Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1886 — Planting Forests. [ARTICLE]

Planting Forests.

The establishment of an arbor day in wise proyision, for the time has come when the farming community should be aroused to the fptal consequence attending a con; tinuance of the wholesale destruction ol trees without a corresponding effort to make good this loss. Great inducements are held out in Europe for the planting of forests, and anything like the indiscriminate felling of trees that is practiced in this country would never be tolerated. There much attention ia given to the preservation and attractiveness of the forest growths, foresten being employed who devote their whole time to this purpose. The royal foresta of Englond include 125,000 acres ol white oak alone, and this does not include the great timber found among the parks. Within fifty years the English Government has paid for the planting of 40,000 acres to timber. In planting forests we must consider the use to <v‘hich we shall wish to put the trees. If the object be fuel, then we should grow only those trees whose combustion gives the most heat. In comparing the different kinds of fuel, hickory has been regarded as the standard and placed at 100; elm falls 12 points below; white oak is placed at 84, yellow oak at 60 and red oak at 69; w hite ash ranks 77, beech 65, black birclT62, whitq birch 43, yellow pins 54, white pine 40 and chestnut 52. Il we want building material and are anxious to secure it as soon as possible, chestnut and pine will fill the bill. It is well, however; to take into consideration soil adaptation before commencing operations. The soil for hickory and oaks is clay, for elm and willow alluvial deposits, for wdiite birch and fir sand and sandy loams. Birches, larches, spruces, and firs will thrive in elevated positions and northern exposures. If w e have not soils especially adapted to the particular varieties we wish to grow, there are those large stretches ol country called “pin© plains” which may well be utilized for thus purpose; and in New. England there is a great deal of _ land that was once with forest, which is now “exhausted"pastures, that h4d best lie returned to the forests.— American Cultivator. , -. .. —>w» Prof. Langley’s recent researches' have led, him to conclusions -whieh imply that in the absence of the absorbing atmosphere, the earth would receive siiilicient'heat from the sun to melt an ice-ahelL about 180 feet deep oyer tha globe’s entire surface.