The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-03-08
SHOULD ORGANIZE
FOR ARB0R DAY
SN Ely Offers Many Good Sug'
. o.t;on. in Following interest,"
ing Letter
Editor The Courier:

Well, the ball Is beginning 10
rou. The long-hoped-for road
aide tree-planting movement is TAX
mo on a tangible form. Do you
know of any other locality in the
Northwest that is making ornament
81 tree.planting business of the
whole peoole?
While our local committee is
wrestling with the planting prob
plems for this spring, of when to
nlant, what to plant and where to
get them, l want to offer a sugges-
ton for future years.
We want permanent organiza-
ton with boys and girls as we'll as
ladies. from all neighborhoods, on
our working committees and we must
pan to set out more trees each sue
ceeding year, and we should cele-
brate the Panama opening by set
ting out from ten thousand to fifty
thousand trees that year in this
valley. Many of us can start these
trees by either planting seeds, or by
sending to some nursery and getting
: seedlings of many kinds already
started.
With this object in view, l will
experiment with several varieties
not now grown here. Most of them
J | am somewhat familiar with. One
Of the greatest pleasures of my boy
hood was cracking shell bark hickory
nuts, and 1 don't think there is
another nut either foreign or do
mestic that will compare with it in
favor. will try shell bark hick-
ory, pecan, japanese walnut, sweet
chestnut, persimmon, Eastwood,
sycamore and blue spruce. An ave-
nue. lined with sycamore on either
side is pretty sight. Some years
ago the writer spent a day in the
great Stanford vineyard. One of
the pretty sights there was an ave-
nue. through the heart of the vine
yard, forty feet wide, lined on either
side with English walnuts.
One OF our committee suggested
that catalpa speciosa would be a
good tree to plant here because of
its commercial value. Which re-
calls an incident on the great Ran
kin farms in Northwest Missouri.
These farms started in 1876 and
now have some twenty-five thousand
acres OF very fertile land in a high
state OF cultivation, but the original
owner, David Rankin, did not take
to setting out trees, in fact he would
rather pull up ten trees than to set
out one; but some one on one of the
farms set out small grove of white
ASH, more as a protection to feed
lot than anything else. They were
set four feet apart and were given
no care beyond keeping stock out of
tne grove. When they were five to
SIX inches in diameter they were
cut into suitable lengths for two
horse double trees, the saplings
making from two to four pieces
each. These were taken to a plao-
Ing mill an run thru a buzz rip
saw slabbing off two sides, three
holes then bored and the finished
article then piled in dry place like
cord wood.
on these farms when hundreds of
Teams are in almost constant use,
.he oreakage of double-trees is some
'mhg enormous. But it is the loss
u u tlme In replacing these things
mat counts mere than the loss of
III; aiIa'eflal and that applies to farms
all over the west. A little time
alo 1orethought in planting hard
"ooo trees would soon supply mat
efiai for fuel as we'll as necessary
aaim repairs and the beauty of the
m autumn coloring in hard wood for
es's Is something that must be seen
u Oe appreciated.
1nere are boys and girls in this
n5a ralley who will live to see trees
planted clear up to the crest of
lump .:n off Joe and on over to Una
on mere isa new avenue just now
sbe ypened to the public, beginning at
.he VI end OF East Fifth street near
th he 5 P. & S depot, running down
oae'ar ene Drainage ditch through the Chi
S. aso Tracts to Durham's corner in
81 section 8; this has been donated by
ms, ,ne owners for public use and will
u,aAe m;,s very attractive driveway a
,hn .llle and a half long. 1t will make
tue F;, best road to the Hedges and
shy hey country and this whole road
either side. Will '''''e trees oh
Yours for miles of trees,