THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART X. 599 



All of the men about this ideal park should be gentlemen at all times 

 and under all circumstances, for they are in a position where there will 

 be ladies and children within sight and hearing distance at all times. 



THE ELM AND OTHER SHADE TREES. 



Albert Duebendorfer, Ames, Iotva. 



The shade tree is a necessity on the prairies of this state and must 

 be given a great deal of attention if we ever expect it to compare with 

 eastern countries where avenues and streets in the large cities, as well 

 as in the country towns, are lined most beautifully with a variety of 

 good trees. In those eastern places many a tree has been tried and dis- 

 carded, often because a reasonable amount of judgment in its care was 

 lacking, but generally because it was not adapted to the climate. Many 

 of the horticulturists who have laid the foundation of their profession 

 in some foreign country have been disappointed in their favorites be- 

 cause the dry and hot summer air of their new home proved to be fatal 

 to many trees which they expected to grow to perfection. 



In a recent visit to Chicago and many of its subsurbs I noticed with 

 great satisfaction that the elm is foremost everywhere, and its nearest 

 rival is the soft maple. Along the lake front on the north side where 

 the energetic Chicagoan has crowded the water line out farther into 

 Lake Michigan so that he may build up a grand boulevard and give his 

 fellow man a place where he may enjoy the brisk and refreshing lake 

 air, he has deemed it wise to use the elm for a shade producer. The 

 wind on that lake front sometimes has a fierce sweep and a silver maple, 

 box elder, American linden or any other fast growing tree would not 

 amount to much, while the elm continues its majestic growth. 



Not only on Chicago's water front, but everywhere where trees have 

 been planted — at least as far as my travels have taken me in the states — the 

 elm is successfully grown where other shade treees are crippled by heavy 

 wind playing in the tops of the trees with force enough to break down 

 eight and ten inch limbs on the silver maple, box elder, poplar or linden, 

 here you may observe that the grand ol delm, though its limbs might have 

 pointed all in one direction and its leaves were whipped like tne laund- 

 ress would whip the fringes on the bureau-spread in order to straighten 

 them, will come back to its own graceful shape and beauty. It was my 

 misfortune to witness one of those seldom occurring storms that took 

 buildings off their foundations and played havoc on all trees in its 

 path but the elm. Apple, pear, cherry, hard and soft maple, beeches, 

 birches, pine and spruce were uprooted where this storm crossed tbe 

 beautiful Batenkill valley in the town of Manchester, Vermont, and 

 left the elm to prove that its root system is not easily torn from the earth 

 and its tops are too wiry and strong to be injured very much. 



