre were not uncommon before the
 flood. Thousands of acres of potato
 fields were buried to feet beneath coarse river sand, causing the farmers
 to abandon much of this land. Of 1000
 acres of once valuable sweet potato
 land in one body near Wamego. Kan,
 only 35 acres were cultivated last year after the flood, and this is probably all
 that will be fit to cultivate for many years to come.
 The Bureau of Forestry Is now send
 ing to the citizens of the Raw Valley a
 mimeographed circular of recom-
 mendations for guidance in forest
 planting on their damaged lands, in
 which 1t is said:
 "Wherever the river has changed
 it's course and strengthened it's channel every possible effort should be put forth to keep it straight. Much of the damage that was caused in the great flood of 1908 is directly traceable to crooks in the stream. The soft, bare banks should be covered with willows at the earliest possible moment to pre- vent the stream from again becoming
 crooked. In addition to the protection of the caving river banks and the re- clamation of the lnded and eroded lands, the landowners of the Kansas River Valley should immediately coop crate to secure continuous belts of timber 250 feet wide on both banks
 of the stream. Such protective belts will be far more serviceable than dikes of earth of masonry in mitigating the destruction that may occur from overflows. The future wealth and pro- ductiveness of the valley as a whole will be largely dependant upon the practice of forestry for protection against devastation by foods"
 The conditions are peculiarly favora- | ble for the success of tree planting In l the flooded regions. The flood prepared an excellent seed bed for trees and will | low and cottonwood seedlings are grow | ing thick on ground that was too wet | to blow last year. The young cotton woods can be taken up and set out on | the sandy ridges which the flood has damaged Thus the nursery stock will cost nothing but a litle labor.