HOUTICULTURAL NOTES. 7I 



Before planting an orchard the ground should be well plowed, 

 better in the fall before, and manured. Then plowed again in the 

 spring and cultivated once a week till September ist; and the same 

 also for the shelter grove. For the last few years we have had 

 very favorable weather conditions, plenty of moisture, and the cold 

 for some reason not very injurious to trees generally, and yet the 

 last winter — though the second mildest winter (20 degrees below the 

 lowest temperature) since 1856-7 — injured many trees, etc. The 

 Lombardy poplar was badly hurt, Russian mulberry, the catalpa, 

 the lilac in the bloom, the tamarix amurensis — and yet the black- 

 berry uncovered came through in good shape. Many of the native 

 cedars entirely killed ; arbor vitae hedges growing for twenty years 

 or more entirely killed. 



"Horticultural Notes" might treat of very many matters connect- 

 ed with horticulture, but this paper will be limited to speaking of 

 some useful and ornamental trees and shrubs and a few words on 

 some native flowers which seemed doomed to extinction here but 

 which can be preserved by cultivation. 



Maple. The soft, or wdiite, maple is well worth growing — with 

 favorable weather. For the last three or four wet years it has been 

 a very beautiful tree, but in dry seasons the leaves begin to turn in 

 August. It should be always planted in damp locations. A maple 

 planted in 1855 is now eight feet in circumference, some planted in 

 1 86 1 about seven feet. The sugar maple should always be planted 

 on clay land, but may be grown on other soils also, though the 

 growth is much less than on clay. Two sugar maples set out in 

 1861 are now two feet seven inches and three feet in circumference. 

 They have been growing in blue grass sod with no cultivation. 

 Weir's cut-leaved, Norway and other maples are no doubt hardy 

 in this climate. The Japanese maples may be hardy enough for 

 this climate. The blood-leaved has been through two winters un- 

 injured. They are not large trees and with some protection may en- 

 dure this climate. 



Chestnut (Casfanca Americana). We have much evidence to 

 show that the chestnut can be grown in the south part of the state. 

 The tree has stood forty below zero without injury, and for 

 the last two winters has come out in as healthy condition as any 

 tree on the place. Chestnuts grown near Winona are "shown at 

 this meeting. The natural northern limits of the tree are north 

 of Concord, New Hampshire, to Winnepesaukee Lake, Vermont; 

 and in New York, in parts of Ohio, but not generally in Indiana and 

 Illinois. 



