ARBORICULTURE 



31 



States, yet it thrives in a majority of the 

 Northern States and upon varying soils and 

 all possible situations. 



It is one of our most picturesque conif- 

 erous trees, although not an evergreen. 



That it does not stand in three feet depth 

 of water from choice is proven by the 

 peculiar knees which project from the roots 

 above the water to get breathing room to 

 aerate the sap. 



While not a hardwood, yet it is highly 

 regarded for railway cross-ties. The use of 

 cypress in greenhouse construction, where 

 durable under conditions of heat and 

 moisture, is well known. 



The negroes of the Gulf States have long 

 time practiced the construction of fences of 

 cypress, placing the rived boards upright in 

 trenches, so durable is the wood. Cisterns 

 and tanks are made of cypress preferably, 

 Southern cisterns being tanks of wood, 

 elevated above ground. Some streets have 

 been paved with cypress blocks set on end, 

 which have lasted a score of years. Quite 

 probably the trees have been disseminated 

 by the wind blowing the very light seeds, 

 and flowing water conveying them upon 

 overflowed tracts. Nurserymen have no 

 difficulty in growing the trees from 

 seed. 



The seed cannot germinate in water, and 

 only in times of a prolonged drought, when 

 the water has been drained from the swamps, 

 and remains so for a long period, can the 

 seed grow, which will probably explain why 

 this tree is not increasing. In this tropic 

 weather, on rich alluvial lands, the trees 

 grow very rapidly and are soon large enough 

 to keep their heads above water of the 

 swamps. A few decades hence the cypress 

 will become extinct as a swamp tree, but as 

 its value for ornament becomes better 

 known it may be more extensively grown 

 for sale. There are many thousands of 

 acres of Southern swampy lands which are 

 of little value, and which would become 

 immensely valuable, if planted with cypress. 

 Yet it is by no means necessary that wet 

 land should be selected. 



While young and vigorous the cypress has 

 a dense foliage, is of handsome conical 

 shape, branches extending to the ground. It 

 is symetrical with a regular taper from 

 ground to apex. 



In the dense forest the lower branches are 

 eliminated, and in old age it becomes 

 " bald," or stag headed, the topmost branches 



no longer able to tower upward, extend out- 

 ward, spreading its arms over the trees of 

 the surrounding forest. 



RAILWAY TREES. 



Every railroad company in the United 

 States should utilize the unused parts of its 

 right-of-way for arboriculture. Every rail- 

 road in the United States could thus raise 

 in twenty years catalpa ties enough to 

 almost supply itself. 



Station agents and section foremen could 

 cultivate and protect the young trees along 

 each line for three years. After that time 

 the trees will take care of themselves. The 

 cost of raising their own ties would not be 

 one-half the cost of ties they must purchase 

 from others. If Charles E. Perkins, Harri- 

 man, the Goulds and the Vanderbilts will 

 start the arboreal utilization of the waste 

 rights-of-way owned in the United States by 

 railroad companies they will have earned 

 the gratitude of the public and much 

 money for themselves. — The Conservative, 

 Nebraska City. 



CHRISTMAS TREES. 



We commend to our readers the following 

 words by J. Sterling Morton. In our next 

 issue we shall have more to say upon the 

 subject : 



Thoughtful persons are again saddened to see 

 their fellow-citizens in the grasp of their 

 annual lunacy which leads them to encourage, 

 by purchase, the cutting down of symmetrical 

 young conifers for Christmas trees. Every city 

 railroad yard in the country now presents the 

 sorrowful spectacle of cars loaded to their 

 capacity with these pitiful babies of the forest, 

 massacred in commemoration of the Prince of 

 Peace. Recently a big shij) sank off the coast 

 of Maine, which was loaded with nothing else. 

 The cargo consisted of hundreds of thousands of 

 Christmas trees ; they were Jonahs to that 

 vessel. 



For the fleeting pleasure of the children of 

 today, we destroy the trees that the men and 

 women of a few years later will need for build- 

 ing human homes. And in doing this wanton 

 wickedness, with total disregard for those who 

 follow us in the little march from birth to 

 death, we violate every good thing which Christ 

 taught. 



