52 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



for our purpose : Norway Spruce, Scotch, White, and Austrian Pines, 

 Balsam Fir, and Arbor-vitre. Here are six varieties, every one of 

 which may be safely planted on the bleakest knoll that can be found 

 on any prairie in our State. There are many other varieties equally 

 hardy with the above, but these six are, all things considered, the best 

 for a commencement. Combining hardiness, rapidity of growth, variety 

 of form and foliage, they are adapted to all soils not absolutely wet or 

 swampy, transplant well, and can be bought cheaper than any other 

 kinds in cultivation. Some persons may say that the six varieties above 

 named are not all hardy ; that their arbor-vittes were injured last win- 

 ter. Now let us see about that. 



We had an unprecedented hard frost about October 17th, last year, 

 and after a very wet summer it found many kinds of trees, usually very 

 hardy, with their summer growth unripe. It matters not how hardy the 

 kind, a severe frost will kill the succulent, unripe growth of any tree. 

 All the arbor-vitcES and junipers grow late in the season, and those 

 that had not hardened up their growth at that time were injured more 

 or less. No one wnll contend that the Norway spruce is not hardy; 

 yet only a few years since we had a frost on the 5th of June, and the 

 Norway spruces lost three to six inches of their leaders, or all the new 

 growth, while the arbor-vitiES were not injured in the least. This 

 only proves that the Norway spruce makes several inches of new growth, 

 in spring, before the arbor-vitae commences growing; as the other proves 

 that the Norway spruce hardens up its summer growth before the arbor- vitae. 



It will be remembered that the 5th of June frost killed the new 

 growth on all the hardy forest trees, and that the 17th of October frost 

 killed millions of Osage plants, and injured every kind of deciduous tree 

 that had not finished its summer growth. 



Having satisfied ourselves that these six varieties are hardy, beautiful, 

 easily transplanted, grow rapidly, and the lowest in price, let us plant 

 them and see whether they produce those modifying influences referred 

 to by our Secretary. 



Many of you planted largely of evergreens twelve to twenty years 

 ago. You looked carefully over the catalogues, and found very many 

 desirable kinds ; and wanting to test all the best varieties, you planted of 

 them all. The next spring you found very many winterkilled, and others 

 injured; and finally at the end of two or three years, at most, after plant- 

 ing, you found them nearly all gone, except the six varieties already 

 mentioned. You were discouraged, and your neighbor, who had not 

 planted evergreens, considered yours a failure, but year after year came 

 and went and your evergreens increased in size and beauty; you studied 

 their habits, and learned that many kinds that would not stand with you 

 the first winter could be grown successfully, if sheltered by the hardier 

 kinds, and many of you have since planted the tender kinds that failed 

 with you at first, and now find them succeeding admirably in the shelter 

 produced by the hardier kinds. 



Only a very few years since the " good old doctor," Kennicott, told 

 this Society that there was " not a hemlock-spruce in a Western nursery, 



