use of land, etc., and the total cost per ton will be at least $2, and may run up as high as $5 on a small scale, even with a fair yield. The practice is growing of putting in the silo the whole crop of common field corn, ears and all, thus making but one job more of the whole work of harvesting the fodder or plucking the ears, husking, grinding, etc. This practice is quite satisfactory. Many silos are also being filled with uncut corn fodder. The crop is cut up close to the ground and placed directly in the silo, butts and tops end for end, to pack solidly. Such "whole ensilage" keeps well, but has to be cut with a broadax or hay knife when fed, and is not eaten quite as closely as the fine-cut ensilage. The silo of which we show a model would need to be modified for "whole ensilage," so that the wagons loaded with the long forage could drive up to the top and dump in their contents without lifting. Harvesting.-Usually the ensilage corn is cut up at the bottom, brought to the silo, and fed into a cutting machine run by steam power. This chops it into half-inch or five-eighths-inch lengths, and by an elevator attachment conveys the cut corn up into the top of the silo through the window in the roof (or end), and when one compartment is filled the next one is filled. The filled silo is then covered with thick building paper or a foot or two deep of coarse hay or straw. Many farmers still employ heavy pressure on ensilage, but no weight is now used for these improved silos, nor is the waste by rot as much with the covering described as with an air-tight and heavily weighted cover. Some farmers do not even use the paper, but tread down a good layer of not very dry hay, tucking it in about the walls very carefully with a spade, letting the ensilage heat before putting on this covering. Of course the ensilage should be well trodden down as the filling process goes on. Taking out the Ensilage.-When it is designed to open the silo, begin at the end near the door. Dig down to the door, take off a couple of the top plank, and pitch the ensilage through this aperture into the wagon or conveyance that is to take it to the cattle. Arrange the silo so that this work of feeding will be as small as possible. (Plate LIX represents ensilage cutting at the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts of New Hampshire.)

AGRICULTURE.-PLATE LIX.

ENSILAGE CUTTING, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANICAL ARTS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

CHAPTER XXIX.

FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES.

By B. E. FERNOW.

Forestry is a branch of economics hardly known or practiced in the United States, if by the term we designate the art of managing and reproducing forests as it is understood and practiced in Europe.

It is only within the last decade or two that the eventual need of a more economical working of the virgin timber growth has been recognized, and that on the treeless plains of the West, tree planting, hardly forest planting, for the sake of climatic amelioration has been practiced. Only here and there in the Eastern States, on the prairies, and in California, are small plantations or groves of planted forest to be found; but forest management applied to natural forests is not known to exist anywhere.

The necessity for the application of forest management and forest growing, however, is rapidly becoming more evident, and a system of forestry adapted to American conditions, political, climatical, and floral, is gradually taking shape.

Under such circumstances a forestry exhibit can show but little more than existing conditions and composition of the natural forests, and the methods employed in their utilization. Forestry proper can not be represented by plans, maps, etc., in detail, as no system of forest management exists and no working plans have been even thought of.

Since the time for securing the exhibits was extremely short, hardly more than three months, and that, moreover, late in the fall of the year after the fall of leaves, the task was a difficult one with regard to botanical specimens. The herbarium of the forestry division had only been started one season, and was barely in condition to furnish representative specimens even of the commoner species. Notwithstanding the difficulties, to which must be added scant appropriations and limited space, the exhibit will at least afford opportunity to the beholder to improve his acquaintance with our forest resources.

The main object of the exhibit has been to so classify and arrange objects within a compact space that a systematic study would be possible. With the limited space at disposal it was thought best to exclude wood manufactures of which it would have been impossible to present an exhaustive display, their variety and extent in the United States being enormous, and by adhering closely to such exhibits as bear directly upon forest products and forestry proper, a more or less organized whole could be represented.

The exhibit has been classified into three subsections, namely: Subsection A, forest botany; subsection B, forest culture; subsection C, forest utilization. To avoid

further subdivision, it has been necessary to bring into one of these subsections parts of the exhibit which might otherwise call for further classification.

FOREST BOTANY.

The variety of economically useful timber trees which compose the forest growth of the United States of America, is hardly, if at all, equaled anywhere in the world. Of the 412 or more arborescent species which are now known to occur within the limits of the United States, not less than 160 may be counted as economically valuable trees, worthy of attention, with a range of qualities from the soft and light texture of the poplars and magnolias to the hard and strong fibers of the hickory and osage orange, furnishing material for almost every conceivable use.

The range of climatic differences from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and from the Canadian boundary to within 25 degrees of the equator, is such as to account for this diversity. It should, however, be stated that 64 or 65 species are of semitropical origin, importations from the West Indies, and found only along the southern coast and keys of Florida in small quantities. These, for the present at least, the forester may at once dismiss from his consideration. Another similar exclusion may for the present be made of some species which overlap from the Mexican flora, some 26 or 27, with but a confined distribution in the United States. There remain then about 320 species which call for a discriminating classification by the forester, and if we exclude all species, which as a rule, do not exceed 1 foot in diameter, we decrease this number again, to, say 235 species, which possibly may enter into the consideration of forest managment

Leaving out of consideration the semitropical woods of Florida and the north Mexican flora, we can divide the forest growth into two great natural or forest botanical divisions, namely: The Atlantic Region, which reaches from the Atlantic coast to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains; and the Pacific Region, which occupies the territory west of the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, the two regions being quite different in forestal character as well as in configuration. On the Pacific slope, with higher elevations and mountain ranges, coniferous growth is prevalent; on the Atlantic, with lower levels, plains, and prairies, the deciduous growth is more prominent.

There are but few species which occur in both regions overlapping from one into the other, and fewer still which occupy large territories in both. Of the latter there are but 10, principally belonging to the Northern forest. There are 15 Atlantic species overlapping into the Pacific region, mostly in the Southern range, Exhibit I.—A further discrimination of types of forest flora leads to the geographical division exhibited in map No. 1, showing the natural divisions of North American forests. (From the work of Prof. Sargent in the Tenth Census, 1880.) The characteristic trees in each division may be named as follows: Northern Division (with 8 arborescent species): White and black spruces, poplars, birches, willows. Northern pine division: White pine, hemlock, sugar maple, linden, elm. Deciduous forests of the Mississippi Basin and Atlantic plains: Oaks, hickories, walnuts, ashes, chestnut, tulip trees. Southern coast plain: Long-leaf pine, taxodium, magnolias, live oak, gums.

Semitropical forest of Florida: Mahogany, palm, mangrove. Northern Mexican region: Mesquit, yucca, guaiacum. Northern Pacific region: Spruce, hemlock, canoe birch, balsam, poplar, and aspen. Pacific coast, between the ocean and eastern slopes of the Cascades: Cedar, spruce, hemlock, red fir, in the north; sequoia, sugar pine, bull pine, in the south. Interior Pacific region, showing poverty of composition and development: Pines, juniper, aspen.

In general, it can be said that the Northern, Western, and Southern forests are largely coniferous; while the Central States, especially of the interior, show hardly any coniferous growth.