1882.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST 



117 



Forestry, 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



AILANTHUS AS A TIMBER TREE. 



BY R. DOUGLAS, WAUKEGAN, ILLINOIS. 



I noticed an article in Country Gentleman on Ail- 

 anthus. We grow the tree but do not recom- 

 mend it for durability ; and you may recollect 

 how quickly I called your attention to an error 

 in Gardener's Monthly, where you had me as 

 recommending it for durability. You will see 

 that we recommend it as being of value for fuel 

 and cabinet work. Prof. C. S. Sargent is having 

 it tested on Boston and Providence Railroad, for 

 ties, along with Catalpa and other kinds. 



You will see by our mailing circular that we 

 ■only recommend it south of forty degrees, and 

 especially recommend it for poor, dry, barren 

 land only. We are planting two hundred acres 

 of Ailanthus for a Boston capitalist, four by five 

 ffiet, in Southeast Kansas ; also planting them 

 •on the railroad tree section in same locality, 

 where small one and a half year old trees, cut off 

 <o four inches of ground, make a growth the first 

 year equal to broom handles and hoe-handles, 

 and do not kill back at all. We find that seed- 

 lings do not sucker at all so far, and as the trees 

 shade the ground completely after two years' 

 growth there can be no danger of suckers till 

 the plantation is thinned. 



I don't think Ailanthus trees have been planted 

 to the extent you intimate, and it is all a mistake 

 about there being an " enormous demand for 

 them in the West," as I think we are the only 

 firm who have offered them until this season. 

 Now, you will perhaps be surprised to learn that 

 of all we have grown and sold, at least two-thirds 

 of them have been sold to eastern parties and 

 the remaining one-third has gone mostly to Cali- 

 fornia, Oregon, Salt Lake and Texas. The Mor- 

 mons call it the Paradise tree. 



I think the Ailanthus fills a place for the 

 Jersey shore, and the arid lands in the far West, 

 where no other tree will do as well or be as pro- 

 fitable. Somehow it has become a habit with 

 eastern men to give the western men some hard 

 hits, and for this reason it is a great satisfaction 



to me to be able to say that this tree was grown 

 by us at the suggestion of eastern men ; two 

 men, who have said little, but have been the 

 means of more forest trees being planted than 

 any other two men in America. 



It may interest you to know that with the two 

 hundred acres of Ailanthus, referred to above, 

 we are planting three hundred acres of Catalpa 

 speciosa, and sixty acres of white Ash, five hun- 

 dred and sixty acres in one body. Within four 

 miles of this plantation lies the railroad section, 

 six hundred and forty acres. The incessant rains 

 last Fall, and at present, will retard us so that 

 we will not get all planted till next Fall. 



[Our remarks on the paragraph in the Country 

 Gentletnan, were not intended as hits at any- 

 body. It seems as if nothing positive is known 

 about the value of the Ailanthus wood, and it 

 is desirable to get tkis information if we can. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



New Work on Forestry.— Dr. Franklin B, 

 Hough, United States Commissioner of Forestry, 

 is preparing a work concisely outlining the 

 general subjects of Forestry in Ameiica. 



Timber in Virginia.— Black Walnut and Tulip 

 Poplar are mostly exported in logs. Over one 

 thousand of these logs went over a single rail- 

 road—Norfolk and Western— during the single 

 month of October, last year. 



Timber Planting Along Railroad Lines.— 

 The newspapers say that Burlington and Cedar 

 Rapids Railroad Company is planting trees along 

 the line of their road, between Muscatine and 

 Nichols. In the East the railroads are cutting 

 trees away from their tracks, because of the ten- 

 dency to fire which the collected leaves and dead 

 branches excite. 



American Forestry Association.— As noted 

 in our last, this Association, in connection with 

 the National Forestry Congress, will meet at Cin- 

 cinnati from April ?5th to 29th. Dr. Warder has 



