438 Transactions ov the 



regards their adaptability to the different branches of mechanical busi- 

 ness. There are very few of all the numerous branches of mechanical 

 business but what are more or less dependent upon wood as their mate- 

 rial for manufacturing. How much more material is used that is derived 

 from the evergreen and cone-bearing trees as compared with that orig- 

 inating from deciduous trees, I will not presume to say. We all know 

 from experience and observation that the former is vastly in excess of 

 the latter, and I believe it would be safe to say that seven eighths of all 

 the wood made into lumber and consumed in other ways is the product 

 of this class of trees. The white pine, Scotch pine, red pine, and Nor- 

 way spruce, which I give you, as 1 think, in the order of their respective 

 merits, are without doubt the most valuable sorts of this class for 

 extensive and general planting, retaining their foliage, as they do, through 

 the Winter, when deciduous trees are leafless. As trees for shelter for 

 stock on the farm, as windbrakes for our orchards, vine} r ards, and grain 

 fields, or as ornaments to beautify our homes, they cannot be excelled 

 by any and have but few equals among deciduous trees in a commercial 

 point of value. They are easily transplanted (while }"oung) from the 

 nursery, and of thrifty and rapid growth, requiring much less moisture 

 in the soil, and will flourish over a wider range of climate and accom- 

 modate themselves to a greater variety of soils than most deciduous 

 trees. They grow well on uplands, hillsides, and on sandy and unpro- 

 ductive soils, and I believe are well adapted for extensive cultivation on 

 our treeless plains throughout the State. 



That these broad plains are wholly devoid of evergreen trees now is 

 no argument against the rapid ami successful growth of evergreen 

 forests if once established by the hand of man. And I Avould here ur°;e 

 upon our farmers the necessity of making a beginning of forest tree 

 planting, even if it be but a i'ew hundred trees. Start them in nursery 

 form, if not prepared to plant them otherwise; plant seeds of the black 

 walnut and locust, cuttings of the poplar, cotton wood, and white willow, 

 if you cannot procure seedlings of a better class of trees. They will 

 grow and make shelter, and break winds, for the better trees to come 

 after — but plant as many as possible of the sorts before mentioned, 

 including the European larch. The last mentioned, though classed 

 among the conifers, is not an evergreen, as it sheds its foliage in the 

 Fall. It has for several years been planted more extensively in Europe 

 than all other trees combined, and is now taking the lead of all others 

 among the planters of the Atlantic States. Bryant says: " The ever- 

 green larch appears to combine the qualities of growth, symmetry of 

 form, durability of wood and adaptability to a variety of uses in a 

 greater degree than any other timber tree of northern latitudes." 

 Loudon says: "The rate of growth of the larch in the climate of Lon- 

 don is from twenty to twenty-five feet in ten years, from the seed, and 

 nearly as great on the declivities of hills and mountains in the highlands 

 of Scotland." This is a different species from the American larch, 

 sometimes called hackmatack and tamarack, being unquestionably supe- 

 rior to the latter in every respect. It does not succeed so well in a 

 damp atmosphere, near lakes and bordering rivers. Hence we may infer 

 that it may be well suited to the dry atmosphere and soil of our plains. 



The cone-bearing family of forest trees comprise some of the most 

 valuable kinds of timber trees known, and there is no one variety of 

 wood that is so extensively used in the great and increasing demand's of 

 civilization as the pine. It is rightly named the "king of the evergreen 

 forest." Immense forests of pine were formerly found throughout the 



