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194 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
books, but by the wayside as they go to and from school and wherever 
trees are to be met with by them. And so while Arbor Day, as it now is, 
deserves to be cherished and its annual observance will do much to inter- 
est the young in trees,and tend to produce a generation soon who will be 
their protectors and guardians. The observance of the day would be of 
still greater value, if it came as the culminating exhibition and object 
lesson of the botanical studies of plants and trees pursued in proper meas- 
ure and proper manner during the annual course of public instruction. 
Plant the knowledgeof trees in the minds of the children at school, and 
they will soon become the planters and preservers of trees for the nation. 
DISCUSSION ON ASH. 
Mr. Harris: There may be sections in this state where the 
ash will not grow, but where the box elder would. Now the ash 
is one of my favorite trees, and although it is not so beautiful 
as the elm, yet, it is a very thrifty growing tree. Still, as I 
said before, there may be localities in which some other tree 
would do better. 
Mr. Barrett: I would like to hear Mr. Church on the ques- 
tion of the ash succeeding when planted on the open prairies. 
Mr. Church: I have had very little experience with the ash 
tree, but I have grown a great many box elders. I noticed five 
or six years ago that those, who had planted the ash trees, were 
plowing them up and throwing them away. I know of a num- 
ber in Brown Co., S. D., in the vicinity of Aberdeen, where 
I have resided during the summer seasons for ten years past, 
who have done thisvery thing. I have planted and raised from 
twenty-five to thirty thousand of the box elders, sol think that 
I can substantiate what I say, that I have had as good success 
in growing box elders as any man in the state. I have known 
of a number of instances where the ash tree has been planted 
instead of the seed. I should think the trees were two or three 
years old. I have noticed during the past two years, when I 
ride around in the various parts of the county—I have farms 
twenty or thirty miles apart, and in going to those dif- 
ferent farms of course I pass by a great many tree claims—that 
those trees that were transplanted have not died. I have not 
seen an ash tree transplanted from the nursery in the past two 
or three years that has not done well, and I havemadeupmy - 
mind that these trees are superior to those raised from the seed. 
I haveseen a number of farmers’ tree claims within the last two 
years, and I don’t know as I have seen a dead ash tree among 
them. If they will grow in that part of Dakota, I think they 
will grow almost anywhere in the world, for we have had three 
