Joint Convention. 181 



try was first settled a poplar was seldom seen; now they cover 

 a vast extent of country, and are spring! nor np everywhere. 



Mr. Ford could readily account for the spread of this tree, as 

 it belongs to that class whose seeds are borne far and wide by 

 air currents. The Cottonwood, and other soft- wooded trees, 

 have very light seeds, and are easily carried by the winds and 

 dropped into the soil. Where the ground is turfed over, these 

 seeds do not germinate readily, but let it be broken up, and they 

 start at once, and young trees will be seen in abundance where 

 there has not been a tree for years. 



Mr. Kellogg had seen Blue Jays carrying and planting these 

 acorns. They would carry them for long distances and deposit 

 them, like squirrels, for future use, and they would spring up 

 and grow. 



Mr. Harris stated that in many places in Minnesota, in break- 

 ing up the sod, they cut off roots of the Red, Black and AN^hite 

 oak, and, if the fires are kept out for five or six years, a thick 

 grove will start up. There was a piece of meadow land near 

 him that was turned into a pasture five or six years ago. The 

 fires were kept out, and in a year or two, hazel brush came in, 

 young Black oaks and Hickories started up here and there, and 

 the growth soon became so thick that the ground was almost 

 worthless for a pasture, and there are trees there now thirty feet 

 hio:h. The seeds for these trees were carried there bv the birds 

 and squirrels. The soil is specially adapted to the Tied oak, and 

 that predominates, but there are other varieties scattered in. An- 

 other piece of ground near by, where the soil is sandy, has grown 

 up mainly to Black or Spanish oak. Most of the seeds from which 

 this forest growth comes are deposited by the birds. They dis- 

 tribute a variety of seeds, Ijut the kind or kinds which the soil 

 is best adapted to will get the preponderance, and in time root 

 out the others. 



STRAWBERRY NOTES. 

 Geo. J. Kellogo, Janesville. 



Everybody M-ants strawberries; everybody wants something 

 better than the AVilson; everybody can have better, if they have 



