ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS ADAPTED TO MINNESOTA. 75 



Mr. Patten : I think there should be a distinction plainly drawn 

 between the Norway and eastern form of Black Hills spruce. It 

 is true the Black Hills spruce is very distinct from the Norway and 

 eastern spruce in its form and growth. It is very symmetrical, the 

 foliage is fine and of a very dark color, while the other spruce is 

 quite light in color and a much more rapid grower and more com- 

 pact. They are well adapted to the climate in which they originate. 

 It seems to me the Wisconsin form of white spruce should be espec- 

 ially grown in eastern Minnesota and all of Wisconsin and also, of 

 course, the Black Hills spruce, because that is an ornamental tree, 

 but it grows more slowly. The nurseryman can scarcely afford to 

 grow the Black Hills spruce unless he obtains about twice the price 

 for nursery grown trees. 



I want to refer a moment to the remark made by Judge Moyer 

 about the Scotch pine losing its foliage. I think it is the experience 

 of every one on the prairie that they do lose their foliage and do not 

 do as well as the deciduous trees. They have been planted so as 

 to be protected from the sweep of the wind, and it makes a great dif- 

 ference when we have even a slight protection of deciduous trees 

 as to how we succeed with the evergreens. It is true of the Norway 

 spruce and of the white spruce, not so much of the Scotch pine, 

 but in the western part of the state and in Dakota even the Scotch 

 pine may be protected by trees that are perfectly hardy, like the 

 white ash, and it requires only a little protection from the sweep of 

 the winds to have evergreens, even on the wind swept prairies of 

 the Dakotas. 



Mr. J. M. Mitchell (Iowa) : I might say something about the 

 Black Hills spruce. I have some specimens that are eight feet high. 

 I got about one thousand from the Black Hills some eight years 

 ago, and I have specimens now eight feet high, and since then I 

 have received some more. I think they are some of the finest ever- 

 greens we have. They do not grow quite as high as the white 

 spruce, but I think they are superior in that they are of compact 

 growth. The foliage varies somewhat, and there are many speci- 

 mens among them nicer than the picea pungens, but there are many 

 of the Black Hills spruce that come near it in beauty, and as far 

 as rapid growth is concerned trees that I furnished to other parties 

 made a growth of twenty-two inches last summer. That is more than 

 they usually make. They usually make a foot of growth. 



Covering Grass Seed on the World's Fair Lawn.— "The seed was 

 sown broadcast by hand, one pound to each one hundred square feet. The seed 

 was covered with what he calls a choppy motion. A gardener goes over the 

 lawn with a rake, and instead of raking and rubbing the seed in, be swings it 

 slightly and allows the teeth to enter the soil about an inch. When the rake 

 is lifted the soil is turned under for about half an inch. The pulverized soil 

 must be treated to fasten the seed in the ground. On the comparatively level 

 places, a heavy roller is used. On the terraces— and some of the World's Fair 

 terraces incline at an angle as great as 30 degrees— a 'pounder' is used. This 

 is a board a foot wide and a foot and a half long, fastened to a handle with 

 blocks added until it weighs about 15 lbs. The surface is tamped with this.' 



