370 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



EVERGREENS AND ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS FOR THE 



PRAIRIES. 



(Read at annual meeting of S. D. State Hort. Society.) 



PETER SIVERTS, CANBY. 



My experience with evergreens on the prairie dates back to 

 the year 1881 ; that was my second year in the country, and coming, 

 as I did, direct from the beautiful and well kept forests of Denmark 

 to those immense treeless prairies of southwestern Minnesota, where 

 at that time there was scarcely a tree in sight anywhere, and if there 

 was any attempt at tree planting it was, as a rule, merely a few cot- 

 tonwoods — to say that I was homesick does not begin to express 

 it. I said, why don't yon plant some evergreens, and have some- 

 thing that will stop the wind and look cheerful in the long, dreary 

 winter? Most everybody said they had tried it, but evergreens 

 would not grow here, the climate or soil or something was not 

 right for them. I made up my mind, however, that I would 

 experiment a little myself and so procured a nice lot of conifer seeds 

 from Albert Douglas, Waukegan, 111. It proved to be very good 

 seed, it sprouted quickly and made a fine growth, and it had good 

 care. Next year the little seedlings were transplanted into nursery 

 beds and left there for three years, and my home in Canby is today 

 surrounded bv trees from those tiny seedlings of i58i, which are 

 now sturdy, robust trees twenty-five or thirty feet high and nobly 

 defy the raging winds and howling Minnesota blizzards. That was 

 my first venture with evergreens on this si.de of the Atlantic, and al- 

 though I had intended to make a business of raising them to sell 

 the people were so slow to be convinced that evergreens could and 

 would thrive on these open plains, if handled intelligently, that I 

 was discouraged and drifted into other business. 



However, after my trees had got quite large, and they saw 

 what fine shelter they might have had, if they had only planted when 

 I did, there began to be a demand for home grown trees ; so five 

 years ago I again took up my old love for propagating evergreens. 

 The varieties that I have experimented with the longest, and which 

 have given the best satisfaction, are the Austrian and Scotch pine, 

 and the white and Norway spruce ; but later have tried white, 



