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Tltfl SOlMEiRN WORLD, MAY 16, 1882, 7 its desirable qualities. It is not necessary that you should have.your trees furnished ready made by other parties. You can grow your own black walnuts, and that, too, without the risk of loss, or the backaching labor of transplanting. Prepare your ground by breakingandharrowing in the fall. Fur row it off each way as you would for corn, ex cept that the rows should be seven feet apart Take the fresh nuts from the trees, it Is not necessary that they should be hulled, placing two nuts in each crossing. This is to insure getting a good stand. The nuts should be covered very shallow. Just enough earth to hide them. In the spring the land should be harrowed off midway between the rows of nuts, and the spaces planted with corn or potatoes. Cultivate as you would a corn crop by cross plowing, being careful to give the young trees a fair chance and good clean culture. The second spring thin out your plants to one tree to the hill. If there are spaces entirely missing, they may be tilled by transplanting from the hills containing duplicates. The second and perhnps the third year, it will pay to cultivate corn between the rows, after which the trees should he regularly cultivated until they fully occupy the ground so as to keep down by their shade all weeds and grass. The period at which cultivation may be discontinued cannot be definitely stated, as much will depend on the character of the seasons and quality of the soil. Of course seven feet each way will bo too close for permanent trees but as they will protect each other when small and make much better growth, it is preferable to have them closely planted. ’ When they begin to crowd, the alternate tree in each row may be removed. The trees thus removed will be of suffi cient size to be useful in various ways on the farm. A second thinning will in a few years be necessary, taking the 1 alternate tree the other way. Your permanent trees will now stand fourteen feet apart each way,a sufficient distance fora number of years, though not for large trees, but the thinnings will always pay a large per cent on the value of the ground occupied. I sliull not weary your patience by an array of ligures to con vince you of the probable value of a n acre of black walnut timber at a given age, but only remark that at four teen feet each way you should have something over two hun dred trees, and that trees that have grown with culture, within my recollection, and I am not yet fifty years of age, will now reudily bring $5 each, and that such trees are sought after with diligence and are being skipped from every railroad station in Cen tral Indiana. I will now close this paper already too long, with the prediction that he who plants a walnut grove, caring for it afterwards, will leave to pos terity a richer inheritance by far than the man who buys and sells on margins. Trees of Texas. Denison, Texas. Editor Southern World—Your favor of April 20th, received. I would gladly com ply with your request to give the points in my paper on "The Forests and Forest trees of Texas," prepared for the American For estry Congress, if I could so abridge as to present any practical or valuable knowl edge. The best I can do is to detcribe the paper, as it was a very condensed report of the species of. the trees and their distribu tion, with remarks as to comparative values, their adaptability to forest culture, etc. There are over one hundred species of trees in the State, worthy of the name. The most valuablo of these are Post Oak (Quer- cus Obtuailoba) found more or less through out the State wherever timber grows on the uplands, but especially on the higher sandy lands of Eastern and Northern Texas. There are heavy forests of it along Itcd River. White Oak (Q Alba.) A belt of exceedingly line timbers of this species extend down the Sabine river, or rather the tine uplands adjoining It, in Eastern and Southeastern Texas, but is not found elsewhere in the State. Live Oak (Q. Virens,) occurs In the lower watersof the Ilrazos, Colorado, San Antonio and other Btreams in Southern and South western Texas in large forests of the finest trees of this kind found in the world. Itex- tends Southwesterly to the Rio Grande river and Northwardly through Central Texas, West of Fort Worth nearly to Itcd river In a more stunted and spreading form. It isalmost an inexhaustible supply for ship-knees, etc., and tho most beautiful of all oaks. Many other species of oak are found in various parts of the State, especially in the South eastern parts. Longleaved Pine (Plnus Australia or Long- ifolia) There is a grand body of this noble and valuable tree extending down theSu- bine and Neelies rivers in East and South eastern Texas, to within about 50 or GO miles of the Gulf, but not West of the Trinity river to any great extent. Loblolly or Old Field Pine, (P. Tirda) also occurs in very extensive forests Northward to Red river and Westward to and in some place beyond lower Trill ty river. These two species cover most of what is termed the Pine region or solid forest section of the State. But all through this region there are numerous other species of trees. The Cy press (Taiodium tlestichum) grows to fine pro portions and great abundance in the bot tom lands of their sections and extends though like hickory the heat is so intense as to rapidly corrode grates and stoves. It makes almost as good material for forging as charcoal, even when green. There is little flame at first then intense glowing heat. The gum extending from the tree is said to be equal in adhesive properties to Gum Arabic. The pods and beans within are much relished by cattle, sheep and horses, and will fatten rapidly when in quantity sufficient. The trees are said to be prolific. Little has been done in the State to ascer tain the bestspecies of trees for artificial for- l est culture. The Catnlpa Speclosa though not a native, is perfectly at home. Osage orange, walnut, honey locust, white ash,syc- umore, box elder, cottonwood, elms and some others seem well adapted to cultivation. The Tcxns umbrella tree (iftlia Aztdarach) grows quickly into a most unique and per fect shade tree but if not useful for any thing else. There is prairie in this State to the extent of four Georgias, so you see wo liuve need of all our flue timber, and must soon plant more. T. V. Mdnson. Iti'lollon of Forests to Water Supply. Adirondack