""°nKc,
■■■•I,
VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, DEO. 10. 1910.
NO. 50
Written for tbe Indiana Farmer:
REFORESTING Ol'R LANDS.
By J. H. Haynes.
Human nature is inclined to be destructive.
After a certain amount of destruction
is done to awaken people  to the  dan-
tbe scarcity of fencing material and
lumber is a well known fact. Now restoration is talked of and is regarded by
many as visionary. On the contrary
we believe that if there is a proper care
taken of what timber still remains and
a united effort made by all land owners
toward a restoring of such timbers, the
disasters so imminent might be stayed
observation to show it.
About 30 years ago the old Wabash
and Erie canal was abandoned; at that
time the banks were free from all timber, even brush were kept down. Now
these banks are covered with a dense
growth of timber such as elm, walnut,
maple and sycamore. If this mass had
been  thinned  out much  of the  timber
those we have named we might have a
fine timber supply to carry us over all
danger. This planting should be increased little by little each year to keep
up a succession.
If something of this kind is not done
serious difficulties will hedge all future
progress in a greater or less degree.
The   civil   war   created   a   money   erase
Boating on White River at "Broad Ripple," a Pleasure resort near     Indianapolis.
gers resulting therefrom then steps toward restoration are taken. That our
forests were wantonly destroyed no
one will deny, and the dangers ahead
are apparent to all. Hence we hear
of conservation of our timber lands
and tho restoring of forests to those
once robbed of them.
That there was more valuable timber
burned in log heaps in our county in
the ten years following the civil war
than there is now standing In it Dure is
no doubt in our mind, nnd we presume
the same Is general over the whole
state.
That we all feel the result of this in
off indefinitely. "—
Coal for fuel, wire for fencing and
stone and cement for buildings would
permit of letting our standing timber
alone until a partial restoration is
made, but this must be continued to
meet all requirements. Pew people
have any idea of the rapid growth of
timber under favorable circumstances.
Now that much of our land is clear of
timber such kinds as are of a practical
value can be planted , and by a little
care the rapidity of the growth could
be increased.
To give some idea of this quick
growth we will cite instances under our
would be fit for use, as lumber, etc. As
it is it will average 1 hi ft. in diameter.
Give this timber a few more years and
it will equal  the  old  forests.
A neighbor in 1864 erected a house
near us, at that time he planted on the
west side an elm tree and on the east a
hard maple for shade use. Now the
elm is eight feet in circumference and
the maple seven feet. On a corner
bounding his land and ours he set a
sycamore sapling. It is now eight feet
in circumference. From these examples
wc believe if every farmer would plant
10 acres in good timber trees, and then
care for them, that in less time than
among farmers as well as among other
classes, and the timber was ruthlessly
destroyed in order to have more tillable
soil. Now that farm land is being
worn in fertility men should curb their
mania for money and give some of this
land to timber growth. Along with our
horticultural work should go the arbori-
cultural. The one will pay as much as
the other, perhaps more.
The cost of building with lumber is
getting to make it almost prohibitory.
Fencing with wire is expensive and the
duration of such fencing is   short lived.
Oedar posts at 26 cents or cement, so
heaw as to be burdensome are telling