236 ANNUAL REPORT. 



time they are taken up. A man going into that must provide some 

 fresh dirt that isn't frozen, and put on plenty of water. 



Mr. Pearce. Mr. President, there is one objection that I have to 

 setting large trees. Unless they have been transplanted two or three 

 times, it is impossible, if they are very large, to get them to do well. 

 There are not roots enough. In ninety -nine cases out of a hundred 

 the internal part will be dead while the sap is alive, and as soon as 

 you check the growth of the elm or boxelder, or any of these shade 

 trees, the borers will set in; the moment the heart of the tree is dead 

 the borer sets in. They have destroyed more trees than all other 

 causes put together. Whoever advocates setting large trees makes a 

 great error; that is, speaking of shade-trees. By taking them up in 

 the winter one may accomplish something. Where a tree has been 

 transplanted two or three times, if it is four inches through, it is as 

 sure to live as a seedling an inch thick. But I speak from experience 

 in saying it is almost sure death to transplant large trees. They tried 

 it in Rochester; and I think the gentlemen of this city have found it 

 so. A small tree, a one-inch seedling, is as large as a person should 

 ever set. And when it comes to evergreens, I never want to set an 

 evergreen that is over three feet high. You may set one of these large 

 ones and in order to make it live, you must cut off the large limbs and 

 the lower limbs. A small one retains all these limbs, and makes a 

 symmetrical and beautiful tree. The hard maple I believe is one of 

 the handsomest trees we have, but at the same time, if set where it is 

 liable to be tramped and the leaves gathered and burned, it is almost 

 certain to die. A friend of mine at Lake Minnetonkahad a fine grove 

 of hard maples. He trimmed out the dead limbs, cut out the old trees, 

 burned the leaves and tramped the ground; and he said to me, "Pearce, 

 why is it the hard maples all die, the top of every one is dead?" Said 

 I, "You take the life out when you burn the leaves." If you put the 

 hard maple where the surface of the ground would always be covered 

 with leaves, it will live as long as any tree. The roots of a white oak 

 tree run down, and you can never kill them by tramping. 



Mr. Harris. I have a different opinion as to tramping not killing 

 the white oak; I know that tramping is very fatal to the black oak; I 

 have known them to be killed by cattle tramping around them. 



Mr. Pearce. Those were the red oak? 



Mr. Harris. Yes, and the black oak, on my own place. 



Mr. Elliot. Speaking of lawns, I think Mr. Smith has allowed a 

 pretty liberal amount of blue grass seed and clover for seeding. 