Survey Office, Ai.rany, N. Y., May 1, 18S2. Ed. Southern World—In acknowledging your very courteous letter of tho 27th ult., I beg leave to say that some time will prob ably elapse, before the publishing in com- monthly precipitation of rain in the Middle Eastern States. Here it is known that the proximate limit of safety of forest cutting has been reached, as torrential action began to show itself In sections where much tim ber had been cut away. The topography of the country was shown to have a most important bearing upon the quantity effect of forests upon the rain-fall, the mountain ranges, when forest-covered and extending across the path of the South winds, acting as powerful condensers of moisture. The way in which the limbs of trees entangle and kill the wind, to which a house or block of houses forms hardly any obstacle, was explained in an interesting manner, and was shown to be dependent on the angle of incidence. The true relationship of atmospheric elec tricity to rain-fall was traced through the reactions of the correlated force so often in correctly termed "latent heat." The limbs, boughs and leaves of the forest were (when considered mechanically) natural ma chinery most wonderfully adapted to the purpose of grasping upon the atmosphere, and thus aiding those dynamic changes, which induce the precipitation of moisture. The forests were, in fact, singularly com plicated condensers, and performed their pe culiar office in the atmosphere far better than the most skillfully contrived alembic of the chemist. Forests were shown to be essential to a uniform rain-fall when exist ing in the proper localities, as • determined by the great local meteorological laws. A knowledge of the path of storms in any locality, and of the topography—-the eleva tions and depressions, tbo rivers, marshes and lakes— was shown to be essential to any exact estimate of the limit of safety of the cutting of forests. The only way in which the wide-spread knowl edge necessary could be ob tained would be by a general system of observation by farmers and others through out the whole country of the great facts of the local rain fall, direction of winds, Ac., which could be easily done with a little trouble. — With these observations, and an accurate system of topographical aud forest maps, (which every State should have made,) it would be possible to make close estimates as to where forests must be preserved, wliero re planted and where they might he safely cut. To secure this information re quires the intelligent co operation of all citizens. The lecturer told of his personal experiences on the mountain peaks of tho Adlrondacks and Rocky Mountains, and traced the origin of rain from its evaporation by the sun’s rays from the sea to its condensa tion to cloud—and showed how Buys Ballot’s law readily enables meteorologists knowing the path of storms, from a mere knowledge of the present direction of the wind and the area of the last high or low pressure,' to de termine the probable maximum or mini mum liable to follow, and probable change in the direction of the wind; but that tho location of forests greatly modified the ex act application of the law, and renders im perative that we should study the path of storms on exact topographical maps show ing tho location of forests, and that then only should we be able to make exact pre dictions. _ Persons who indulge in a dreamy and vie- ionary habit of mind, are frequently both unpractical and unsuccessful; but this pro ceeds not from an excess of imaginative power, but from the lack of training it aright, and of supplementing its action by determined industry. Truth is one of the rarest gems. If it still shines in your bosom, suffer nothing to dis place or diminish its lustre. Make yourself useful, and you will always be In demand at fair wages. Homes without books and periodicals are destitute indeed. Anger dies soon with a wise and good man. MAHOGANY PARTRIDGE COCHINS. Southwesterly to the Rio Grande and beyond into Mexico. The oaks, gums, maples, lin den, cedar, magnolias, elms, hickory, pe cans, walnut, ash, cottonwood, sycamore, birch, beech and many others of less impor tance are found represented by one or more specie each in their respective habitats throughout this wonderful tree region, which is a solid forest, about as great in area as the State of Georgia. Outside of this region, in groups and belts aggregating area equal to another Georgia, are the live oak, post oak, osage orange (macliura auranticu) in Middle and Northern Texas and extending half way through the Territory North of the Red river. Ash, elm, pecans, black-jack, scarlet oak, cotton wood, sycamores, red cedar, mountain ce dar and in far Western Texas, mountain pine and mountain mahogany. Extending through most of the prairie region of Central, Western and Southern Texas into Mexico is the great region of Mesquit (Alyaroba Qlandulota) or Texas Gum Arabic tree. Though a low scraggy tree or bush, yet itisof immense value as fuel; more especially is this the case with the roots, which are exceedingly large in proportion to the tops, so much so as to be called "un derground forests." Tho wood Is very heavy takes a fine polish and makes a good fuel plete form of the paper which I read last Friday before the American Forestry Con gress, but that when it is issued, I shall take pleasure in sending you a copy. En closed please find an abstract which gives an idea of the character of the paper and may serve your present purpose.' Very truly yours, Verplanck Colvin, Sup’t. The influence of forests upon tho water supply of any given drainage area is directly proportional to the ruin-fall, and it is from the stand-point of evaporation and rain-fall that the effect of forests must be considered. The data for the information must be searched for in the East, where the destruc tion of the forest has been i^reat. Here, rather than on the frontiers of civilization, we should look fortracesof climatic change, if the destruction of forests lead toany such change. The records of the United States Signal Service of the mean monthly precip itation in this country for many years had been searched by the lecturer for statistical information on this subject, and he had based upon these records a series of compu tations which showed where the greatest ir regularities in the monthly rain-fall oc curred. These differences were presented in tabu lar form, and showed a favorable uniform