TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 285 



eight to twelve inches in length, were transplanted in nursery rows, re- 

 maining two years, and those from seed in the seed bed two or three 

 years, then were transplanted in i860 to 1862 in plantation. 



The ground had been cultivated three years after the first breaking 

 of the prairie sod, which had become well pulverized, yet retaining nearly 

 all the vegetable mould, and so completely decomposed as to afford imme- 

 diate and abundant food for the tree plants. A similar preparation and 

 condition should exist for all tree plantations. 



The ground was prepared to receive the trees by plowing deep fur- 

 rows to the depth required to set them, and at proper distances from 

 each other. A level place, at a proper depth, was prepared by the planter, 

 with a shovel ; the moisture was not allowed to dry from the roots in 

 their transit from the nursery to the plantation. The larch and deciduous 

 trees were two to four feet in height, and the evergreen one and a half to 

 three feet, having been transplanted in nursery once and twice, and con- 

 sequently well stocked with roots. 



In all cases, the plantation was carefully cultivated three to six years. 

 Where the rows were of sufficient width, rows of white beans were 

 planted. At this age, excepting the varieties of black walnut and elm, 

 the trees would protect themselves from the growth of vegetation. Owing 

 to the lateness of leafing of these last named varieties, with the white ash, 

 except when planted with earlier leafing varieties, they required much 

 longer cultivation. 



Varieties 0/ Evergreens used in Plantation. — Scotch, black Austrian 

 and white pine, Norway and white spruce, arbor vit» (American and 

 Siberian), hemlock, silver fir (American and European). 



Varieties of Deciduous Trees. — Black walnut, silver (or soft) maple, 

 ash leaf (box elder), sugar (hard) and red-bud maples, English, red and 

 white American elm, sweet and horse chestnut, European mountain ash, 

 white ash, red-bud (of Southern Illinois), European and American larch 

 and cypress. 



First — The European larch is the most uniform in height and size in 

 every situation, regardless of the kind of tree that is near it, standing 

 twenty-eight to thirty-two feet in height, the diameters varying with the 

 space they occupy, the greatest diameters of trees being fourteen inches one 

 foot from the ground. Nearly every tree grew that was planted in the 

 nursery, or that was afterwards transplanted in the forest. The average 

 height annually attained, the first nine years, was two and a half feet, 

 and until the fall of 1869, when a severe freezing came on the 19th of 

 October, before the top center had ripened sufficiently to withstand it, 

 the mercury running down nearly to zero. Since that time, or till the 

 spring of 1876, the average annual growth upward did not exceed two 

 inches, or twelve inches in six seasons. In 1876, an average growth of 

 eighteen inches was attained. No insect or bird enemy has ever attacked 

 these trees. 



Experiment No. i. — Planted a belt of trees running north and south 

 one-third of a mile, with rows six feet apart, and four feet in the row. 

 One-quarter of this distance was planted, three rows, with a row of larch 



