STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 109 



less would give one of the grandest sites in the Northwest for a home, with ample 

 ground for barn-yards at a reasonable distance from the dwellings, and all alike 

 protected from the summer's sun, or the winter's wind. 



Can we estimate the value of such a tract ? Is the man or woman living, who, 

 possessing a claim so highly improved, would ever place a mortgage upon it ? 



And now that the trees are planted, what shall we do for further care of them? 

 For the first season, the low growing crops are the better, such as potatoes, beans, 

 or a low growing species of corn, that will not too thoroughly occupy the soil and 

 rob the weaklings of the warm rays of the sun. In case it is found that the trees, 

 seeds or cuttings have not come regularly, it will be easy in the month of June to 

 procure fresh seeds of soft maple and plant, thus filling out the vacancies at com- 

 paratively small expense. With good cultivation they will attain a height of 

 twelve inches the first summer. 



We cannot expect to grow a crop in the young plantation after the third year, as 

 the trees should then stand as high as a man, and the leaves will occupy the space 

 thoroughly. They can then be trimmed and pruned to good advantage. With ju- 

 dicious thinning, by the eighth year, the trees will stand eight feet apart and 625 to 

 the acre. Their slender, shapely trunks, growing heavenward, will be a better 

 monument to industry and perseverance than all the worn-out wheat fields in the 

 Northwest. 



There may be a difference of opinion as to the best means to attain this end ; but 

 there can be no controversy as to the truth that timber is what we need and must 

 have before our fertile valleys are the haven of rest they should be. 



And now a word to those on our prairies who have not timber claims. Why not 

 surround four farms with a living fence? Set in three rows, four feet apart in the 

 row, lireaking joints, how it would shorten the road to town, whether in bleak 

 midwinter, or whether the intensity of the summer's heat fairly scorches the brain. 

 Think of the benefit such a belt would afford to the railroad that may pass through 

 your farm. The suffering and discomfort that would be aleviated when the snow 

 blockades are abroad in the land, with such a windbreak under good culture, I am 

 almost prepared to offer in the name of the railroad companies, free passes to the 

 men who plant and maintain such a windbreak, through a quarter section of land. 



Should you desire to sell your farm, it will be a Uving advertisemeut, speaking 

 in eloquent language of our energy and thrift, and the good quality of our soil. 



There are new departures in timber planting worthy of our consideration, promi- 

 nent among which are the hardy catalpa and the Russian mulberry. The former 

 you will remember as a native of the shores of Minnetonka, contemporaneous 

 with Col. Stevens and Father Hennepin. The mulberry, an importation from 

 Russia by the Mennonities, where it flourishes in a latitude of 49 degrees. Its con- 

 sequent hardness and the wonderful rapidity of growth, together wijth the fact of 

 its being the natural food of the silkworm, makes it by no means an unworthy ap- 

 plicant for public favor. 



With the ideal timber claim under successful cultivation, and the mulberry, a 

 valuable addition to the former list, furnishing the means of luxury in the way of 

 silk, our friends of the amber cane society showing us how to make our own sweet, 

 we will then change the old figure of speech, when each man " sat under his own 

 vine and fig tree," to a new version, when, " clad in silk garments, we recline un- 



