S. MINN. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 429 



the best appointed and most valuable farms in this state, and this 

 present season a friend told me of his habit of riding out for a smell 

 of Mr. Baudler s pines. 



Our own cit}", we are proud to say, appears during- a porfion of the 

 year as if embowered in trees, and examples demonstrate the possi- 

 bilities attending the growing of the best and most valuable. We 

 are beginning to realize the wisdom of planting hard maples, not 

 for permanency only but for beautj^ as well. The common mistake is 

 setting the trees too close together. It seems a sacrilegious pro- 

 ceeding to chop out every other one of a particular row, and I was 

 much interested last spring in Mr. Coats' experiment of transplant- 

 ing the large trees from his yard to the front of his lot. One lived, 

 the other died. There is a fine row of these trees on the north and 

 east sides of the block occupied b}' H. O. Basford and others. They 

 were planted by William Cook more than thirty years ago. 



As an ornament for a lawn, a birch now and then looks well. 

 Contrast is one of the finest of all the laws of association, and when 

 planted near an evergreen, the effect of this tree is very marked. 

 There is no reason why we should not plant them, but I don't be- 

 lieve there are a dozen in town. I think there is one in Mr. Kimball's 

 3'ard; others, I don't remember. 



Some years ago, visiting Mr. Dartt's plantation at Owatonna I 

 asked him to show me a beech, and he did. 'Twas a seedling, some 

 eight inches high, but all the same it did me good to recognize the 

 buds. I would like to inquire tonight how it is getting along. 



Then there is the elm. I notice some are being planted abont the 

 city, and there is an especially fine row north of the lot where Mr. 

 Birkett lives. These were set out b}^ E. O. Wheeler, all of fifteen 

 3'ears ago. I am not sufficiently versed in arboriculture to say 

 whether these are the same species that are so prevalent in New 

 England or difi'erent, but they appear brothers. It your native Mer- 

 rimac valley, Mr. President, what an object in the landscape this 

 tree is! A very patriarch of the family of shade! The majestic, the 

 umbrageous, the antlered elm! I remember one of these trees by 

 the roadside opposite my father's house. I have seen larger, but 

 none of more perfect sjnnmetr}" and beautj^. " One among a thou- 

 sand," it stood of the multitude which the taste of its earlj^ proprie- 

 tor had left dispersed on the broad landscape. How often, on mj- 

 occasional visits to my mother, have I reached a certain elevated 

 roadway some miles distant as the crow flies and stopped to catch 

 a glimpse of that tree! It stood on the gi-ound as though it "rose 

 in dance," its full top bending over toward the ground on every 

 side with the dignity of a forest king and the grace of a weeping 

 willow. In my verj' boyhood, I could look upon it for hours. It was 

 the handiwork and architecture of God, of which the eye of man 

 might never tire, but gaze on with refreshing and delight. 



But, Mr. President, I have got into a labj^rinth and must recall 

 myself, calling at the same time on everj- man to plant trees. 'Tis 

 a virtue to set out trees; tis loving our neighbor as ourselves. Set 

 out trees, not to make jour home outshine your neighbor's, but for 

 him as well as yourself to look upon and walk under. Plant trees; 

 and whether for ornament or from which you may expect to gather 



