400 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ter to put them in damp sand in the cellar until spring; they gener- 
ally have started to grow by that time, so youcan judge better what 
to plant. Jack oak is the most vigorous grower; white oak is the 
next best; burr oak isa slow grower. 
In 1873, 1874 and 1875 I was with Leonard B. Hodges where we fol- 
lowed this method of planting with success, and those trees are forty 
or fifty feet high at Willmar, Morris and Benson and other towns 
along that line of road. It is best not to set out in any one year more 
than we can care for properly; then keep adding on each year, and 
we will soon have a fine grove. This grove, if possible, should be 
on the north and west of our buildings, so as to protect ourselves 
and stock from the cold blasts of winter. 
Then there is soft wood that will grow and come in use much 
sooner. The box elder when planted close together make a very © 
good timber perfectly hardy, and with care will grow in any part of 
the state. The cottonwood isa fast grower anda valuable timber, 
but is best to be planted from seedling trees and not from cuttings, 
as it requires a vast amount of water to supply their vigorous 
growth. Nature has designed them to havea seed, or taproot, run- 
ning deep into the ground for water, which they have not got froma 
cutting; and with the water supply it receives from that tap or seed 
root it keeps life in the tree that could not be retained through a 
dry time with surface feeders, such as they have from cuttings. 
The white willow tree has been a godsend to the prairie 
portion of the eastern part of the state. There is no timber 
that will give as quick a return as will this tree. For fuel it can be 
set from cuttings in a row from eight to twelve inches apart, 
making a good hedge. A better way, if you can get them, is 
to get poles and plow a furrow like for potatoes where you 
want your row; then lay the poles along in the furrow and cover up, 
and there will be sprouts from the poles sufficient to make a hedge 
row. There is vitality enough in the pole to keep life and growth in 
the sprouts to carry over a dry spell that would be liable to kill the 
cuttings. There is the white ash, a fine and useful timber of slow 
growth, but itis worthy of cultivation for its timber and usefulness 
for mechanical purposes. 
Arvergreens. 
For windbreaks and ornamental purposes and beautifying your 
homes, there is nothing that fills the place of the evergreen. The 
foliage always remaining on the trees, always green and bright, en- 
livening the surroundings and a protection from winter’s storms, 
we can have them to beautify our yards, shaping them to suit our 
taste. Wecan have them as trees one hundred feet high with foli- 
age from the ground up to break the winter blasts. Itis impossible 
to overestimate these trees as a windbreak around farmers’ build- 
ings. Evergreens are supposed to be slow of growth; this depends 
on the care you give them. While Iam writing this article, sur- 
rounded with evergreens, I can look out of the window and see the 
balsam fir, the white and Norway spruce, white pine, arbor vitae, red 
cedar and Scotch and Austrian pine. A portion I set out twenty 
