150 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FORESTKY. 



KEPORT ON FORESTEY. 



MRS. J. H. BROAVK, LAC QUI PARLE. 



The work of planting and caring for trees is a noble one. As I look at 

 the noble trees, my heart goes from nature to nature's God. Who does not 

 love the trees? I love them and love to work amongst them, and I wish 

 more people took an interest in the work. 



The people of this country are doing quite well, having quite a good many 

 nice groves. The trees around here are growing nicely this year; grew 

 very well last year. There has been more rain the last two j'ears, and 

 the Cottonwood bugs have not been as bad this year as they have been in 

 the past few years. 



The Scotch pine and white spruce and white pine are about the 

 best trees to plant. I think they grow about as fast as any if 

 well cared for. Mulch them well and they will grow. I have half 

 an acre of English poplar that was put out four years ago; they 

 have had no care except to mulch them, and they have grown very 

 nicely; they are quite large trees and the Cottonwood bugs does not trouble 

 them as they do the Cottonwood. I have elms and linden that are grow- 

 ing nicely; also tamaracks. They have made a nice growth this year. 



FORESTRY IN SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA. 



H. J. LUDLOW, AVORTHINGTON. 



When I came here in 1875, the planting of tree claims was the every- 

 spring business of about one-half our farmers, and this paper will be my 

 observations since then. 



First, our soil is a black loam with clay subsoil, ranging from two feet 

 deep on the knolls to six feet in the sags and swales; our elevation is 

 900 feet above St. Paul by railroad survey. 



The first few years nearly every one planted cottonwoods, because they 

 grew nicely from cuttings and when started good made a rapid growth; 

 next] came soft maple, then box elder and white ash with white willow 

 for line fences. I will just say here that there ought to be a half-mile 

 of white willow growing on every quarter-section, for it will furnish a 

 farmer with all his fuel, besides making a good fence and windbreak; and 

 if put upon low lands it is a rapid grower and just about as good as 

 drain tile to dry out the land; but never try to grow crops in the shade of 

 a row of white willows, nor plant an orchard nearer than 150 feet of it. 



During the wet years cottonwoods did very finely where the fires were kept 

 out of them, but the four years previous to 1892 were very dry here, and at 

 least two-thirds of the cottonwood groves died. Where they stood alone 

 or in single rows they are growing j^et, but most of the oldest groves, 

 where they averaged a foot in diameter and forty feet high, and were the 

 pride of their owners, are now dead and being used for firewood. But the 



