BEAL ON GROWING FENCl^] POSTS AND TELEGUAPH POLES 103 



same latitude and iiortlnvard that could most likely grow chestnut trees 

 as well as the acre inspected, and some of the laiul referred to has already 

 in its early years got onto a basis of rye and buckwheat. 



The five trees that died while a few others were injured occurred about 

 six years ago, when a severe late spring frost killed back the tender growth 

 of that season. 



A few trees began to bear nuts when eight years old from the 

 seed, most of them later. Mr. James Satterlee, who still looks after 

 this interesting orchard has observed many points of interest as to a 

 difference in size, shape and quality of the nuts, the relative productive- 

 ness, the difference of ten days in time of putting forth leaves in spring, 

 the fact that red squirrels have carried nuts to the woods eighty rods, 

 where the young trees are now growing. JNIany of these trees are fifty to 

 sixty feet high, the longest limbs next to the margin of the grove were 

 thirty-seven feet in length, the circumference of the largest tree was 

 eight feet and one inch, two others were each seven feet in circumference. 

 The largest one showed signs of borers in the trunk. The largest black 

 walnut girted six feet, two inches; the largest butternut, four feet, eight 

 inches ; a horsechestnut of the same age near by, three feet, nine inches ; 

 a black oak certainly older than the trees above named had a circum- 

 ference of only six feet, three inches. 



I saw and heard of chestnut trees scattered, a few in a place, for 

 several miles around, and uniformh^ they are healthy and making a 

 fine growth, especially where they were cultivated for a time. 



A portion of the front yard of about an acre of this homestead is a 

 model for many a farmer to follow, if he wishes to encourage his chil- 

 dren to love the country and forest trees. There are over thirty kinds of 

 trees scattered about, most of them thirty or more years old, and nearly 

 all are natives to Michigan. What a treasure such an acre would be to 

 school children in any neighborhood ! 



For the past ten years, this chestnut orchard has yielded from four 

 bushels of nuts to eleven bushels per year and they have not been wormy. 

 In noting the large circumference of these trees, the reader must not 

 forget that when grown crowded from the start, the ti-unks would be 

 much taller and the circumference much less. 



The well-known tree, the common locust, Eobinia Pseudacacia, is also 

 sometimes called the black locust or the yellow locust. Trees are found 

 on the Apalachian Mountains, in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and a 

 few other regions. The locust grows very rapidly in places suited to it, 

 sometimes attaining a diameter of three to four feet, though in Michigan 

 it usually ceases to grow rapidly after twenty to twenty-five years. It 

 likes deep rich soil, but does well on poorer land, if not too thin. The 

 wood is heavy, exceedingly hard and strong, close-grained, and very 

 durable in contact with the ground. x\s stated in Sargent's Silva. '"No 

 other North American tree has been so generally planted for timber 

 and ornament in the United States and in Europe; and no inhabitant 

 of the American forest has been the subject of so voluminous a literature '* 

 The roots ramble for long distances and send up young trees in abund- 

 ance. Stumps send up sprouts freely to luoduce a new crop of Avood. 



A few trees about home dwellings or along tlse roadside are often seen, 

 and in most instances, the trunks are much damaced by borers which 

 injure the wood and check the growth of the tree. The top does not cast 

 a dense shade, like a beech. siu';iir maple, oak or pine. The leaves start 



