$ DECIDUOUS TREES AND SHRUBS. 201 
All these directions may be found in any good treatise on tree culture, 
but amateurs will rarely take the trouble to study them out, and still 
more rarely to practice them; and moreover, in nine cases out of ten, they 
buy their trees and ‘have them planted on contract—a system which is 
fatal to the hope of satisfactory results. Care and labor in selecting, 
planting and nursing are essential to vigorous and healthy growth, and 
there is no economy in trying to escape it, or flinching from its cost. 
My success has been solely due to the observance of these rules, and no 
one who neglects them need hope to attain it. 
TREES, SHRUBS AND FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE UPPER 
MINNESOTA VALLEY. 
LYCURGUS R. MOYER, MONTEVIDEO. 
Geologists tell us that at the close of the glacial period, a vast lake cov- 
ered all that part of northwestern Minnesota and northeastern Dakota 
now known as the Red River Valley. The outlet of this lake was to the 
south through what is now known as Lake Traverse, and then southeast- 
erly through Big Stone Lake and the Minnesota River valley to the Mis- 
sissippi. The melting ice sheet supplied enormous quantities of water, 
and a mighty flood poured itself through the channel of the ancient 
river. When this great Red River Valley lake began to find an outlet to 
the northward, the stream dwindled away to something like its present 
proportions, but the valley of the old glacial river remained. The level- 
ing hand of time has now been smoothing out and washing down the 
bluffs for thousands of years, but the valley of the old-time river con- 
tinues to be the most marked topographical feature of western Minnesota. 
The surrounding country is anelevated plateau of rolling prairie through 
which the valley is pretty sharply cut. The valley itself will average a 
mile in width and is from 100 to 200 feet deep. 
The flora of this region presents many interesting features. In the 
river bottoms proper there are, in some places, quite large bodies of tim- 
ber resembling the river valley timber of eastern Minnesota. The uplands 
are usually all prairie,and the flora for the most part is similar to that of 
the other prairie regions of the state. The bluffs, however, have a flora 
of their own, characterized by many immigrants from the western plains. 
The study of these peculiar plants is an inviting field for the student of 
geographical botany. 
The question might arise: How did these plants from the arid regions 
of the far west get down into Minnesota where we find them? The an- 
swer might be that the seeds were brought from the far west by the great 
river before referred to. 
But let us return to the trees. The original forest of this part of the 
state has mostly fallen before the axe of the settler. In some places the 
forest has been cleared away for the purpose of adding a few acres of corn 
land to our already almost unbounded expanse of prairie. This seems to 
be due to the destructive instincts of our American settlers from the 
