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charged with egotism if I now give the results of some of those personal experiments, 

 rather than copy or condense what has been written by others, and it will be a great satis- 

 faction if I can induce a few to try for themselves. 



In selecting forest trees for planting, the first consideration ought to be the nature of 

 the soil where they are to be planted ; if the soil is not favourable to one kind of tree, 

 do not waste your time in planting it there ; you will find another tree that will suit the 

 soil. After paying all due deference to soil and climate, you must be guided in your 

 selection of a particular kind of tree : 1st. By the value of the timber. 2nd. The greater 

 or lesser ease and certainty with which the tree can be grown, 3rd. The rate of growth. 



I have tried principally black walnut, oak, elm, maple, ash, tamarack, Russian pine, 

 and fir and poplar, and will now give some of the results. 



Black Walnut — The value of that wood is so considerable (a dollar a cubic foot at the 

 present time), and it is getting so scarce that it struck me as the most worthy of being in- 

 troduced and cultivated here. True it did not grow spontaneously any where in the Pro- 

 vince of Quebec, but this appeared to me no conclusive reason why it should not grow and 

 flourish here. The lilac comes all the way from Persia, and it spreads out its leaves earlier 

 and keeps them unchanged later than our typical tree, the maple. I did not fear our 

 great colds, for in the West, the natural home of the black walnut, the thermometer 

 often ranges as low as here, though for a shorter period at a time. It was well worth 

 trying. 



I procured a bag of black walnut nuts from the West in the fall of 1874, and sowed 

 them at once ; it was late in November ; we had to remove the snow and break the frozen 

 ground, but I thought the earth the safest place to winter them. They began to come up 

 about the tenth of June following ; not five per cent, failed, and they have never been 

 artificially shekered in any way. It would not be worth while introducing them here if 

 they could not take cave of themselves. 



Of those left undisturbed where they were sown, I have not lost one ; they have 

 now had six summers' growth. I have just had some of them measured, so as to be 

 certain of their size ; the height of the four largest is as follows : fifteen feet and a half, 

 fourteen feet and a half, fourteen feet and twelve feet, and thick in proportion. Those 

 have not been transplanted ; now notice the difference between them and those that 

 have been moved. 



In the fall of 1875, when they were only one year old, one lot were transplanted, but 

 the soil was not favourable and they have not done well, so far ; however, they are 

 beginning to recover. In the spring of 1876 I transplanted another lot ; the best are 

 about eight feet high ; and another lot last spring, tlie tallest of which are about ten or 

 eleven feet. All those trees are the same age as the fifteen and fourteen feet trees ; the 

 difference in size results from the transplanting, wherefore it is much better to sow them 

 at once where they are to remain. Plant them thick, as the wood of the young tree is 

 rather soft, like that of our native butternut. 



It is contrary to all preconceived ideas, even among those who handle timber every 

 day, but nevertheless true, that the black walnut (Jaglans nigra) and the Canadian oak 

 (Qnsrcus alba)a,H a rule increase much more rapidly in girth than our pine and whi'-.e 

 spruce. I conclude, from counting the rings on the trees after they are cut down, and 

 from watching the growth of the living trees, that black walnut and Canadian oak gener- 

 ally gain one inch in diameter in about three years and a half, while our spruce and pine 

 take about double that time to accomplish the same result ; this can easily be ascertained 

 by counting and measuring the rings. Of course there will be exceptions, and it would 

 not be fair to judge by those only ; I speak of the average. 



It is now time to say something of the profits, and I must be careful to avoid exag- 

 geration. Judging by the growth of the living trees and the rings of tlie timber, when 

 cut, I do not hesitate to say that a black walnut, under ordinary circumstances, at the 

 age of seventy-five years, will have attained twenty-one inches in diameter and will con- 

 tain at least fifty cubic feet of timber, the actual value of which is about one dollar per 

 cubic foot. (See for prices the Lumber nan's Gazette, published at Bay City, Michigan, 

 the numbers of the 26th January, 2ud February, aiid 2nd March of this year.) 



For how many such trees, judiciously planted, will there be comfortable room on one 



