Discussion. 61 



stantly for new varieties. I do not know of any other kind 

 of experiments that are worth as much to the country as 

 these. Take the currant, for instance, which has been a sort 

 of hobby with me. It ought to become more than twice as 

 productive as it is, and there is a field for experiment. The 

 same is true of raspberries and blackberries, and also of our 

 shade trees and all things of that kind. If the soft maple 

 trees of your town were all replaced by the Norway maple^ 

 it would have been better for the town. The tree is much 

 better than the hard or soft maple. It has a very dense 

 foliage. I know of no foliage like it. Now these trees, I 

 have no doubt, could be grafted nicely on the hard maple 

 and we could go on to make some nice trees in that way, 

 and could take it into the nurseries and graft them. We 

 could make an experiment in that way. The best instance 

 of success in such matters that I know of in the west has 

 been the hobby of Mr. Douglass, in Michigan, developing 

 choice varieties of shade trees, particularly farmers' hedges. 

 That man has brought out in 20 years some six or eight very 

 desirable varieties of arbor vitse, all from seedlings of his 

 own. His close habits of observation would show him some 

 peculiarity of leaf or foliage. He has one which they have 

 named Tom Thumb, which is jugt a nice little dwarf. All 

 are gathered from just the seed of our common white 

 cedar by his earnest, careful, persistant habits of observa- 

 tion, and when he finds a good thing he sets it aside and 

 propagates it. I had the pleasure to place in his hands, 

 through the kindness of a party in St. Paul, who had a speci- 

 men of juniper nearly as big as a half bushel and of a golden 

 color, cuttings from this specimen, which were sent to Mr. 

 Douglass at my request. From that Mr. Douglass has propa- 

 gated hundreds and perhaps thousands that are to-day sell- 

 ing in ^his country and in Europe at fabulous prices; and 

 very many others of these choice arbor vita3s are selling in 

 this way. Experiments of that kind are very valuable. To 

 go further with Mr. Douglass' work: he spends hundreds 

 of dollars every year in gathering seeds from every place — 

 from almost inaccessible places — for the sake of getting 

 something new and rare, and there are among these quite a 



