Minutes. 17 



au extraordinary tree. The maple has too close a shade. It 

 ought to be trimmed out higher than it ever is. The beauty 

 of the elm is that it goes up and you have the light. As 

 maples are generally set they are trained too low. Now I 

 had once hard maple trees standing close to the house and 

 I had to cut them down. Of course the maple is an orna- 

 luental tree, and this hackberry that is grown in La Crosse 

 is one of the very best of trees. I would prefer it to the 

 maple. An ornamental tree depends upon what you want 

 it for. If you have but a line you want a variety of trees. 

 No one tree can produce the right kind of an effect. Then 

 the soft maple ought np>ver to be planted. I don't know 

 what Lombardy poplars are planted for unless for the light- 

 ning to strike. Poplars planted in my city sometime ago 

 are now being cut down. Elms planted at the same time 

 are beautiful trees now. I never saw a tree that would com- 

 pare with the elm. In the city of New Haven the elm trees 

 form one of the most beautiful of sights. I would say that 

 that I have seen a tree that was planted in New Haven over 

 200 years ago. The first minister there after Davenport the 

 people agreed to build him a parsonage, and the whole col- 

 ony came in to give something towards it. One man, the 

 poorest man in the colony, had nothing to give but brought 

 two elms and set them out in front of the house. After 200 

 years those elms are still standing while the offerings of all 

 the rest have gone to decay. I never found any trouble 

 with elms except the red elm. That will kill in the top. It 

 should not be set as an ornamental tree. I know in early 

 times I used to cut the red elm and I never could find one 

 sixteen inches in diameter that was not dead in the top. I 

 came to a man setting a red elm and I said, Why do you 

 set that tree? I said, the top will become dead. The tree is 

 there yet but it will not endure with the white elm. I have 

 trees of the white elm that I set thirty years ago and I never 

 knew of one being killed. I have seen trees with limbs 

 broken off, but that could be avoided if trimmed when 

 young. It cannot compare with the soft maple though in 

 the breaking off of limbs. In New Haven where they have 

 2-H. 



