BEAL ON GROWING FENCE POSTS AND TELEGRAPH POLES. 101 



where it ocrasiuiiall.y driesa)iit more or less. None of these three can be 

 successfully grown in a haphazard way, and the same might be said of 

 all kinds of trees to some extent. It is not possible in one short paper 

 to define all of the difliciillies that one is liable to meet who attempts to 

 grow fence posts and telegraph poles. The operation is complex and if 

 one of the points be neglected the results may be far from successful or 

 even disastrous. In all that I say, I hope not to over color the subject, 

 thus inducing men to proceed who have little knowledge of the require- 

 ments of trees. For example, let a person select suitable soil and loca- 

 tion for growing chestnut, locust or catalpa and plant an acre more or 

 less to either one of these trees by itself, and he would not be success- 

 ful in the highest degree. Neither of these trees will grow dense enough 

 to make sullieient shade to keep out the grass and weeds and these are 

 very detrimental to tree growth. Evergreens, box elders or some other 

 trees or shrubs that will grow leaves in the shade must be mixed with 

 either of the trees just named, if the highest success is hoped for. The 

 trees must be crowded just enough to gradually kill out the lower limbs, 

 and induce the trunks to run up tall, straight and free from large limbs. 

 And the amount of undergrowth and crowding required to accomplish 

 this end is constantly changing as the trees grow older. 



Some years ago, there was planted along the line of the Michigan 

 Southern railway a row of trees on each side, near the line fence. The 

 trees were chestnut and European larch alternating and set some dis- 

 tance apart. In most cases the trees were allowed to do the best they 

 could with little or no care. Since these trees were planted, it has been 

 shown that the European larch is not reliable in this country. In most 

 cases the trees became diseased and failed. It has also been shown that 

 chestnuts grown with no mulch of leaves or other materials about the 

 roots are about sure to die or be much injured by severe freezing of the 

 ground during an open winter or portion of a winter when there is no 

 snow on the ground. A few chestnut trees at the Agricultural College 

 were set about thirty-three years ago in the lawn where the grass was 

 closely mowed. The soil was sandy jet the trees made a fair growth and 

 seemed to be healthy. The early part of the winter of 1898-99 was very 

 cold with no snow on the ground. These trees all died the next year or 

 the one following. A portion of the trees on a neighboring farm likewise 

 perished. But the chestnut trees in the arboretum, where leaves re- 

 mained as a mulch, passed over unharmed. Again chestnut trees 

 planted singly along the railroad, had each plenty of room and grew 

 like apple trees in an orchard, — low with spreading branches above a 

 very short trunk of little value. 



The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) is found in the forests of 

 some portions of Maine, Vermont, Southern Ontario, New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, New Jersey, the Alleghany Mountains, and in at least 

 portions of five counties in southeastern Michigan. It thrives on the 

 glacial drift, rarely on limestone soils, though it occurs abundantly along 

 an outcrop of Helderberg limestone in the eastern part of Monroe and 

 Wayne counties. It is also found in Washtenaw, St. Clair, and Oakland 

 counties. 



The wood is light and very durable owing to an abundance of tannic 

 acid. Professor Sargent in his Silva which describes and illustrates 

 every species of native tree in North American says, "No other tree lh-ows 

 so rapidly or to such a great size on the dry gravelly hills of lite northern 



