ARBORICULTURE 



149 



which have grown in fence rows on 

 western farms, making large trees in 

 from twelve to twenty years, sulBcient 

 for milling purposes except for length of 

 body. A grass sod, however, soon stunts 

 the Walnut, from which it never recovers. 

 Other trees do not thrive well in close 

 proximity to the Walnut, hence the vari- 

 ous species should be planted separately. 



•GREAT WALNUT TREES f.ROW IN PRAIRIE 

 STATE. 



That there is enough walnut tim- 

 ber in Nebraska to warrant the ex- 

 istence of a company for its exclusive 

 handling is something of a surprise to 

 those wont to think of Nebraska as a 

 prairie state. 



It is a fact, however, that there is a 

 considerable growth of Walnut trees over 

 the state, some of them of a size and qual- 

 ity that have been found acceptable even 

 in the Liverpool market. 



The growth is scattered, the most of it 

 iDeing found near the Blue River, not far 

 from Seward. There the trees grow 

 from twenty to forty-eight inches in dia- 

 meter, some of the logs cutting one 

 thousand feet of lumber. 



The quality is all good and finds a 

 ready market. The Walnut lumber com- 

 pany has just shipped to Liverpool three 

 •carloads of logs that have been cut near 

 Seward. 



In the early days of Kansas there were 

 numerous Black Walnut trees of im- 

 mense size growing in the rich bottom 

 lands bordering the Kansas, Marais des 

 Cygnes, and other rivers, undoubtedly 

 planted by the aborigines. 



The early settlers built many fences 

 of the solid logs of Oak and \\'alnut, not 

 taking the trouble to split them into rails. 

 But Walnut had no value at that time and 

 the great prairies now so thickly settled 

 were considered uninhabitable. 



It seems that Europe now demands all 

 the Walnut obtainable, while other more 

 abundant woods have the run in .Amer- 

 ican markets. 



The land owner who plants Walnuts 

 and takes care of them will have a com- 

 petency in old age which cannot be as- 

 sured by any of the life insurance plans 

 yet devised. 



THE JAh:XlXG GROSBEAK. 



(Coccothraustes V^esper-tina-Cooper, 

 Fringilla N'espertina-Nuttal & Audu- 

 bon . ) 



First seen in Illinois by Richard H. 

 Holder at Freeport and at Waukegan in 

 1871 ; was seen by Ridge way at Eureka, 

 Woodford Co., in 1872, and Waukegan in 

 1873; was not again reported in Illinois 

 till 1882, when Robert Douglass found 

 them in his nursery feeding on the seeds 

 of evergreens and Sugar Maple and on 

 tlie buds of Ash and Cottonwood. 



In the winter of 1897-8 they were 

 found in large numbers at Lake Forest, 

 Lake County, twenty-eight miles from 

 Chicago, on the grounds of H. R. McCul- 

 loiigh, feeding on the seeds of the Iron 

 Wood (Ostrya Virginiana), and every 

 winter since then they have frequented 

 those grounds. Fearing the supply of 

 Iron Wood seeds would be exhausted be- 

 fore spfing Mr. McCullough has placed 

 wheat corn and other grains on the lawn, 

 and the birds have freely fed from them 

 and become so tame that they will al- 

 low him to come quite close to them 

 while they feed. 



The Rose Breasted Grosbeak (Zame- 

 iodia Ludoviciana), as is doubtless well 

 known, is a constant summer resident 

 around Chicago, but the Evening Gros- 

 beak, we believe has never been nearer 

 than Lake Forest. 



It doubtless has followed the trans- 

 planted evergreens from their home in 

 the North. As soon as the buds of the 

 Willow begin to swell this bird starts 

 northward and by April it is gone and is 

 seen no more until the next winter. Its 

 nesting place is in the far north around 

 Hudson Bay and in the northwest along 

 the valley of the Saskatchewan. 



Many are the ways by which our for- 

 ests are planted and preserved from ex- 

 termination by nature. The Iron Wood 

 is not one of our most valued trees, yet it 

 is a handsome small-sized tree. Its seed 

 is enclosed in a tough innutricious sack 

 rescml)ling the common hop. Few birds 

 feed upon these seeds, yet it is one of the 

 favorite seeds for the Grosbeak. 



It is in this wav that this hop horn 

 bean, as well as various evergreens of the 

 north and the Sugar Maple, are planted. 



