Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1919 — Farmer Turns Sandy Tract of Land Into Flourishing Forest Within Few Years [ARTICLE]

Farmer Turns Sandy Tract of Land Into Flourishing Forest Within Few Years

England and Scotland are Keparing to replant forests which have been cut to provide war supplies. They are* doing it now. Never before have those countries been so bare of timber. Hunting ranges and sporting grounds have been sacrificed to supply munition factories at home and armies abroad. The old forests were primarily ornamental and incidentally useful, but those w’hich are now yeing deliberately provided for will be primarily useful and Incidentally ornamental, says Popular Mechanics Magazine. In the we are not in so much need of tree planting as tfcey are in the British isles. But there are two kinds of timber which the war demandhas greatly depleted, and they are kinds of much importance, .locust and black walnut. There is another point to be considered in" the planting of these trees: They can be grown on sandy tracts of land which are now considered of no value, and thus reclaim this land. An excellent illustration of what can be accomplished in the way of reclaiining useless land through the planting of trees has been carried out during the last six or eight years by a resident of Whites! de county, Illinois, In these years he has accomplished the seemingly impossible task of turning “some TO acres of sand, formerly as barren as the desert of; Sahara, into a -flourishing forest. Nor is that all; for this forest, acting as a sand binder, has. been' the means of saving other fertile acres from the inroads of the drifting sand, the total result being that the farm has increased several times in. valpef* The sandy tracts, which, before being planted, to trees, were practically worthless, are now worth anywhere from SSO to SIOO an acre.