FORESTRY. 169 



of the deciduous trees to grow is the locust. The black locust 

 seems to have succeeded in more exposed places than any I 

 have seen. 



Mr. Smith: Generally the black locust has failed through- 

 oat the state. 



Prof. Pernow: Well, that is why I said it was difficult to 

 make a general statement. There are certain things not yet 

 understood, and one of them is the acclimation of trees. 



Mr. Smith: My observation in traveling over the country 

 has been that the box elder has stood where everything else 

 has failed. I sent four hundred letters to correspondents in 

 this state and Dakota, and I received back three hundred and 

 sixteen answers, two hundred and forty of them giving the box 

 elder as the tree that had done the best with them. 



Mr. Somerville: I will tell you my experience with Mr. 

 Hodges in 1873, 1874 and 1875. I was with him when he was 

 setting out timber for the Northern Pacific railroad. He set 

 over half a million evergreens of different kinds. We set out 

 the Norway spruce, the white spruce, arbor vitae, Scotch pine 

 — about equal numbers of each kind. They were all cultivated 

 and all set about the same time and in the same manner. Two 

 years ago this summer I was out to Willmar, Benson, Morris, 

 Kandiyohi, and along that line of road; I found that wherever 

 we had set a Scotch pine,, it is there yet and is a fine tree, and 

 wherever we set a Norway spruce, it is gone. There are a very 

 few of the arbor vitae, but our Scotch pine appears to be all 

 right and in as good shape as when we set them. That proves 

 to me conclusively that the Scotch pine will stand more drouth 

 than any other evergreen we have, and will live where almost 

 any of the deciduous trees will starve to death for want of 

 water. 



Mr. O. P. Brand: Did you plant the European larch? 



Mr. Somerville: Yes, and a good many of them have lived 

 and done very well, likewise. I helped to plant those groves 

 around Willmar, Morris, Benson, and through there. T was 

 with Mr. Hodges during all of that time. 



President Underwood; Do you know anything about the 

 Balm of Gilead tree? 



Mr. Somerville: We set out some of those, but they did not 

 do. We also planted groves of oak timber, of jack oak, and 

 white and bur oak, and those groves grew up, and are fine 

 trees to-day. Some of them are large enough for fence posts. 



Judge Moyer: How about the white spruce? 



