SU:VIMER MEETING AT CHILLICOTHE. 47 



thousand years. Nothing injures them. They never let go their grip of the 

 ground, and never lose an inch from their upward or outward growing limbs. At- 

 tractive even in their nakedness in winter, graceful among the trees in spring, very 

 beautiful in their fullness in summer, and grand in their fall-time glory of colors. 

 Pretty babies, lovely in their youth, and magnificent in the pride of their maturity. 

 But they grow slowly, oh, how slow. Plant them for your own sake. Plant them 

 that your children may be the better for their planting, and that your great-grand- 

 children may rest under Iheir shade when both they and the maples are old. 



Cottonwood, box elder, honey locust, black locust and some others are wiped 

 from the slate. 



If I were planting timber for the money only, and were confined to one variety, 

 the 



OSAGE ORANGE 



Would be my first choice. There is too much to be said for the Osage orange to 

 allow it room in this paper. 



RUSSIAN MULBERRY. 



Selected varieties, multiplied by grafting, to raise feed for the birds, and so 

 protect other fruits. Who will carefully and honestly do tnat selecting and propa- 

 gating ■? Of 



EVERGREENS 



Plant only trees that have been raised in the nursery from seed. Forest seedlings 

 may live when carefully handled and the season is very favorable, but nursery 

 seedlings, well raised and in good condition, are ten times more sure. They will 

 make larger growths for the first years, and be bigger, better trees ever after. The 

 proof of this is all around me. 



If you deal with the right kind of nurserymen your trees will come to you 

 safe and sound, and the varieties true to name. The fewer minutes by the watch 

 that you allow the roots to be exposed to the air the better. If you are to take 

 them from the nursery in a wagon, be sure to puddle the roots in a rather thick lob- 

 lolly, and sprinkle over that a coating of fine, dry dust, and then cover them well. 

 Have your holes deep and wide enough to hold the roots when in a natural posi- 

 tion. Get down on your knees and with your hands place and pack the soil among 

 the roots, and when filled two inches above roots, tramp very tightly if the soil be 

 at all dry. The wetter, the less tramping. If the soil is in good order or wetter, 

 do not throw in any water. Over all, throw loose soil so that the surface will be 

 two or three inches above the level. 



Cultivate evergreens as carefully as you do anything in the garden, and keep 

 it up for years. Do not cultivate more than three inches deep, or you will injure 

 the roots and damage the trees. In a few years the fallen leaves will form just the 

 proper mulch. Then mow down the weeds and all volunteer stuflf In 10 or 12 

 years evergreens so treated will have such a good hold on the ground that they 

 will continue to do well, if the plot is sown with grass, even with blue-grass. 



Evidently with some of our nurserymen there is a good deal of confusion of 

 varieties of some of the species, the firs and the spruces especially. There are 

 nurserymen who know enough and are honest enough to send you just what you 

 order. The most cautious and clearest headed of the old settlers here agree that 

 the climate is very much milder than it was 30 years ago, and if you ask them as to 

 the; cause they answer, "the trees." If a few gallons of oil will control the waves 

 of the ocean, as seamen, ship owners and insurance companies have come to believe 



