1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



85 



six inches in diameter. Above the point of union 

 the smaller tree becomes the largest. In Oak- 

 land county are twin beeches, much like the 

 pine trees just mentioned. 



On Little Salt river I hear of a white oak 

 twenty-five feet in circumference. At Lansing 

 we have tamaracks about nine feet around. In 

 Lenawee, near Deerfield and on Little Prairie 

 Ronde, I hear of sassafras trees six feet in cir- 

 cumference. At Grand Ledge and at Tecumseh 

 are coffee trees four feet in circumference. At 

 Adrian and near Kalamazoo are honey locusts 

 about six feet in circumference. At Northport 

 is a red cedar about nine feet around. In Otsego 

 county there is a sugar maple said to be eighteen 

 feet in circumference ; one in Ionia county seven- 

 teen feet four inches around. At Clam Lake an 

 old lumberman can furnish spars of pine 175 feet 

 long and only two feet through at the butt. In 

 Heading, Hillsdale county, I hear of a. black 

 walnut nine and a half feet in diameter. As a 

 boy I remember one in Rollin, Lenawee county, 

 which, I think, was equal to the one in Reading. 

 In Dearborn I hear of a swamp oak twenty-three 

 feet around, an American elm at Manistee twenty- 

 four feet around. In Vevay, Ingham county, I 

 learn of a white wood eighteen feet around. 



In Farmington, Oakland county, I hear of an 

 ailanthus thirty years old six feet three inches 

 , in circumference. In Flint I hear of an oak tree 

 nearly three feet in diameter. About ten feet 

 from the ground is a huge knot which is sound 

 and goes nearly around the tree. The wart, or 

 knot, strikes out nearly three feet each way from 

 the tree. 



Some trees prove of great value because of the 

 peculiarity of the grain. If I am rightly informed, 

 a walnut tree at Potterville sold for $1,000 as the 

 wood was in beautiful waves. It was made into 

 veneering. Doubtless many a valuable log has 

 been destroyed by ignorant people not knowing 

 its real worth. 



A thorough survey of the State, with a full il- 

 lustrated report of the forest trees and other 

 plants, would be of great interest and value in 

 many respects. Trees indicate soil. Massachu- 

 setts has a good report. 



At the Agricultural College we have begim in 

 a small way to raise some of our native trees, 

 some foreign ones also, to see which will prove 

 of most value for future generations to grow for 

 profit. It may seem strange to hear of raising 

 trees for timber in Michigan, but our people will 

 soon begin to raise some kinds, and some of us 



will live to see it in all probability. So far as we 

 can judge now our best trees to raise for timber 

 are white ash, hickory, black walnut, white pine, 

 white oak, European larch. An acre of timber 

 raised, cultivated and properly cared for is of 

 much more value than an acre of forest trees of 

 the same species. 



Considering the great prominence of Michigan 

 forests when compared with any other states, it 

 is well worth while for our citizens, through 

 the Centennial, to show specimens of them, and 

 also sections of some of our oldest cultivated 

 trees, as fruit trees and ornamental trees, to show 

 how fast they grow, to show how well they endure 

 our climate. Of such, we are preparing to exhibit 

 locust, catalpa, European larch, apple trees, 

 cedars, maples, &c. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Forestry in Iowa. — Mr. Suel Foster tells 

 the Country Gentleman: " Forest timber, wind- 

 breaks and ornamental trees," was a subject of 

 much interest in our meeting. No man in our 

 State has done so much in this line as Hon. C. E. 

 Whiting, of Monroe county, on the west line of 

 the State ; and no man in the State is doing so 

 much to instruct and encourage tree planting as 

 H. H. McAfee, Professor of Forestry and Horti- 

 culture at our Agricultural College. He is a man 

 who puts his hand to the work ; knows how to do 

 it, and when it is rightly done. His department 

 at the farm has not been enlarged, as the interests 

 of our State require, but so far it is progressing 

 in the right direction. 



Californian Chestnut. — At a recent meeting 

 of the Californian Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Dr. Kellogg said he had just returned from under 

 the shadow of the finest evergreens ever grown. 

 He hoped the secretary would record the fact 

 that there were in California Golden Chestnut 

 Trees (Castanea chrysophylla) from 100 to 200 

 feet high, 4 to 6 feet in diameter, and with an un- 

 branched trunk of from 50 to 70 feet. 



English Oak Timber. — We have before us a 

 statement of an English planter that he has two 

 acres of oak timber planted in 1845 now with 

 trees fifty feet high. This is not two feet a year. 

 We have seen English Oak do better than that in 

 this country, and believe the timber, from some 

 few observations we have made, to be better than 

 any of our own species. We believe the time 



