USE FOR CABINET-WORK. 283 



State of Kansas, a region wliich presents greater diflficulties, 

 perhaps, to the tree-phmter than any other within the United 

 States. At first offering every hope of success, these planta- 

 tions have not fulfilled their early promise ; and Mr. R. S. 

 Elliot, by whom they were made, writes me that he does not 

 consider that the ailanthus can be successfully employed in 

 Western Kansas. Further experiments, however, should be 

 made with it there, as well as in the eastern and southern 

 portions of that State, where the natural conditions seem to 

 indicate that its cultivation will be followed with better 

 success. 



No tree can be more easily propagated than the ailanthus ; 

 indeed, some of the most serious objections which have been 

 urged against it are its proneness to throw up suckers, and 

 the readiness with which its abundant crop of seed, widely 

 scattered by the aid of an ingenious appendage contrived for 

 that purpose, springs up in all sorts of situations ; serious 

 objections in an ornamental tree in cultivated ground, but posi- 

 tive merits where it is employed to cover barren and exposed 

 seacoast or treeless prairie. Every piece of the root, which 

 need not be half an inch long, if planted like a potato 

 will produce a plant ; and the seed, whether scattered on the 

 ground, or covered with a thin layer of soil, will quickly 

 germinate. But few enemies attack the ailanthus. In some 

 localities about New- York city and Brooklyn, the ailanthus 

 silk-worm has become naturalized, and preys on its foliage. 

 In the same localities, and in St. Louis, Mo., the ailanthus- 

 worm' (the lava.of (Eta compta) feeds on its leaves, making 

 the tree look black and seared, as though scorched by fire. 

 But these are neither very serious nor wide-spread enemies to 

 a tree which seems otherwise entirely free from insect at- 

 tacks. 



A few North-American trees supply the cabinet-maker 

 with more valuable material, the wood of some others cer- 

 tainly makes better fuel ; but a careful study of the ailanthus 

 from an economic point of view, and as a subject for sylvicul- 

 ture, forces on me the conclusion that no other tree, either 

 native or foreign, capable of supporting the climate of so 

 large an area of the United States, will produce, in so short a 

 space of time, and from land practically useless, so large an 



^ Report of Missouri Agriculture: Entomology, 18G8, p. lal. 



