146 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tain of a yearly rental of fifteen dollars per acre per year. Cottonwood 

 groves twenty-five years old have brought in up to date thirteen dollars 

 per acre in hundreds of instances. Lumber is going up all the time, and 

 you are sure of fifteen dollars per acre from now on. How much better 

 a thrifty grove of trees would look than a miserable patch of weeds. 



What shall we plant? The black walnut is a very thrifty tree. It is 

 very valuable, and grows rapidly. It is better to raise from the nuts. 

 These should be planted near the edge of your wet pieces, where the over- 

 flow will not drown them out. The elm is a good thrifty tree. The Nor- 

 way poplar is probably the best tree and will bring in the most satisfac- 

 tory returns. Notwithstanding the slurs which have been thrown on this 

 tree by those of high authority, yet it is a tree by itself. It has been 

 called identical with the Carolina poplar. The twigs and leaves have 

 some resemblance but the trees are distinct. The Carolina has a rough 

 bark and the Norway a smooth bark. The Carolina seldom lives to be 

 more than fifteen years old; the Norway has been known to live forty 

 years, growing with all vigor. The Carolina is worthless for lumber. 

 Did you ever see a Carolina saw log? 



A mill man in Minnesota sawed a quarter of a million feet of Nor- 

 way poplar, and he calls it next to white pine in value. It is fine grained 

 and takes on a smooth finish, and looks well dressed in hard oil. It 

 makes good floor boards. It is good for framing timber, being stronger 

 than pine. It is good for boxing and for furniture. We intend to put 

 some specimens of this poplar for our society specimens which will refute 

 for all time the assertion that the Norway is nothing but Carolina. I 

 think it is hardly fair to pounce on a proposition and call it a fraud, and 

 that nurserymen without conscience are fostering and pushing a fake. 

 Nurserymen think something of their reputation, and it is not fair to 

 brand them as dishonest until a thorough investigation has been made. 

 A nurseryman generally does not take the say so of some irresponsible 

 person and go off at half cock before he knows what he is doing. 



Again, in numerous instances in Manitoba, Minnesota, and the Da- 

 kotas both kinds have been growing side by side. And in a severe winter 

 the Carolinasi would be killed to the ground and the Norways would be 

 uninjured. But if you are in doubt and can not readily get the Norway, 

 then do as the early settlers did, plant cottonwood. You are sure then 

 that your labor will not be in vain. But there are different varieties of 

 cottonwood in the same species. 



As you go through Nebraska you will find a vast difference in trees. 

 One Will be gnarled and tough, and will split about as readily as a bundle 

 of twisted wire. Another tree will be thrifty but it don't exactly suit you. 

 Another has a clean body and a long trunk and is of easy rift. No 

 trouble to split it. In fact, it much resembles the Norway. You want 

 to get scions from that kind of trees and plant them on the largest scale 

 and you are perfectly safe. WTien farm lands are worth from one to two 

 hundred dollars per acre it is a shame to let any portion go to waste, so 

 plant these moist lands to trees and let them pump gold from the mud. 



