ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 267 



In Iowa they luive a. law for the encouragement of timber growing. It provides that any one who 

 shall plant and keep alive one or more acres of timber, shall have credit on the assessment for taxes 

 $m) for each acre, and for shade trees by the roadside $100 for each mile. 



In Kansas they have a similar law, more liberal, and for hedge planting a very liberal credit on 

 fcixes. And when the hedge is first planted it is a legal fence, and cattle are not allowed to trespass 

 on or across such a hedge. 



The European Larch was highly spoken of as being very durable, and the time is 

 not far distant when it will be used in great quantities for ties. It is a rapid growing 

 tree and easily grown. Mr. Bryant says that the American Larch, or Tamarack, has 

 been sold in large numbers for the European. It is not of much value when compared 

 with the European. 



A gentleman from Wisconsin spoke at some length on timber trees, but his vIbavs 

 were not sustained by the Society. He seemed to be particularly spiteful against the 

 White Willow and some others of our favorite trees for shelter-belts. He recom- 

 mended the Weymouth Pine as the best of all trees for wind-breaks. 



EVENING SESSION. 



ESSAY ON TANKS AND PIlOrAGATING. 1!Y EDWAED II. r.EEBE, GALENA. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



Success In germinating seeds and striking cuttings depends upon the proper application of heat 

 and moisture. The hot-bed In general use for starting plants for the early marlvct is one mode of 

 applying these requisites to propagation. Seeds are germinated and cuttings rooted or struck by 

 the Florist in the green-house, under the same law, but applied in a different manner. Tlie Florist 

 uses a tank or long shallow box containing liot water. Boards are placed an inch or so above the 

 surface of the water; upon them a bed of sand three or four inches deep. The seed pans are 

 plunged and cuttings stuck in the sand. Heat Is applied to the water in the tank; and as (lie heat is 

 constant and uniform in temperature, so will be the success of growth. If the sand receives from 

 the water an excess of lieat, the seeds and jilants will be partially if not wholly destroyed. An 

 excess of moisture is equally fatal. In either case they will be burnt up or damp off. The usual 

 mode of heating tanks by the same means by which the house is warm is, in my opinion, an error. 

 The cause of much, if not all. the bad luck that Florists have is due to the fact, that in all tanks 

 heated by the same tire that is used to warm the house, it is simply impossible to keep up a constant 

 and uniform temperature in the tank without injury to the plants in the house. We have many days 

 in the winter and spring that the temperature out of doors in our latitude ranges from ■lu" to Ci" . 

 On such days no fire is reipiired in the furnace; on the contrary, the house becomes so warm that it 

 becomes necessary to open the sashes. No fire in tlie furnace, the tank cools down, and the result 

 of the decrease in temperature is that ail in the tank gets such a check that they require three or 

 four days to recover irom, if tliey do so at all; more or less damp off, and we have a streak of bad 

 luck, caused by bad management. Such has been my experience, and I presume it is that of every 

 one who uses a tank heated in this way. 



Jlr. President, I am not a professional florist, neither do I think I know it all; but am very 

 decided in the opinion that 1 liave yet much to learn of flie art of striking plants. As an amateur 

 having a very sm.'ill house, I have for a few years past experimented with my friend, Ur. E. D. 

 Kittoe, who as a florist and horticulturist, has no superior in ' ' our diggins. ' ' To him we are more 

 indebted than any other, for he erected the first green-house In our city some fifteen years ago. In 

 it he constructed a brick tank upon the old plan, and used his furnace for heating it. It worked as 

 well as any of the kind usually do. Subsequently I put up a small house and experimented some in 

 the same way, having very bad luck, and rather green, 1 had indifterent success. I had learned 

 that seeds and plants to grow should have heat and moisture, but had not realized the fact that they 

 should always be under a constant and uniform application of both. The Doctor and myself often 



