TRANSACTIONS OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 



323 



(3) The white and English ehns, the sugar and silver or soft maple 

 and the Western catalpa. 



While there are numerous minor varieties of less valuable, yet useful 

 woods, among which is the basket willow, that may be made profitable on 

 favorable locations, and these should have a place in the plantation; yet 

 the above embraces the most valuable for building purposes and all the 

 mechanic arts. I have omitted the live or English oak, which should be 

 ranked among the first for ship-building and should be extensively planted 

 in sections of country adjacent to the sea-board or great inland or navi- 

 gable waters. 



The methods of tree-planting and where the plants may be procured, 

 and the specific uses of each variety of timber, and the profits to be 

 derived from their cultivation, and all that is necessary to be learned in 

 the premises, are found embodied in the late works of Arthur Bryant, Sr , 

 entitled, " Forest Trees for Shelter, Ornament and Profit." Address the 

 author at Princeton, Illinois ; or they may be found in the volumes of 

 the Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society. 



Dr. J. A. Warder, President of the Ohio State Horticultural 

 Society, forwarded to President Periam a paper read by him before a 

 recent Agricultural Convention in that State, from which, at the Presi- 

 dent's request, the Secretary read the following extracts : 



As yet little or nothing has been done among us in the way of forestry. Here 

 and there a few trees have been planted, rather for ornament than for utility. The taste 

 for the comfort and beauty of trees is growing, however, and of the thousands who 

 daily travel along our great highways few are they who cannot admiringly appreciate 

 the improvement by tree planting about the village stations, the groups of ornamental 

 trees clustering around the rural homesteads, the lines of trees along the country roads 

 and on the boundaries of cultivated fields. 



These efforts of individuals to restore the sylvan beauties of the land are worthy of 

 all praise. They are well supplemented by the Village Tree- Planting Associations, 

 happily suggested and successfully carried out by Mr. Northrup, of Connecticut, who 

 should have many followers in Ohio. Your attention is especially directed to his 

 pamphlet. 



Under the happy influences of the tree planters the cemeteries of our land are 

 everywhere becoming the quiet resting places of the dead, sheltered by umbrageous 

 trees, instead of the forlorn, desolate and neglected fields of the past — so unworthy of 

 the title, God's Acre (Gotter Aker), and so discreditable to our boasted civilization. 



Public and private parks are being set apart for the special culture of these beau- 

 tiful natural objects, and they become the most agreeable resorts, and are means of 

 instruction for the people. All these encourage a love for trees and increase our knowl- 

 edge of them, and to that extent are accessory to forestry. 



In this, however, the people of our country have much to learn ; the general want 

 of familiarity with our sylvan wealth, either collectively or individually, is a matter of 

 surprise to those who have made this matter a study. 



Upon this occasion it may be admissible to refer more particularly to a single tree, 

 which is destined to become a factor of no mean importance in the future forests of our 

 land, and through them to solve one of the great problems of the iron road, the cross-tie 

 question and the future supply of sleepers. 



Wc may be pardoned for having a State pride in this tree, for though not a native 

 of Ohio, it was here that the distinctive characters of the Speciosa Catalpa, the western 

 species, were first pointed out and presented to the public. 



