14 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



■we cannot get it. In the city of LaCrosse and Sparta the 

 hackberry vies with the elm in beauty. 



Mr. Palmer — What about the hickory ? 



Mr. Plumb — I will speak about that in a moment, I want 

 to make a special point of that. The butternut, mountain 

 ash and walnut are all beautiful trees, but have defects. 

 Poplars and willows are beautiful, but have defects 

 also. We have no native willows that will succeed this far 

 north except the weeping willows. All of the imported 

 willows, such as you see coming from eastern nurseries, are 

 a failure. I do not know of one in the state of Wisconsin 

 that has survived over four or five years. Not because the 

 top is not hardy, but because the stem which is used for the 

 top is tender. The American mountain ash and the 

 European ash is a hardy tree, but both have defects. You 

 will ask why I have not spoken about the soft maple. 

 There is one tree I want to speak about, and that is the 

 birch. It is a very pretty tree, but the European white birch 

 is a very much better tree. That variety stands at 

 the head of all ornamental trees at the north. I am 

 informed that from Boston to St. Paul, there is no 

 tree that is as widely set as that tree. I cannot point 

 to any in the city, although I think there are two or three 

 in the citv. It is a tree you will all want if you can get it. Of 

 the European varieties there are none of them but what are 

 a little delicate. 



Now for the hickories and live oaks. I have spoken of 

 trees that can be grown in nurseries and sold. There are 

 trees that cannot be grown in that manner, these are the 

 hickory and the live oak. The burr oak as some of you 

 heard me say years ago, is the .finest tree in America. It 

 has peculiar qualities. It is a rustic tree, you can't take a 

 little twig off from a burr oak tree but it is a curiosity. It 

 is a tree that should be saved by all means. It is difficult 

 to transplant. There is only one way to transplant a hickory 

 when it is four or five years old and when taken out has 

 just as much growth below ground as above ground, I 

 found that when the trees were two years old we could dig 

 down H or 2 feet and cut the top root and the second year 



