84 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



FORESTRY. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



RAPIDITY OF GROWTH OF TIMBER TREES. 



BY F. K. ELLIOTT. 



Your note of the Abies Douglasi suggests to 

 me that, perhaps, it would be admissible in your 

 journal to state that twelve to sixteen years in 

 this country has grown the cottonwood to a 

 height of over forty feet, and of size sufficient to 

 make from half to three-fourths of a cord of 

 wood. The black walnut, butternut, chestnut, 

 soft maple, willows, poplars, all are rapid growers. 

 The Norway spruce, white, and yellow, and Scotch 

 pine have grown to a height of thirty to thirty- 

 five feet in twelve years. 



But, while we have many rapid-growing trees, 

 promising of profit and beauty, much depends 

 upon the soil in which they stand, and also the 

 distances apart. Many a piece of ground, now 

 vacant, and too low to cultivate without great ex- 

 pense, might be cultivated with forest trees, that 

 in ten to twelve years would be found of greater 

 profit than if planted in the ordinary way or left 

 to its natural grasses. The destruction of our 

 native forests is yearly rapidly increasing, and, 

 perhaps, no better move could be made than to 

 petition the controllers of public funds to apply 

 a certain amount yearly in premiums to those 

 who plant. 



THE FORESTS OF MICHIGAN. 



BY PROF. W. T. BEAL. 



Within my recollection a large part of South- 

 ern Michigan, which is now in the form of arable 

 land, has been cleared of timber. Our grand- 

 fathers, at great labor and expense, cut down, 

 rolled into heaps, and burned the timber from 

 thousands of acres in New York, because they 

 must have room for com and wheat and meadow. 

 Our fathers did and are still doing the same thing 

 for Michigan. Educated in this way, brought up 

 in the woods, where timber is too plenty, as a 

 people, we have been taught to undervalue tim- 

 ber. There are now living, men who can see no 



beauty in a tree, except for the cords of wood or 

 loads of lumber, or the hundreds of rails it will 

 make. The lovely elm, with all its grace and 

 beauty, well styled the queen of American trees, 

 shades the border of his meadow, and is a 

 nuisance. He cuts it down. Our large, grand 

 old trees have not been saved, partially because 

 of this lack of love for them. In many places it 

 would be impossible to save them. They would 

 not stand the storms alone when their fellow trees 

 were cut away. In 100 or 200 years it is likely 

 our successors will have and care for large sam- 

 ples of trees which have grown more stocky in 

 exposed places. One of the interesting things 

 now to do is to save what we can and make a 

 record of the size and position of any large trees 

 in Michigan. 



The largest hemlock I ever measured was at 

 Hersey, in Oscela county. At the stump it was 

 thirteen feet in circumference. I know there 

 are larger specimens, and I am ready and anx- 

 ious to record and publish the figures. At Her- 

 sey, also, I measured a black birch ten and a 

 half feet in circumference. I hear of an arbor 

 vittE white cedar about twelve feet in circumfer- 

 ence on Cedar river. I hear of a buttonwood 

 tree, four miles below Grand Rapids, thirty-three 

 feet around. In Saginaw county I hear of a but- 

 ternut tree three feet nine inches in diameter. I 

 am anxiously waiting to get dimensions of more 

 native trees. 



The largest apple and largest pear trees I 

 ever saw or hea^d of in Michigan are at Monroe. 

 The pear tree is ten feet in circumference in the 

 smallest place ; the apple tree is ten feet in cir- 

 cumference six inches from the ground. Near 

 Adrian is a weeping willow about four feet 

 through, and a grape vine twelve or thirteen 

 inches in diameter. In Branch county stand 

 two trees, twelve feet apart, each about twelve 

 inches through. They run up twelve feet, when 

 one starts off" horizontally and strikes the other, 

 when they grow together in one body. I heard 

 of a specimen, perhaps not now standing, two 

 pines, about four feet apart, diameters twenty-six 

 and twenty inches respectively. About sixteen 

 feet from the ground they are joined by a pine 



