STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 203 



under the shade of other trees better than the pines ; otherwise the pines 

 would have driven the oaks entirely out of existence, for we see that if the 

 oaks and pines are started together, the former can never become perfect 

 trees until the latter are destroyed. 



A. J- Downing says: " In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, 

 the white pine abounds in various situations, adapting itself to ever)- 

 variety of soil, from dry, gravelly upland, to swamps constantly wet; " 

 and as this tree c an be found in Lee, Bureau, La Salle, Lake, and other 

 counties in this State, where it has been planted over twenty years, mak- 

 ing a much more rajjid growth than in any of the States named by 

 Downing, we see how fortunate it is for us that it has not the power to 

 resist fire, and push its seeds through surface vegetation like the oak ; 

 else, we might have had our whole State covered with a pine forest, and 

 this would be altogether too much of a good thing. 



Mr. Flagg gives the height of trees in Southern Illinois, showing 

 taller timber than any to be found in the central and northern parts of 

 the State ; but several reasons can be given for this difference of size, 

 without charging it to the unhealthiness of our trees. The land in South- 

 ern Illinois is more broken and therefore not so liable to be periodically 

 swept by fires as level lands, covered with rank vegetation, and it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that the fires did not run there as they did in the cen- 

 ter and north. 



When I came to Northern Illinois, thirty years ago, I spent a great 

 deal of my time in the forests. My business at that time was cutting 

 down forests, and not, as now, building them up ; and my experience in 

 that line convinced me that there were very few, if any, large trees, or 

 medium ones either, that had not been several times, during their lives, 

 more or less damaged by fires, and that the largest trees were found 

 growing where the nature of the land seemed to partially protect them 

 from the fires ; and it seemed to me that this had more to do with the 

 size of the timber than the difference in the quality of the land on which 

 they grew. 



Our forests, at that time, seemed to have been swept clear of under- 

 growth, so much so that a man or a deer could be seen at a great distance, 

 and on examining the young oaks, that were just making their appear- 

 ance, you could see that they had been burned down many times, making 

 a great deformity at the surface of the ground. 



Under these circumstances, we could hardly expect to find trees of 

 remarkable size. 



Again, my observation has led me to believe that, go where you will, 

 you will find the tallest trees in declivities, protected, in a measure, by 

 higher lands, whether it be bluffs, hills or mountains. I have not seen 

 the tall trees in Southern Illinois, of which Mr. Flagg gives the heights, 

 as measured by Mr. Vasey, but I have noticed this to be the case in the 

 Green mountains, the AUeghanies, the Rocky mountains, and the Sierre 

 Nevadas ; and I have no doubt, if you examine the surroundings, you 

 will find that extraordinarily tall trees are protected from the prevailing 

 winds by very high hills. 



