THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 31. JUNE, 1903. No. 6. 



THE NORWAY POPLAR. 



EMIL SAHLER, WASECA. 



This tree is a cross between the wild poplar and the cottonwood, 

 and it originated in Norway, so far as I can learn. It was brought 

 to Minnesota by a man who came from one of the eastern states, 

 with a wagon load of the slips, to sell them to the farmers. He 

 claimed that the tree was much better than the cottonwood and that 

 it did not raise the cotton, which is so troublesome. In my fourteen 

 vears of experience with the tree, I find it to be a good and clean tree. 

 It has a small seed similar to the wild poplar. When the blossom 

 drops ofif, it will in a few days dry up and disappear, and that is 

 the last of it. 



The Norway poplar tree grows faster than any other tree I know 

 of, and it grows up straight with strong limbs. The grain of the 

 wood is straight. While the trfee is young the bark is smooth, but 

 when it gets older the bark becomes rough, and it does not sun-scald 

 nor crack open. The tree will bear transplanting well and can be 

 raised on all kinds of soil, but it should be grown from the slip. I 

 have never been able to understand why the seed will not grow ; 

 but I have never been able to grow a Norway poplar from seed. 



The slips can be cut as early as March and must be kept out of 

 the sun and air but not in a cellar. When they are held for any 

 length of time before planting, the end that goes into the ground 

 should be cut fresh again. The sooner the slip is planted after be- 

 ing cut from the parent tree the better it is. The slip can be cut 

 about ten inches long, but one, two or three feet long will make a 

 more rapid growth, as it can be put down deeper in the soil where 

 the moisture is. The leaves hang on the trees as late as the middle 

 of October. 



I have lived on the Minnesota prairie for thirty-three years. Dur- 

 ing this time I have tried all kinds of trees for windbreaks. Thirteen 

 years ago I planted three thousand five hundred Norway poplar 



