HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 57 



and will continue to live, and from all my experience and observa- 

 tion, wherever the seed has been put in the ground, success has 

 been the result. I would say to any man who has a tree-claim : 

 prepare your ground, bay five or ten dollars worth of seed and go 

 at it in a business way. It applies to all trees, evergreens, and 

 everything else. It is the correct way. 



Mr. Gaylord. Does anyone know what season of the year gray 

 ash seeds are fit for planting? 



Mr. Pearce. The seeds drop just before the leaves fall. First 

 the fruit drops and then the leaves. 



Mr. Miller. I have had some little experience in planting the 

 European larch. I plant them as you would nursery stock, about 

 eight feet apart and from two to three feet apart in the rows. I 

 cultivate the rows the same as corn, and they grow very rapidly 

 and strong and straight. As soon as they begin to crowd each 

 other I thin them and use the thinnings for railroad ties. Not 

 only so, but the timber is said to be quite as durable as red cedar, 

 and if such is the case I don't see why the Dakota man wouldn't 

 select that timber. You can get them for about a dollar a thou- 

 sand, boxed and shipped. 



President Elliot. Those would be seedlings. I would not advise 

 anyone to take anything less than trees three years old. 



A member. When you get them planted out they grow fast 

 and straight. They don't warp at all, and as they grow upon each 

 other the good have nothing but a small bunch of branches at the 

 top. I have them in my ground now that are 60 feet high, some 

 of them, and as straight as an arrow. 



President Elliot. I see here a gentleman that has had quite 

 extensive experience in cultivating tree-claims. I refer to Mr. 

 Folsom, whom I shall call upon to give his experience. 



Mr. Folsoin. The suggestion advanced by our friend, Mr. Bar- 

 ret, is a good one. It is about the right thing. It hit the nail on 

 the head, and is the first suggestion that ever looked exactly feas- 

 ible. That deep plowing was the secret of the success in that little 

 tree-claim. A gentleman in Sioux Falls told me that during the 

 war, or just before, he was digging a well and had got down sixty 

 or sixty-five feet when it caved in, and as he couldn't secure water, 

 he filled it up again and planted a row of trees, one tree being just 

 where this well was. How large a tree do you suppose he raised 

 there in eighteen or nineteen years? He said it overrun seven 

 feet in circumference. Now that is so much for deep plowing. 



Mr. Folsom then spoke at some length regarding the injustice 

 of the present tree-claim law, and concluded as follows: 



