RELATIVE GROWTH OF TREES. It is not generally known how fast trees will grow and make timber in a fertile soil. It is not necessary in this article to go into an argument to prove tbe value of tree planting in treeless regions. It is an accepted fact. As showing tlie growth of timber in twenty years, we give a table as prepared, some years since, by the late H. H. McAfee, a well known cultivator. It is as f ollows : Thus, actual test shows that cottonwood will make three-fourths of a cord; that even the slow growing black maple will make one-eighth of a cord, while the ash-leaved maple (negun,do) will make five-eighths of a cord to the tree in twenty years' growth. The saline trees if grown in groves thickly, would probably not make more than half the quantities named, which would in time come nearer to the figures as given above. The following will, we think, be a safe estimate for groves or broad belts, in twenty years, planted, say, four by four feet, and thinned out as their good deserves, to a maximum distance of sixteen by sixteen feet for the fast growing varieties, and eight by sixteen feet for the slower ones: A very simple and easy way to plant and culti vate, either for wind-breaks or groves, is to bring the ground into . a good deep tilth by plowing and harrowing, and then plant the trees of two, three, or four years' growth, in straight lines, and at a distance of four feet apart. Cul tivate with an ordinary two-horse cultivator so long as you can stride the rows, if the trees be small enough when set, or with double-shovel plow if larger. Continue this until it is no longer easy to get between them with a horse All the willows will grow readily from cuttings, so will the cottonwoods, and Lombardy poplar; but, do not plant Lombardy poplar, it is good neither for shade, timber nor fuel. Walnut, either white or black, does not transplant unless raised in the nursery, root pruned and moved at two years old. It is better that you raise them from roots yourself. The same is true of hickory and all the oaks. They seldom succeed trans planted; never under ordinary circumstances. All the other trees named in the list transplant kindly—especially when small. Other trees that will be found valuable for timber are, white, black, green, blue, and, on moist soils, red ash.
Of evergreens, White Pine and Norway Spruce do well generally in the West. Of deciduous coniferous trees, European larch should not be omitted. When it attains a fair size—and I have seen it grow to a diameter of twelve inches in thirteen years—it is valuable for all purposes except burning. This it is said to be almost impossible to do. Basswood or Linden is also valuable. As a shade tree it is unexcelled. The cultivation of timber is not the terrible task it has been represented to be; certainly not when undertaken systematically, as one would a crop of corn. Too many of the failures are made in consequence of planting trees too large. Ever greens two years old may be bought by the thousand at very light cost. These should be placed in a nursery bed, at a distance of six by twelve inches, and protected by a scaffold, high enough to work under, and over which enough boughs should be placed to keep off the direct rays of the sun. At the end of two years they may safely be planted where they are to stand, and at a distance of four by four feet. Other trees should be planted at an age of from one to three years from seed, according to the habit of growth. Plant wind-breaks of a width as direc ted; not necessarily along roads, hut where they will afford shelter to orchards, farm buildings, pastures and field crops. We repeat--what we have heretofore frequently said—there is no safer investment for money, nor a better heritage for children in a prairie country, than wind-breaks and plantations of valuable timber. If the plan tation is strictly for timber uses, many waste places unfit for cultivation, such as the tops of knolls, steep hill sides, along ravines, etc. For soft wooded trees, as willow, cottonwood, etc., the edges of ponds are admirable; whitewood grows admirably on sandy ridges sufficiently out of water so they are never wet. Hickory, black walnut, butternut, maple, beech, and elms do well on any prairie soil that is dry, and the two latter on soils somewhat moist. Thus we think you may be able to decide not only whether it will pay you to plant, but also what to plant, for in this respect every man must be the judge of his own action.