Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-12-27

AoWd.s BLACK walnut was as aDOnQanL
In this section when the early pioneers
came here as the soft maple now ls In
our streets. The soft maple ia almost
svaluless. except as a shade tree tina
price OF black walnut continues to
soar. Almost all other hard woods
are growing rare and valuable The
town and the school district and the
country, that look ahead that can
compute what will be good for the
next generation instead of simply pill
ine up debts for that generation to pay
trees. 1t would be safe ind sure
method OF. increasing the wealth Of the
country of insuring the prosperity of
future generations
It would be as good as bank stock
or life insurance or cash, If the chill
dren were left wood lot, which in
creases in value every year, and which
under careful manaL ement would yield
lsurer returns than any other invest
ment. The Whole proposition is yet In
its Infancy here, but ere many years
have passed the keen Iowa farmer will
be paying as much attcnti n to his
trees as to his stock or his c I'm fields.
And tree everywhere will be valued
not merely for sentimental reasons,
but from the eminently practical point
of view.-Burlingto Hawk Eye.
me SIdZeIlG CldlIIlS Iile llOi vi VI llc
conversion of the Hawk-Eye to this
line Of thought, and Their by has done
more than If it had elected two COVER
nors at the sane time. There are 9TH
err suggestions that could be mace and
that should appeal to the people, Cedar
Rapids is probably the best wooded
city in the west. Wooded is the right
word for 1t, for the trees are so COM
mon as to lose their individual char
~ cl, f,oa {e
one kind of cottonwood that observes
the decencies Of municipal life. but
even that one is objectionalblue for .le
reason that 1t grows too large, casts
too much shade and takes the strength
from the land. It is impossible to
make a lawn beautiful with shrubs
and blooming plants when the life Is
Slapped to give existence to measly
flying cotton. The catalpa is another
abominAtion In the town. 1t is the last
tree out with its foliage in the spring,
the first one off in the fall, dirty three
times a year and unsightly all the
! time, except the brief blooming per-
iod. The wood is valuable for fence
posts alone. Then there is the box
alder, the fond parent Of millions of
bugs. 1t is not worth the space.
There are fruit trees that would be
more ornamental. and they would pay
the owners of the ground handsome
profits for the time and expense of
their planting and cultivation. A
crop Of ripe cherries or plums would
certainly be as slightly as catalpa pods
and the pods do nothing to help pay
1 the taxes. Thew add nothing to the
value Of property.
| There are many varieties Of woods
that would grow in Iowa, and that
would be profitable. Walnut, white
walnut, ash, hickory, oak, maple, (The
kind that is maple) and in the south
yellow polar, or tulip tree, chestnut
and all the woods Of the Allegheny
region. Iowa has been entirely toe
lavish of the opportunities thrown
away. There Is need Of saving. Il
| there is no better land there is nowhere
else better reason for using it to tht
4 limit. The condition of many tracts is
disgrace to the state and an accuse
ton against the business sense of the
! owners. II people must have haze
/ brush let 1t be filberts. If there mus
be hickory shrub the shellbarl1 Is Ger.
tainly to be preferred to the pignut, Oh
white hickory, and gives some return
I. for the land, while the wood is as val.
liable. The man who has willow
! grove and is compelled to buy cherries
and plnms and apples and the like haa
view Of husbandry that will neve
make him an object Of envy for hi
wealth.-Cedar Rapids Gazette.