430 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
THE SIBERIAN PEA-TREE AS A HEDGE. 
PROF. N. E. HANSEN, BROOKINGS, SOUTH DAKOTA. 
I took this photograph in the fall of 1897, at Uralsk, a town situated 
on the Ural river (lat. 51°). This river forms part of the boundary between 
European Russia and Siberia, flows south and empties into the Caspian Sea. 
The annual rainfall is only 12.6 inches. The photograph shows that this plant 
(Caragana arborescens) makes a good growth without irrigation in a dry 
climate. Throughout European Russia it is the favorite ornamental hedge 
plant for the home grounds. Along the Neva river, front of the Imperial 
Botanic Gardens, at St. Petersburg, is a pretty hedge of this plant. In the 
The Siberian Pea-Tree (Caragana Aborescens) asa Hedge. 
government forestry experiment plantations at Uralsk it was largely used as 
a nurse tree, or, rather, bush, because it endures severe drouth. The forester 
in charge said the thinnings were good for woven lattice fences and for fuel. 
The wood is strong and useful for many purposes. For fuel it does not need 
to be dried, as it burns well when green. 
Caragana arborescens has proved perfectly hardy in Minnesota, the 
Dakotas, Manitoba and Assinaboia. It should soon become common, as the 
plant seeds young and the seeds germinate readily. Single lawn specimens 
at the Experiment Station at Indian Head, Assinaboia, grew about twelve 
feet in six years. The maximum height of the untrimmed Caragana hedges 
be 
