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52 ty | ANNUAL REPORT. , 
nish such jnatiuctive lessons, that even success is largely indebted to 
failure. ; ra i 3 
CAUSES OF THIS FAILURE. | vot . | " + 
d : 
I give only such causes as I know of, and which are indisputable, 
and were of themselves certain to insure failure. The trees were 
simply ‘‘ grubbed out,” and not as well grubbed out as a good farmer — 
would grub out a young tree which his breaking plow frequently en- 
counters. They were then planted on unbroken, uncultivated prai- 
rie—thrust into post holes, for I can call them nothing else, and the 
dirt trampled down. I know not how long they were laying around 
exposed to sun and wind, it is not material; the ‘‘ grubbing out” 
barbarism sealed their fate at the outset. The poor mutilated things 
didn’t want to die, and assisted by kind nature made persistent 
struggles for life. Some of them retained vitality enough to enable 
them to leaf out for several springs, but they couldn’t grow, 
and have gradually disappeared. Of the two thousand so trans- 
planted perhaps a dozen still retain sufficient vitality to leaf out next 
spring. Those trees were planted by contract for fifty cents each. 
The contract was too mercenary. The company erred in trying to 
get good work done at half price. No genuine tree-planter would 
have disgraced his profession by making such a contract. The re- 
sult could be predicted from the outset, as a dead loss to the com- 
pany of an even thousand dollars. 
In another direction the loss was still more serious, because the 
failure had its influence in discouraging others who were deterred 
from planting by the results of this mercenary stupidity. These 
parks have since been replanted and are now in a fair way of realiz- 
ing the anticipations of the original projectors. 
The next chapter was commenced in the spring of 1872, in the 
letting of a contract to James Hoffman & Son, of Minneapolis for 
planting 7,500 soft maple, box elder, Lombardy poplar, cottonwood 
and European larch. 
Another contract was assigned to the same parties for the plant- 
ing of 50,000 cottonwood, Lombardy poplar and box elder, in Octo- 
ber, 1872. 
The trees embraced in the first contract were planted just west of 
Summit Lake, between the 95th and 96th mile posts, between Atwa- 
ter and Kandiyohi, on the highest ground on this line, between the 
Mississippi and Red Rivers. High, rolling prairie, soil first-rate, 
subsoil clay. Planted in right of way, on north side of track, in 
rows four feet apart, and two feet apart in row. Received good cul- 
tivation, and with the exception of the European larch have made a 
very satisfactory growth. The growth of all this lot of trees has 
been seriously interfered with in consequence of the erection of 
storm fences, which have arrested the drifting snow, precipitating 
large drifts, eight feet deep, upon the young trees, breaking and 
mangling them fearfully ; like the toad in the well, jumping up three 
steps and falling back two; yet under this incubus, graduaily as- 
serting their supremacy, and now averaging about the height of the 
fence, (eight feet.) On the final estimate of ‘this lot in May, 1874, 
