248 



fruited when six years old, and have fruited every year since. There are only nine trees 

 of this lot now standing in the arboretum. They proved to be Gatalpa speciosa. They 

 have passed through two very cold winters when the thermometer reached thirty-two or 

 thirty-three degrees below zero. A few of the thriftiest limbs were injured,but the trunks 

 are sound, at least, to all appearance. The trees have had plenty of room, nothing shading 

 them to prevent the tops from spreading. There is quite a tendency in the limbs to 

 split off at the crotches, much like Ulmus Aviericana. These trees, with a growth of 

 nine years, transplanted when three years old, now measure from sixteen to twenty-four 

 inches around at one foot above the soil. Five feet above the ground, two of the trees 

 each measures sixteen inches in circumference. They are a trifle over twenty feet high. 

 They have not grown as fast as Acer dasycarpum, Silver-leafed Maple. Some of the 

 latter measure, with a growth of eight years, twenty-two and a half inches around and 

 run up twenty-eight or thirty feet. The tops have plenty of room and are large and 

 spreading. Some White Ash were grown from the seed six years without transplanting. 

 Many of these are eighteen feet high, and from eight to nine and a half inches in circum- 

 ference, one foot from the ground. From the first the trees have beoi straight, clean and 

 handsome. Some Basswoods and Butternuts of the same age and with the same treat- 

 ment have trunks a trifle larger at the base, but they are more tapering and not so tall. 

 Some Black Walnuts have grown five years where the nuts were planted. Many of them 

 are fifteen feet high, and measure seven and a half to eight and a half inches a foot from 

 the ground. They are straight, healthy and beautiful. We are north of the line where 

 many good Black Walnut trees grow in the forest. It is quite safe to plant them on soil 

 where they grow well in the native forest. 



My friend, James Satterlee, of Greenville, Montcalm county, lives about one hun- 

 dred miles north of the Ohio line. On his father's farm were planted some trees of which 

 he writes as follows: " There are about seventy Chestnut trees. The nuts were planted 

 in the spring of 1863, and set in the spring of 1865 from 2.5 to 30 feet apart, irregularly. 

 They were cultivated with corn or potatoes for five years, then seeded to clover, which 

 remained two years, then they were again cultivated for two years, since which time the 

 orchard has remained seeded. The trees are all healthy. The tallest are about thirty 

 feet ; the largest forty-two inches in circumference one foot from the ground, and thirty- 

 six inches, four feet from the ground. There are some Black Walnut and Butternut 

 trees of the same age. The largest Black Walnut is forty inches in circumference, 

 and not quite so high as the chestnuts. The largest Butternut is thirty-five inches in 

 circumference and a little lower than the walnuts. The chestnut trees vaiy consider- 

 ably in their productiveness. Some bear five or six nuts in a burr ; some bear much 

 larger nuts than others. One tree holds its leaves all winter. This orchard of nut trees 

 is well known for miles around, and is one of the attractions of the neighbourhood 

 which is in a new country." 



Of forest trees indigenous to Michigan, all things considered, where the site and soil 

 are suitable, I should select to plant for timber Black Walnut and White Ash. I am 

 Tiot yet certain that it would be better to plant European Larch, Silver Poplar, Cotton- 

 wood , Silver Maple, Butternut or any other foreign species. 



FORESTRY IN MICHIGAN— OUTLOOK AND SUGGESTIONS. 



By Y. M. Spalding, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



It is not necessary to go into an argument to show that Michigan ought to be 

 interested in forestry. Everyone knows what an element the forests have been in our 

 prosperity. According to a late report of the Commissioner of Immigration " the aggre- 

 gate value of the forest products of this State already mentioned is largely in excess of 

 $800,000,000," and the timber product of a single year, 1879, amounted to $60,000,000, 

 or about thirty-five per cent, of the total value of the natural productions of the State for 

 that year. Michigan produces more salt than any other State in th^ Union, and the 



