Addresses — A Plea for Tree Planting. 207 



Among our native trees there are many which will undoubtedly 

 succeed in your soils. The several white oaks should receive your 

 care. The ash, particularly the .white ash ; the green, which 

 abounds in your latitude, though not without value, cannot com- 

 pare with it in size. The hickories, \ though slow, are invaluable, 

 and with the best species of oaks, may be planted with other kinds 

 of quicker growth that can be removed to make way for the more 

 valuable crop. Some of the elms, especially the slippery and the 

 hickory elms, are of quick growth, and very useful as hard woods. 



Of maples, plant especially the true sugar-trees, and the red 

 maple. The wild cherry (black), or (Primus serotina), particularly 

 on light and open soils, is very promising. In proper soils the tulip 

 tree and the walnuts should be planted, notwithstanding the length 

 of time required to bring them to maturity. 



Of conifers, in your northerly climate, and especially on the 

 lighter gravelly knolls, even toward the north, you may confidently 

 plant the larch of Europe, but not in low, wet ground, nor in the 

 tamarack swamps occupied by its American cousin. But you have 

 with you one who will sing its praises and tell you much better 

 how well it thrives, at St. Francis. Of true evergreens, your atten- 

 tion is particularly directed to the native white pine, which should 

 be planted by the million on your northern and western borders for 

 forest purposes, and then protected, though its beauty and its great 

 power of adaptation especially fit it for ornamental planting every- 

 where, even in the prairies. 



The red pine is a noble tree and should be largely used both in for- 

 est and in parks. Of foreign pines, perhaps the Scotch pine may 

 safely be recommended everywhere. Among the spruces, particu- 

 larly valuable as a windbreak, the Norway is strongly recommended, 

 on account of its rapid growth and its hardiness, and the closeness 

 of its spray. The hemlock is one of the most beautiful evergreens 

 we have for ornamental planting, whether singly set upon the lawn, 

 in clusters as windbreaks, or in lines as shelter hedges; less valu- 

 able as a timber tree. "But, Doctor, did you see any of these in 

 the Rocky mountains, to make you think of us here in Wisconsin? " 

 somebody may ask. No, my friends! but their allies and conge- 

 ners, the leaders of that mountain sylva. The Pinus ponderosa, 

 Jfexilis, and contorta, the spruces, 3fenziesii, Douglasii, and En- 

 (jlemamii, and the fir, grandis, which there attained such noble 

 14 — Hort. So. 



