102 TRANSACTIONS OF THE tLLlKOtS 



Mr. Nelson — I do believe it is one of our best timber trees. When 

 in Texas, some time since my attention was called to z. gate post — which 

 was a very old looking i)iece of timber — covered with moss. I asked 

 what kind of timber it was, and was told that it was '''' Bodark /"^^ — the 

 Texan name for Osage Orange. On being told that it had been stand- 

 ing thirty years, I procured a spade and dug around it and found it 

 perfectly sound; much to my surprise. 



I also saw, while there, a wagon the wheels of which, the owner 

 assured me had been made three years before from green " Bodark " 

 timber ; thev were tight and in excellent order, though the tire had not 

 been reset. 



Voice — How large trees have you seen .? 



Mr. Nelson-— From three to three and a half feet in diameter. I 

 have seen them in Texas forty feet high before you came to a limb. It 

 is good timber for rails. There is another kind that branch out right at 

 the ground, like friend Wier's apple trees. [Laughter.] 



Mr. WiER — They had lots of fruit, did they not .? jLaughter.] 



Mr. Nelson — Just so. [Continued laughter.] 



Mr. Flagg — Are there any conditions to expedite growth .' 



Mr. Nelson — Where trees are planted thick they grow tall without 

 much branching. 



Mr. Scofield — -I have every confidence in the success of the Euro- 

 pean Larch in this country. Mr. Mathews' failure was due to the fact 

 that he put his trees in wet soil, whereas they should be planted very 

 early and in dry soil, to succeed well. 



Mr. Wier — I think we have made a mistake in recommending the 

 planting of the Larch everywhere ; I have not succeeded Avith it, but I 

 know one experiment does not settle the matter. Last year I planted a 

 lot of one thousand trees on the fourteenth of May, and also another 

 lot on the twenty-fourth day of May, none of which were leaved out, and 

 they lived. 



As these plants were procured from Mr. Douglass, I will ask him 

 how they were kept back till that time. 



Mr. Douglass — They were kept in an ice-house, that is all ; and 

 while 1 am up I will say, in regard to the durability of the wood, that 



* This is a corruption of the words Bois d'Arc or Bow-wood, so called on account 

 of its elasticity. [Secretary.] 



