414 State Horticultural Society. 



and some three feet, and from one to two inches wide. A protest from 

 the owners of these lois and the trees just planted called forth jeers of 

 derision. I know people who would rather the city should kill, or allow 

 to be killed by ordinance, the best horse or cow they owned than to have 

 such trees destroyed. 



I call attention to these three cases, not that it can be possible to 

 replace the trees, but that we may learn to take care of what we do plant 

 hereafter, and above all, save every tree that can possibly be saved, if it 

 be anywhere near the place a tree should be. In many of our cities they 

 have saved a beautiful tree a hundred years old, even if it stood in the 

 middle of a street. Let us then guard carefully and faithfully every 

 tree that will be of use to us, and a thing of beauty in the future. 



The beautifying of our city in the planting of trees is a matter we 

 should always delight in and help to foster, iiot only for the street do 

 I plead, but we should have vacant property, where held in any body, 

 planted in beautiful trees, evergreens and shrubs. It takes years for 

 them to grow, but a man with means can build his house in one year. 

 Lots so beautified will pay the owner dollars for cents expended. 



Before leaving this subject which is so near my heart, I should like 

 to give a few thoughts from my own experience here of thirty years in 

 the manner of digging, handling, planting, caring for trees, and the best 

 varieties to plant. 



The Trees. — The best trees are those nursery grown. If they have 

 been transplanted once or twice, so much the better. These trees should 

 be dug carefully, so as to get plenty of good fibrous roots, for without 

 good roots one can not get good growth. A tree should have a spread of 

 root of one foot across for every inch of diameter at the crown, that is a 

 tree three inches in diameter should have roots three feet across. 



Handling the trees after being dug is sometimes done as if they were 

 a load of poles or rails. Too many forget that the tree is alive, just as 

 much as you or I, and if the roots are exposed to the least frost or per- 

 mitted to lie in the sun, they are either dead or so badly injured that they 

 will show a very feeble growth or not grow at all. Just as well expect a 

 fish to live out of water as a tree to live out of the ground unless well 

 protected and the roots, body and branches kept moist. More than one- 



