314 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
mine its cause. This done, he is ready to set aboutitscure. If I 
have properly diagnosed the aiJment of the evergreens, we must look 
for a remedy along other lines than those we have been pursuing, 
We must select for planting, notinthe very cold and the very moist 
regions, but where the atmosphere is dry and the soil arid, among 
those varieties that, in the course of hundreds of generations, have 
gradually adapted themselves to their environment. Such trees 
would, at the outset, be prepared to meet and to withstand the con- 
ditions that have proved so trying to those with which we have so 
long experimerted. Up to this time, most people, in selecting trees, 
have looked at the various kinds, or at pictures of them, and have 
picked out the ones that happened to strike their fancy, without re- 
ference to their native habitat, with the result that ought to have 
been expected. 
By adopting the theory set forth in this paper, all the spruces 
firs, arbor vitaes, hemlocks, white, Austrian and Norway pines be- 
tween the Mississippi and the Atlantic, would have to be excluded. 
These are the ones which have been most generally chosen and 
which have done so much to discourage farmers and amateur hor- 
ticulturists from planting evergreens at all. These trees are by no 
means to be condemned as unworthy of trial anywhere in the state. 
On the other hand, they are very satisfactory in soils that have 
great drought-resisting properties. Butit is not of such soils that 
Iam talking, since no complaints of failure have come from those 
places. The trouble is with the arid, wind-swept prairies and with 
lands on which the grass dries andturns brown during August and 
the autumn months, when there is little precipitation. The trees 
named are not suited to these localities, while the Riga (Scotch) 
pine fairly revels under such conditions. I take hold of no other 
tree with such confidence. If transplanted carefully and watered 
freely, so as to wash the soil around the roots, thus bringing every 
fibre into close contact with the moist earth, it will become estab- 
lished at once in its new place and will make a satisfactory growth 
the first season. Thesoil should be pressed down firmly about each 
tree, and mulch enough used to keep down the grass and weeds till 
the shade of the treeis sufficient protection. This simple treatment 
will insure a growth that few,if any, deciduous trees will surpass. 
It does its work early in the season. The season of growth is only 
about forty days, beginning the last of April and ending during the 
first days of June. Then it ripens its wood, folds its arms and 
takes a good rest, preparatory to another season of vigor- 
ous growth. the next spring. I have known the leading 
shoot to grow an inch a day for two or three weeks, withouta 
halt, To my mind, itis superior to the geometrically symmetrical 
spruces and firs as an ornament for the lawn or the landscape. An 
object that is beautiful and attractive by itself is not always attrac- 
tive in combination with others. The pine has more freedom and 
less stiffness than the perfect cones admired by so many for their 
regular proportions, and it harmonizes better with other trees and 
shrubs around it. 
The red cedar,or juniper,is another tree that gives very satisfactory 
