410 STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



The larch must be planted early in spring; but it is not certain that this 

 tree is as profitable as some of our native forest trees. The SI, 188 were the 

 returns for one year, and from this point on for a number of years the yield 

 will be equal to or greater than that. 



MOST VALUABLE WOOD FOR FUEL. 



Taking shell-bark hickory as a standard value, and calling this value 100, 

 the various common woods will rank in heating value as follows : best maple, 

 60 ; soft maple, 54 ; chestnut oak, 86 ; red oak, 79 ; white oak, 52 ; white ash, 

 77; beech and black walnut, 65; the branches range from 48 to 63; Lom- 

 bardy poplar, 40 ; white pine, 42 ; yellow pine, 54 ; pig-nut hickory, 95. 



According to the experiment of Marcus Butt, of Philadelphia, over 50 years 

 ago, a cord of dry shell-bark hickory weighs 4,469 pounds, and a cord of dry 

 white pine, 1,868 pounds. The weight to the cord of the hard woods generally 

 used for fuel maybe set as: ash 3,450 pounds; beech, 3,236; black birch, 

 3,115; black walnut, 3,044; hard maple, 2,S78; white oak, 3,821; red oak, 

 3,854; yellow pine, 2,463; Lombardy poplar, 1,774. 



RAISING WALNUTS AND HICKORIES. 



Thomas Meehan, referring recently, in an Eastern journal, to sowing 

 walnuts and hickories, says there are many persons desirous of raising seed- 

 lings of walnuts and other hard-shell seeds, who fail and wonder why they fail. 

 The fault is often their own, for not giving the matter a little thought. It is 

 the practice of many to keep such seeds on the barn floor or dry in barrels 

 through the winter, sowing them in the spring. Now we all know that seeds 

 of the kind mentioned must crack open before they can grow, and some, but 

 not many, know that it is the moisture that does this cracking. Moisture then 

 is what these seeds want in abundance, and all seed want it more or less. Some 

 have thought it is the frost that cracks open the shells, but frost is an injury 

 rather than otherwise, tending to dry out the shells, the opposite of which is 

 desired. It is well to put hard-shell seeds in the ground in the fall, or keep 

 them in a damp place through the winter and sow in the spring, but where 

 neither of these things have been done, and the sowing is desired, they will 

 grow very well the coming season if put into cold water until they have become 

 thoroughly soaked. Thus treated, the nuts will take up in a few days as much 

 moisture as they would have done had they been in the ground the whole 

 winter, and this is all they want to make them crack their shells and grow. 

 When it is not forgotten that moisture is the essential, seedling raising becomes 

 much less of a mystery. — Prairie Farmer. 



TREES AND TAXES. 



Treeless Iowa is being transformed into a forest-covered country, by a law 

 which remits certain taxes for five years on every acre of fruit, and ten years 

 on every acre of forest trees planted and kept alive. Over 75,000 acres of 



