410 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. om 
y 
over his timber sheltered tract, when the rust played havoc with 
the cereals of that section his great fields escaped, and when the 
storm raged outside his fields had a relatively quietair. In addi- 
tion to added comfort and the certainty of crop growing, he was able 
to demonstrate that the growing of black walnut on rich bottom 
land was a money making business. During his forty years of res- 
idence on this tract he was a great teacher, by precept and example 
of the principles involved in making a prairie home comfortable, 
profitable and homelike. His memory will live as a promoter of 
tree planting rather than as a reviser of the Iowa code and an un- 
successful aspirant for the gubernatorial chair.” 
, 
ORNAMENTAL TREES FOR STREET AND PARK. 
EUGENE SECOR, IA. 
This is a subject about which there may be honest difference of 
opinion. Our tastes and experiences differ so widely that probably 
few of us would select the same list of trees for ornamental planting. 
And, indeed, there may be some well-meaning people who are 
opposed to ornamenting the roadside with any trees whatever, 
thinking that they have a tendency to collect snow in the winter, 
and increase the mud in spring and summer. It occurs to me that 
this class,if one still exis » may have been led to this conclusion by 
the willow hedges that used to be more common than at present. 
It is true that these hedges do collect the drifting snows and conse- 
. quently increase the mud in early spring; but it may be saidin 
defense of even so inartistic a thing as a hedge along the 
highway, that much discomfort is prevented ina bitter cold day, 
when one is traveling these wind-swept prairies, by the friendly 
shelter which it affords. But I came not to plead the cause of the 
willow hedge along the highway or, in fact, any other hedge. 
It may be said further in defence of roadside planting of some 
sort, in answer to the objector who brings forward the drift and mud 
argument, that fences produce the same state of affairs, and, 
therefore, if we are tu attain to the ideal highway in no other way 
than by banishing all obstructions we shall be obliged, to return to 
the primitive prairie road, when no one complained of the wind- 
breaks as he faced the borean realities of a Minnesota blizzard. 
I shall take the ground thatit pays to ornament, not only the 
parks and residence streets of our villages and cities, but the country 
roadsides as well, with the evidences of civilization, culture and 
comfort which trees express. 
Did you ever hear of barbarous tribes ornamenting their trails by 
transplanting shade trees? Probably not, and yet they showed 
their appreciation of the usefulness and comfort of these by keeping 
close to the native groves. But with civilization at its best, endeav- 
oring to cultivate al/ these rich prairie lands, it is not practical to 
have every man’s road to town winding along or through the belts 
of native timber, dodging the sloughs and skirting the hills. So if 
the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must goto the 
mountain. With our so-called superior knowledge and refinement 
