DISCUSSION. Ill 



farm homes I suppose to a large extent; same would be true in 

 the towns. People who purchase these ornamental shrubs don't 

 have enough educational knowledge of how to take care of them 

 in order to make them do their best, and especially along lines 

 of culture; probably also along lines of fertilization of the soil 

 and winter protection in some cases. The question of tillage, 

 probably above all others, is important when you commence to 

 raise and improve varieties. The question of tillage is impor- 

 tant in the growing of corn, but we plant corn so that tillage is 

 relatively easy. In planting our ornamental shrubs it is not 

 possible to do that unless you plant on an extensive scale. 

 Most of the tillage has to be hand work, and we are very likely 

 to want to grow these shrubs in the lawn, let the grass grow 

 up to them as close as we can in order not to leave bare spots in 

 the lawn, and this tillage must be hand tillage. 



We either forget or don't kno,w how much moisture gets 

 away from the bare soil if not cultivated a good deal. Prof. 

 Emerson set a row of Hackberry trees, in 1901. along the front 

 of the farm that afterwards had to be removed; but along the 

 side, south of the road, — you remember 1901 how dry it was 

 from the middle of July until into September and how intensely 

 hot it was — and I presume to say that more than 50 per cent of 

 all the trees set in the state of Nebraska that summer died; if 

 not that summer they died the next fall. If I remember rightly, 

 under good cultivation one tree died in that whole row of nearly 

 100 during that summer, under cultivation. So I think if we 

 are going to send ornamental trees out over the state we want 

 to get the very best sorts, whether they are the very hardiest or 

 not, the sorts that make the best show; and along with that we 

 have got to carry on a process of education of the people in the 

 way of tillage to care for these shrubs before they wiU get out 

 of them the value there is in them. I am not an expert. I 

 don't know aU of the details of the careof these various things, 

 but I think that before you get a large market for these orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs, we will have to get a pretty thorough 

 education of the people in their care. I expect that many peo- 

 ple think that water is a substitute for tillage. Out at Sidney 

 last year I saw some cottonwood trees planted two or three 

 years. You know that Sidney is pretty high and dry. They 



