STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 9]^ 



us therefore it is a question not so much of new planting as how best to 

 preserve, continue, and improve our woodlands, and how best to add 

 new trees for ornamental and useful purposes. Upon this subject I 

 shall offer a few suggestions. 



I may say in the first place, that so far as my knowledge extends, a 

 very large part of our forest growth cauld be reitlaccd advantageously 

 with better species of trees. We ha\e a great quantity of oak and 

 hickory trees, for instance, that has little value except as firewood, and 

 that might with great profit be replaced by other species of the same 

 genera. 



if our Black jack. Post Oak, Laurel-leaved Oak, and Water Oak 

 were replaced by the White Oak and Burr Oak, it would be an immense 

 addition to our forest wealth. If we had more Tulip-trees and fewer 

 Cottonwoods, more Deciduous Cypress and less While Elms, more Pecan- 

 trees and fewer Pignuts, it would doubtless be greatly to our advantage. 

 Hence we should aim to save the young trees of valuable species and 

 to plant our broken Innds with something that will make them as pro- 

 ducti\e and profitable as otlicr parts of the farm. Hence arises the 

 question here as elsewhere : What will be most valuable to preserve and 

 plant ? 



This leads me in the second place, to suggest a icw native species 

 that we know will do. With the fear of Mr. Douglass and his favorite 

 Larch before my eyes, 1 will not say because they are native species but 

 because they are well trieil and not found wanting. 



First, 1 would place the Black Walnut. It grows easily and vigor- 

 ously. Makes a timber valuable for nearly every purpose, from fence 

 rails to fine furniture, that should the present taste not change will make 

 a few acres of old trees a fortune twenty years hence; bears valuable 

 nuts, and is a handsome tree. Next, for purposes of general utility 1 

 am inclined to name the White Overcup and Chestnut Oaks, without 

 special preference for either. Oak is one of the timl)ers for which 

 there is perennial use and demand. The White Ash, the White Hickory, 

 the Pecan Hickory, the Sugar Maple, the Tulip-tree, the Mulberry, and 

 the Catalpa are all trees that promise to be useful and profitable. 



In the third place, 1 would say a few words of trees not native. 

 One of the most [irofitable for our Southern Illinois soil I believe to be 

 the uuuh abused common Locust; admitting that it has been nearly 

 exlcrniinated on our northern and central i)rairies by the climate or borer 

 — perhaps by the two, I find it slill liealthy and vigorous in many 

 places in Southern Illinois; and its value where it will grow is well 

 known and conceded. The Osage Orange is another tree of consider- 

 able i)rospective value, but it has not like the locust, had a fair test. 



The Chestnut, to which a great deal of attention has been latterly 

 called, will succeed on porous sub-soils such as are furnished by our 

 river bluffs, but 1 think will find an un( ongenial soil, as a rule, through- 

 out Southern Illinois as well as in most other parts of the State. I have 

 known several instances in my own county where the tree after bearing 



