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any tree can grow. It does not make as large a tree as the sugar maple. It makes a 

 very pretty medium-sized tree with a rather compact head and pinnate leaves. The pret- 

 tiest native evergreen for ornamental planting is what is commonly called the hemlock, 

 but it needs to be planted with some care. It needs nurses. If you take one hemlock 

 tree in any part of the country and set it out on the lawn by itself, ten to one but it 

 will die out ; but if you will plant a little group of trees — a hemlock to each three or 

 four Norway spruces — and let them grow together, and gradually cut out your Norway 

 spruces so as to have a clump entirely of hemlock, after a while you will have one of the 

 most graceful groups of the prettiest of all the evergreen tribe. Our balsam fir, while it 

 is young, makes a pretty ornamental tree, but when it gets to be twenty-five or thirty 

 years old it loses its lower branches and ceases to be an object of beauty. Our white 

 spruce would be my choice in prefei-ence to the balsam fir. I think it will hold its 

 limbs pretty well. It certainly will hold its limbs at the ground much longer than the 

 native balsam. The Weymouth pine — our common pine — is a beautiful thing ; but you 

 ought not to plant it on small lawns. It is a beautiful tree planted alone, and allowed to 

 have free scope to develope itself. Will it pay to plant the black walnut for commercial 

 purposes ? I suppose there are none of us who can speak from experience. If a man 

 has a piece of land that is suitable for the black walnut and not so very suitable for tillage 

 purposes, being broken and uneven, I believe that it will pay a person well who will take 

 care of a plantation of that sort for twenty-five years. The wood, as we all know, com- 

 mands a very high price in the market for the sake of the lumber it makes. It is con- 

 tinually growing scarcer, and the price is going up. I can see no reason why a planta- 

 tion of that kind well taken care of should not pay well. I have heard it said that the 

 nuts ought to pay something. If you go to a grocer in town and ask him for a bushel of 

 black walnuts he will charge you half a dollar for them ; but I think you could scarcely 

 sell ten bushels of them if you wanted to. Will it pay to plant the white ash for com- 

 mercial purposes ? We know that wood is used for almost everything, agricultural im- 

 plements, carriage making — in every useful branch of industry where woodwork is 

 wanted the white ash will come in play ; and, I believe, under the same circumstances 

 where black walnut might be made profitable white ash might be too. To the westward 

 of us, in the United States — in those treeless prairies — they are planting the white ash 

 very freely. They have great faith in it as a tree for forming shelter belts, as well as a 

 timber tree. I believe the hickory would also pay. The nuts of that will sell for some- 

 thing. I do not know what the market price is. I know that the wood is being sought 

 for for various purposes — for spokes of wheels, for felloes also, I believe — and for ham- 

 mer handles, axe handles, and that sort of thing. I believe a plantation of hickory 

 on broken soil — on ground suitable for it — would be a profitable investment for a man to 

 make. I think the time is coming when these subjects should be agitated and discussed. 

 It would not take long to compute how much lumber you could get off a given acreage 

 by knowing a little of the growth of these trees. I have been told about the hickory, 

 that the demand for hoops is becoming so great that it would pay to set out a thick 

 plantation of hickory trees, let them grow to perhaps a little thicker than your thumb, 

 and then cut them down and split them in two for hoops. 



Mr. Drury. — There is one native evergreen which I think the Secretary has over- 

 looked — that is, the cedar. I was not aware, myself, until this last summer, that it was 

 possible to get it to present such a fine appearance — not until I had an opportunity of 

 visiting the farm of Mr. Dawson, in the County of Kent, about a mile from Chatham. 

 There I saw cedars carefully trimmed and pruned to the most beautful shapes. Of 

 course, we know that if we allow a tree to grow as it will, without any pruning or 

 shaping, it is not likely to present a very attractive appearance. The cedar is a tree that 

 could be used for hedges. I do not say that it would be a lasting tree, but I have known 

 it to last as a hedge for twelve or fourteen years. I saw a hedge of that sort on Mr. 

 Dawson's farm. Near my own place a large orchard is partly enclosed by a cedar hedge, 

 and it presents a very nice appearance. Then, too, I think the Secretary has hardly 

 placed the spruce in its proper position as an ornamental native evergreen. The spruce, 

 in my opinion, is one of the very finest of native evergreens. Its colour is very pleasing, 

 and without giving it any attention it will grow into a very nice shape. I fully agree 



