442 MINNESOTA STATK HOimcULTURAL SOCJIO'IY. 



they arc .^rowing. I planted a few seedlings of black walnuts, 

 butternuts, Japan walnuts and shellbark hickory nuts. The 

 buckeye chestnut seems to be very hardy here and makes a fine 

 ornamental tree. It ought to be planted more. 



We have continued our evergreen planting. Some 5,000 Aus- 

 trian pine seedlings were set out to give us protection in course 

 of time against the northwest winds and also incidentally for 

 lumber. These seedlings were good strong plants and green all 

 winter, but the continued thawing and freezing in April caused 

 many of them to turn brown. We have several thousand ever- 

 green seedlings of last year's sowing. Some insect or worm is 

 working in the seedbeds, gnawing off the tender roots of these 

 seedlings, ^^^^at is it, and what can I do against it? Last spring 

 a pound of white pine seed was sown. 



The larger evergreens look very nice and healthy, but the 

 sapsucker was very busy last spring to puncture many of the 

 Scotch pine so badly that some trees will die. Some specimens 

 of the European larch, 25 feet high, are a beautiful sight. It 

 is to be regretted that our farmers do not plant more ever- 

 greens, as every one could plant a pound of seed and raise all the 

 seedlings he would need for his woodlot. In a few years he 

 would have a fine grove to give shelter to his stock and stead 

 in general and later on have a valuable forest. It seems to me 

 it would be a good thing if the state would enact a law that 

 would require every farmer and land holder to plant on every 

 160 acres twenty acres of forest trees and exempt said twenty 

 acres of forest so planted for twenty or thirty years from taxa- 

 tion. This would help our forest conditions and general wood 

 supply wonderfully in a few years and would forever keep the 

 much dreaded wood famine from our land. 



I have imported some pear seed and have now about 1,500 

 seedlings growing. The seed comes from very many hardy varie- 

 ties, the fruit of which is mostly used for cider. Among these 

 seedlings I expect to find some that will stand our climate pret- 

 ty well. In fact I have two seedlings from a former planting 

 of seed, that came from the same place, which are now six feet 

 high and are hardier than the Russian pears. Although injured 

 some the first years, they came through the last winters all 

 right almost without discolored wood. This fact caused me to 

 import pear scions and seed. If I succeed in finding only one 

 hardy kind, the fruit of which would be among pears only 

 what the crab is among the apple, I would be well satisfied. I 



