The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-15
THE raEE-rLASrrsc INDUSTRY.

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 poets of an early wood and timber famine in this country--a famine which will not end in seven years. as did that of Egypt. but will continue for all time to come unless human effort comes to the assistanee of old Mother Nature and provides the remedy. The awake ching of a mighty nation to the de- struction going on and to the needs of forest preservation has been slow, but it has come. and 1t Is to be hoped that there will be no more elumber of this kind.
 Perhaps the preservation or conser- vation of our forests Is not the proper term to use. Re-forestation would be a better word, for the work of destruc- ton has gone on for such a length of time unchecked that there is really little to preserve. What is left can be saved to some extent, but that will do little towards providing for the great and growing needs of the future. Much of our wood is now imported from oth- CT countries. which saves some of our own. but as the destruction of foreign forests is likely to go on unchecked. no proposition being made to preserve them, 1t follows that it will be but a comparatively short time till our own tween us and an utter lack of wood for building and for all other purposes.
 What is to be done? There can be but one reply. When we run out of wheat, corn, cotton or other farm pro- duets. we grow more, and that Is what must be done on larger scale if those who come after us are to have timber or wood for any purpose. The idea is not Utopian or chimericai, by any means. A recent issue of The New York Post has somewhat lengthy compilation of information on this sub- ing to all who take either practical
 or an aesthetic interest in the subject and its treatment.
 For the present, more attention is directed to the great Middle West those vast and treeless plains, than to any other portion of the country. If any one had predicted only few years ago that before the first quarter of the present century has passed. Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and portions of South Dakota would be ranked as the great timber producing States of the Union, he would have been laughed at, but the prediction bids fair to be veri- fled. There are enthusiasts, in fact. who insist that in that region lis to be solved the national problem of a supply of building material" Fossil bly this may be over enthusiasm. but we doubt 1t. judging from what has al- ready been accomplished and what Is now going on. A short extract from The Post article will illustrate better. At the. beginning of settlement on the prairies Tess than 8 per cent of the area was covered with trees. and the growth was of the shaggy, bush yarf- ety, save here and there along a water eouSs SxonSs t"1. where some 9, groves of cotton But today Nebraska alone has over 100000 acres in timber, and the extent IS widening year by year. State as- by inducing farmers to set aside ten pr twenty acres for timber and advis- ing the best kinds of trees to plant. have helped materially in bringing Snout the new condition of affairs. one station in Western Kansas dis tributes to farmers and stockmen over a million young trees annually. In- stead of the struggling "wind-break" picture of wasted effort on so many claims in the upland plains region the planting Is being done with care ana intelligence. Proper methods of cultivation, better varieties and suit able locations have counted for much in forest growth.
 This shows what can be done and what has been done. In portions of Nebraska under the direction of the State authorities. experiments with what is known as jack pines" have been tried on somewhat extensive scale. and now hundreds of acres are covered with waving green trees where formerly there was nothing but sand or scanty punches of grass. These pines send their roots through the po- rous soil and bring up the moisture from the depth far below the surface. The planting of this region was begun III AcSU anu many OI tho tISSS dfe HOW eighteen or twenty feet high, and in a very few years will be furnishing large quantities of timber.
 One of the most valuable and desir- able features of this experiment. Is that it conserves the rainfall of the region As every one knows. when the rain falls on bare surface. it runs off rap idly. not only causing floods, and wash ing the land badly but resulting in subsequent periods of drought. It is found in this Nebraska experiment that the trees and the increased growth of grass and other small vegetation serves to hold the water that falls and retains it so that 1t may be gradually absorbed by the trees and undergrowth. Thus not only is timber provided for. but very decided improvement is made in the humidity of the land and the atmosphere. One great advantage follows the other, and both are very decided.
 But the profits of these experiments are important, because they appeal di- rectly to the utilitarian spirit of the day Unless there Is prospective profit in 1t, there would be little inducement to engage in forestation, but the profit is there, as the figures show. There Is one tract of 500 acres in Western Kan