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HOW TO GROW AN EVERGREEN WINDBREAK 147 
I was north looking for forest trees in 1882—and Ispent a good many 
days there—the best tamarack I saw in that entire country was on 
dry land. Then I argue from that that the reason we generally find 
them in the swamps is because the conditions on the dry land are 
unfavorable for the germination of the seeds,and it does not geta 
start. 
Mr. Dartt: Yes, I tad forgotten; I knew I wanted to speak about 
something else,and it was a point in regard to the tamarack I want- 
ed to make. Tamarack does not make half the growth the Euro- 
pean larch does, and it has killed outin a favorable locality, while 
the European larch is an open tree—and I just want to putin this 
word for the European larch,I believe it is the best tree we have 
got. Itwill grow rapidly, and it grows in an erect form, and I think 
it is really the tree, but with me it has been a little difficult to trans- 
plant; it might not be so with others. Theysay we must transplant 
early in the season because it starts early, and I have tried that, but 
I have had rather poor success in transplanting the European 
larch. Nevertheless, I want it understood by everybody that it 
beats the tamarack clear out of sight, and it beats a great many 
other trees which we call good. 
Mr. T. T. Smith: In 1872 I sent to Douglas for 1,000 European 
larch; they were nothing but whips, but today they stand forty feet 
high. 
Mr. Wheaton: In regard to the European larch Mr. Smith has 
spoken about, those trees were planted thick, you could not go 
through the growth, and part of that growth is still growing so 
thick that a chicken can not get through, It was on railroad prop- 
erty, and everybody went in and helped himself, but some of those 
trees remaining area foot in diameter. 
Prof.Green: I have been a good deal interested in finding out 
the natural locations where trees in this state attain the largest 
size,and in studying the tamarack I found that while we have 
immense areas of tamarack, it does not reach a large size 
in the swampy area. There is a swamp north of Duluth, it 
is sixty miles across that tamarack swamp,it is one of the largest 
tamarack swamps I kuow of,and while there are some good sized 
trees there, yet I found that of some of those tamaracks it took seven 
ty-three years to make a tree one and one-eighth inches in diameter 
I had to use the microscope to find the growth. You take the mus- 
keag swamps of northern Minnesota, and you find the smallest trees 
in the center, but as you get near the edge they increase in size, and 
as you get on the higher ground, but where the roots get plenty of 
moisture, you find the biggest tamarack. This is so in this state, 
and onthe wet land you cannot find a tree of large size. I think the 
fact that Mr. Smith states about the Europear larch is very encour- 
aging. Mr. Smith says he has aclay subsoil. We have a porous 
subsoil. We lost all we had in our forest plantation in the summer 
of 1894. They could not stand it, and we lost white birch and others, 
_ but not near so bad as the European larch. 
Mr. Lyman: I have arow of European larch that I planted out 
thirty years ago, some of them are fifty feet high and twenty-five 
inches in diameter at the base; they have grown well. 
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