SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 271 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Periam — Any place will be improved in value by planting 

 trees. Could cite many examples showing the efficiency of wind 

 breaks. The common mistake in tree planting is made by setting 

 the trees too thick, and they continue to grow thicker. If you plant 

 your trees thick, you must not wait too long before you thin them 

 offt. For ornament, you simply want the ground fairly well shaded, 

 not enough, however, to keep the grass from growing. The slope 

 of the land must also be taken into consideration in ornamental 

 planting. If the house is a tall one, plant lots of trees in the yard. 

 I believe in having trees and ornamental shrubs between the house 

 and road. You do not want too many tall ones, nor those that make 

 dense shade, but have a good variety. The better shelter you have 

 the more tender tsees can be planted, but you will have to experiment 

 to get the varieties that do best in your particular locality, as n'o 

 one can tell you what to put out. No man has a farm merely for 

 what he can make out of it. It is his home, and the trees he plants 

 about it make it more home-like, and increases its value materially. 

 It is the improvements that make the farm bring a good price. No 

 one ever plants, in the way of ornamental trees, to beautify his 

 place, not even the slow-growing evergreens, without being well 

 paid for it ; allowing, of course, that the trees do not die the first 

 five years. Lines of trees too thickly planted along a roadside are 

 objectionable, as the excessive shade keeps the road in a muddy con- 

 dition. When you get everything nicely grown you will have 

 insects, but if you can keep a goodly number of birds around they 

 will attend to the greater part of them. Insects can, however, be 

 fought in other ways. Pyrethrum is generally destructive to insects, 

 though not to man, but where it fails to act, arsenical poison can be 

 relied upon. The solutions used of these should be weak enough not 

 to injure the foliage. London purple is generally conceded to be 

 better than Paris green, as it is more soluble in water and makes a 

 better solution. One pound of London purple to two hundred gal- 

 lons of water can be used on apple trees without injury. The striped 

 cucumber beetle is hard to get at, unless they are present in great 

 numbers, when cold water thrown on them, so benumbs them, that 

 they can be picked off. This leads us to the thought that we must 

 study the habits of insects to successfully combat them. 



