8TATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIKTY. 251 



Mr. Dartt. That may be with heart wood. 



Mr. Pearce. The sap of any wood won't last. 



Mr. Dartt. You noticed what I said ? 



Mr. Pearce. Well, that is a misrepresentation. [Laughter.] 



Mr. Smith. How old does it have to get before you have heart wood 

 that will be suitable for posts? 



President Elliot. At least eight or ten years. 



Mr. Smith. I have tried them that were over twelve years old and 

 they would rot in two years. I understand very well what Col. Ste- 

 vens means, but there are many things stated at times that do not 

 bear investigation. Robert Douglass is a reliable dealer, but he may 

 have been misinformed. 



Mr. Pearce. I think it is poor policy to dispute what Robert Doug- 

 lass sa^'s. 



Mr. Smith. It may be poor policy but these are solid facts. 



Prof. Porter. May it not be that both these conditions of things 

 may be true? May not the difference in experience in one case be 

 due to the difference in the seasons when the timber was cut? 



Mr. Sias. There is another feature of this paper with which I was 

 much astonished. He represents his to be a very trying location; but 

 it is singular that the ash leaved maple will not succeed as well as 

 black walnut. With me the ash leaved maple appears to be perfectly 

 hardy and reliable. 



Prof. Porter. There seems to be something peculiar about that 

 location. Black walnut succeeds as far north as the Minnesota 

 river. Suppose he has the most trying location in Minnesota, I 

 found terminal buds of box elder there uninjured and apparently per- 

 fectly hardy. I went down there and I found things very much as 

 Col. Stevens described them. I don't know exactly how to account 

 for this except on the theory advanced by Col. Stevens, 



Mr. Dartt. I don't like to talk so often, but I suppose if I am on 

 one side and all the rest on the other that you will excuse me. They 

 misstate my paper. I have not said that the box elder died at all. 



Mr. Pearce. That is the statement as we understood it; we call 

 for the reading of the paper again. 



Mr. Gribbs. All he stated was that box elder was failing on his 

 poorest and highest ground and doing well on good ground. 



President Elliot. It does not seem to amount to enough to make 

 much ado about; we must not take too much time. 



Mr. Dartt. I stated the box elder was losing ground; it does not 

 have a fair chance, and is not planted as much as formerly. I have 



