| Show FORESTRY association so many inquiries are made both personally a and dd by letter as to th the e 0 objects b of the utah forestry association that a plain statement of its objects seems highly proper jn in a general way it may be said that its objects are to study the forestry problem in relation to the conservation of the water supply and in relation to the agricultural and horticultural interests of utah one of the most pressing needs so far as the water supply is concerned is to secure timber reservations around the be headwaters adwaters of our principal streams to secure these reservations it is necessary for the people who will be benefited to present petitions to the secretary of the interior asking for them in these petitions the area of the proposed reservations the names of the streams which head in them the character of the land whether rocky mountainous heavily or sparsely timbe timbered reds and whether or not the soil is fit for agriculture when stripped of its timber must all be clearly stated it would probably be wise wile to state the facts in reference to the irrigation ditches already drawing water from the streams heading beading in the proposed reserves and wherever possible statements should be made that the timber on the proposed reservation is not immediately Ina tely necessary for the ue u ae of the aident population jt it is not the purpose of the government in creating these reservations to withdraw them permanently from the use of the public but only to reserve the title in the government for gal all time when there is a demand for the timber and when it can be cut under proper supervision without injury to the purpose of the reservation the government sells the standing timber stumpage as it is called to local buyers another purpose of the association Is to collect and disseminate such knowledge as will be of use to people who wish to plant groves or ornamental abade trees much of the tree planting which has been done in the past has been most unfortunate large areas of land are now dow planted to lombardy lombard y poplar trees these trees are of little use me the timber from them is of slight value except for fuel and for that pose it in ia vastly inferior to many other species of trees if tree planters had known of the valueless character of the trees they would undoubtedly have planted other kinds there are perhaps but few persons in utah who know the best kind of tree to plant on any given kind of land or for guy any given purpose those who have this knowledge should be willing to it for the benefit of others it the territory and to facilitate the spread pread of such useful information is among the chief objects of the forestry adulation Now elation those who have rare information pertaining to trees in their relation to health to economy and to the industries of the commonwealth 0 ought to communicate such information to the society through it its 8 president d or secretary when steps will be tg taken to give it wide circulation and to file it under classified heads for use uee as it is ia the purpose of the C to become a bureau of in forma tion on matters relating to tree and timber limber interests should we not begin at once to collect just juet this kind of information in a previous ioup paper I 1 referred to the relations between forests birds injurious insects and fruit growing grow lne and from the reports of dealers in fruit I 1 showed that utah is losing thousands of dollars every year from fruit injured by insects and as was stated in the article referred to birds are the natural enemies of insects this is not true however of all birds it is almost certain that the sparrows which are so BO plentiful in all of our cities do barmore harm than good aud and the sooner systematic efforts are made to rid ourselves of them the sooner can we hope for the increase of the insect eating song birds careful observations should be made to determine positively which birds are gur cur friends and which ones are our enemies ene miep A great task which is before the people of utah to is the fo resting and the re foresting forestine ot of the mountain sides aides this is a task of such magnitude that full information regarding the best means should be collected before the work is undertaken but when it it is once accomplished accomplish eds the land which is now useless and which in many places is rapidly losing sill of its soil leaving only the bare rock exposed will yield a yearly revenue which will go far towards the support of our state institutions institution if we know knew a farmer who complained of hard times while he permitted large tracts of his land to remain un would wonder at his stupidity Is it not as unwise for a state to allow its lands to be unemployed as for an individual the forestry Pore etry association is anxious to get some definite information as to lo the extent of the present timber area of utah and also of the character of the timber to secure this information an accurate observer is needed in every neighborhood one who will give the subject a little time and careful thought and who will write a careful report answering the be questions which will be sent him on application all who are willing to take part in this work are requested to communicate with either the president or secretary of the utah forestry association the address of the president is dr john K R park north state street salt lake city the secretary may be addressed at the abe university of utah salt laae city C A WHITING secy arbor day bay is at hand and a few practical suggestions as to how to plant trees may not be inopportune the first question which presents itself is what kind of a t ree or er trees shall I 1 olani planta 1 the answer to this question Zie depends upon the character of the soil and upon the purpose for which the tree is planted there are at least five trees which are fine street trees and also suitable for most yards which seem to grow well in utah these five are the he hard bard maple abe white elm the linden or basswood the black locust and the black walnut it to is highly probable that there are other trees nearly arquite or quite as good as these which will do well in our climate all of these trees require a moderately dry soil that is they are not suited to wet or swampy ground for such ground the silver maple the gray willow and the box elder are suitable all of these trees furnish fairly good fuel and they will grow on land that would other wise be useless of course native trees are more likely to live jive than trees which are imported it is generally better to procure flees from a nursery than from the forest for in a well managed nursery especial attention is given to the formation of roots which will permit the trees to be transplanted with little danger to iab life it is usually better to small trees trebe as a general thing it is better to select trees not more than two to inches in diameter and not more than ten feet high the roots which are essential to the life of a tree are microscopic in size and they are invariably killed by drying these essential roots or root hairs are borne un on the sides of the smaller roots hence the necessity of securing an abundance of fibrous roots before the tree is dug up a large hole should bed be dug ug to receive it the hole should be so large that chat when the tree is placed in it and the roots properly spread out the sides of the hole bole will be a foot from the ends of the roots the bole should not be too deep the tree should be planted at about the same depth at which it was growing before the tree to is placed in the hole it the ground to is dry one or more palls of water should be poured in in digging the tree up for transplanting care should be taken not to shake the earth from the roots by shaking the roots while they are covered wan earth the root hair are broken off and as before stated these are essential to the life of the tree whenever it is possible iLis il is a good plan to retain a bulb of earth around the roots and place this unbroken in the hole prepared for the tree care should be taken to have fine mellow soil not too wet to pack around the roots of trees in filling therole the hole care should be taken to press the soil closely around the roots after the tree to is planted it will need careful and regular watering A good way if one has only a few trees to attend to is to put straw around the trees and pour the water on the straw in this way it soaks slowly into the ground and is less jess likely to wash the soil away from the roots than when it is poured directly on the ground the ground around the trees should be kept free from grass and weeds for at least two or three years after the trees are arc planted would it not be well for teachers who celebrate arbor day tu to make it the occasion of a lesson in forestry for their pupils I 1 would also suggest that an accurate record be kept at each school house of the growth of all the trees in the yard in this way valuable statistics of timber culture may be preserved C A WHITING secretary utah forestry association |
