350 State Horticultural Society. 



addition to these, the following should be mentioned as valuable trees for 

 the lawn : The pin oak, sweetgum, birch, sugar maple, Norway maple, 

 ash, elm and such evergreens as pines, spruces and hemlocks. 



In arranging trees, it is usually best to avoid planting in rows, but 

 rather grouping them in such a way as to cover up undesirable views 

 and to leave an open space for lawn and to form some catching vistas. 

 There may be examples of homes situated well back from the public 

 highway, with a straight road leading back to the place, in which case it 

 might be well to have the road lined on either side with a row of some 

 one variety of trees and not a row made up of a mixture of many kinds. 



SEARCH FOR HARDY PLANTS. 



(Prof. N. E. Haase'n, Brookings, S. D,) 



The talk was most interesting, and given with pictures covering 

 Prof. Hansen's whole trip through Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 



WAS FIRST EXPLORER. 



Professor Hansen Tells Experiences of His Initial Trip. 



N. E. Hansen, profesor of horticulture in the State Agricultural 

 College at Brookings, S. D., who spoke before the Missouri State Horti- 

 cultural Society last week, was the first agricultural explorer ever sent 

 by the government of the United States. An agricultural explorer, it 

 should be said, is commissioned by the Department of Agriculture to go 

 abroad in quest of varieties of different classes of plant life, which may 

 be grown in this country to advantage. Professor Hansen went out 

 under direction of Secretary Wilson in 1897-98. 



"There were some vicissitudes in connection with my first trip out,"' 

 said Professor Hansen last night. "One result of the trip was the secur- 

 ing of Turkestan alfalfa seed. The special object of the journey was 

 to get drouth-resisting and cold-resisting plants. The alfalfa was se- 

 cured at Tashkent, in the heart of Central Asia, 1,000 miles east of the 

 Caspian sea. 



"We made the trip to the end of the railroad line and then traveled 

 1,300 miles by wagon and 700 miles by sleigh. Everywhere I went 

 in Russia the government treated me with all the courtesy possible. 

 Squads of soldiers were sent out to meet me and escort me into the 

 towns. The Russian peasantry is not a particularly promising class of 

 people, or was not so at that time. I do not believe they were vicious, in 



