50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Question. I would like to inquire whether the box- 

 elder has ever been grown in this part of the country. It 

 is a famous tree in the Rocky Mountains and on the plains. 

 It is a quick grower, and a magnificent-looking tree. 



Mr. ]\Ianning. It is a very thrifty-growing tree in a rich 

 soil. It does not long remain a handsome tree. It grows 

 one-sided after a while, the top branches die, and it does not 

 make so handsome and permanent a tree as the maple. It 

 is certainly very common in the Rocky Mountains. You 

 will find it on the streets of Denver. 



The chestnut-tree is very easily grown in this section. 

 Last fall, the 20th of October, I sowed several bushels 

 of various kinds of nuts, — chestnuts and walnuts, — and 

 they came up remarkably, varjdng in height from four inches 

 to two feet. Usually the nuts grow deeper in the ground 

 than they grow out. The trees require transplanting. I 

 have growing I do not know how many thousands, and they 

 grow from four inches to a great height. The pecan exceeds 

 them all in growth. They have four times as much bulk in 

 the roots as in the top, above ground. I took them up this 

 fall, and put them in my cellar. I planted my seed in the 

 fall, and I suffered nothing from squirrels or mice. 



The elm has been disapproved of somewhat, on account 

 of its throwing out a great man}' roots ; but there is an 

 increasing call for elm-trees in nurseries, and an increasing 

 call for large-sized trees. I am quite sure they will grow 

 very well from seed ; but care needs to be taken that they do 

 not grow too long without being thinned out, else they will 

 choke each other. The white pine and evergreen are among 

 those that make the most shade. The Scotch pine and 

 Austrian pine, as well as the white pine, are adapted to 

 extremely barren, dry soil. Even in a very sandy soil they 

 will take root, and grow. The white pine, if there is a 

 small sod taken up with it, can be transplanted with great 

 safety. If you shake the earth off of tlie roots, it will not 

 1)0 likely to live. The best examples of tree-jolanting I 

 know of were by John A. Hall, more than thirty-five years 

 ago. He would get his pine-trees, cutting them up with little 

 sods, stretch his line, and set them out in roAVS ten feet apart 

 each way, for ten dollars an acre; and, of the trees he 

 planted, thousands have been sold for board-logs. When I 



