DIGEST OF STATE KEPOETS. 479 



rimeuts he is satisfied that this hedge can be made a complete success. 

 His plan for preparing the seed for planting is as follows : 



GatLer them iu the fall when fully ripe and commence to fall of their own accord, 

 shell and store them in a cool, airy place, to insure them not to mold. In the spring 

 iu i^ood weather, and at the time of planting corn, put them in a bowl or crock, and 

 pour boiliug water on them until the seed are covered, and let them stand iu a cool- 

 place eight or ten hours ; then pour off this water and j)ut on boiling water as before. 

 After standing from four to six hours drain off the water again, and they are readj' 

 immediately to plant in the ground, which must have beeu well prepared by plowing 

 np into a ridge where the fence is designed to bo. Then mark oil' a straight shallow 

 furrow, and drop two or three seeds in a jilace, 18 or 20 inches apart ; cover one or two 

 inches deep, owing to the weather. They will be np in four or tive days ; cultivate as 

 com, and if necessary use the hoe to clear them of weeds. If all have come up well 

 they can be dug ui> in the fall and saved, except one in a place, and those that have 

 beeu kept through the winter can be planted in the spring the same as the Osage 

 orange, only earlier in the season. If any have missed growing, be sure aiul fill the 

 sinico with a strong, vigorous plant ; cultivate the second year the same a* the first. 

 By having the plants the distance designated enables them to throw out a considerable 

 number of side branches, which are essential and should not bo cut off. At two or 

 three years old they may or may not be cut and plashed dowu as Osage orange ; if not 

 cut down, they should be top trimmed, so as to keep the side branches alive and thrifty, 

 which insures a growth of thorns on tho side branches, and renders it stock-proof. 



The secretary alludes to the fact that the society has offered a pre- 

 mium of $1,000 for the best 10 acres of timber grown within the State, 

 I)ayable in 1881, and urges upon the legislature the importance of offer- 

 ing a direct bounty in cash to the cultivator of a given area of artificial 

 timber. He thinks that a few years would so thoroughly satisfy every 

 one of the benefits and profits of arboriculture that bounties would not 

 be needed as a stimulus. One person in Appanoose County is reported 

 as having planted 30,000 forest trees, and another one in Lyon County 

 250,000. Per contra, Osceola County, containing 276,480 acres, is repre- 

 sented as not containing a single forest-tree. In Monona County maple 

 trees were grown from the seed, in seven years, large enough to make 

 three 10-foot rails each, with 4,000 trees to the acre. Larch will grow 

 much taller and nearly as large in the same period. In Monona County 

 they have been grown 35 inches in circumference, 18 inches from the 

 ground, in eight years from planting. In his address at the annual 

 fair of this year President E. R. Shankland thus alludes to the impor- 

 tance of forest culture : 



There is another important interest not yet sufficiently appreciated — that of forest 

 culture. Such is the practical necessity and value of forest products, that about one- 

 sixth of the land in any agricultural country should be occupied by a variety of forest 

 trees. Yet Iowa, as a State, has scarcely a twentieth part so occupied. Only a few 

 counties have native forests enough, and some are nearly destitute of timber. In many 

 counties the young groves of artificial planting have become more valuable by the 

 acre than any other land. Twenty years of experience have proved that at least twenty 

 kinds of native trees may be made a more profitable crop than anything else that can 

 be grown on the same ground. 



A great loss of bees is reported during the winter of 1871-'72. From 

 reports received and statistics gathered by Mrs. E. S. Tupper, she esti- 

 mates that at least two-fifths of the whole number in the State have 

 died. After a patient and thorough investigation of the matter, she 

 states that the loss of bees is attributable, not so much to the extreme 

 and prolonged cold weather, as to the condition in which this severe 

 cold found the stocks. She says : 



The dry weather of last season checked the rearing of brood early, so that colonies 

 universally went into the fall weak in numbers compared with ordinary years. Then 

 the honey-harvest through, the autumn was unusually good, and the bees gathered it 

 late. In most seasons an early frost checks the ilow of honey, and two months or 

 more of pleasant weather succeeds, in which tho bees live on their stores and e«i aivay 

 the honey from the center comis, so that when freezing weather comes, they have 



