66 THE WHITE PINE. 



pine. The history of the plat, as given in Bulletin No. 26 of the University Agricultural Experiment Station, is aa 

 follows : 



\\ lull- Pine seedlings were collected in the spring of 18G9, put in close nursery rows and shaded with lath 

 frames. About 8 per cent died the first year. Of a few hundred trees, purposely left without shading, 32 per cent 

 died. Aftt-r having grown iu the nursery three years, they were deemed in good condition for transplanting. They 

 were at this time 12 to 15 inches high, well-formed, healthy trees. 



The land, 1 acre, where the White Pines are planted, is quite flat, what slope there is being to the south ; and 

 at least one-half of it is too wet in spring, and often in the early part of summer, for the best results in tiling" . 

 The soil is black, part of it mucky, 1 to 2 feet in depth, and underlaid, for the most part, with a rather stilt', blue 

 clay. The trees were planted May 4, 1872, 4 feet apart each way. The White Pine is a comparatively hard tree to 

 transplant successfully ( f ). The roots are soft, long and naked, with very few small or fibrous roots near the tree. 

 Knowing the necessity of careful handling, no effort was spared, from digging iu the nursery to setting in permanent 

 place, to secure successful results. 



Throughout the season the ground was kept in a good state of tillage 1 y frequent cultivation, but it was 

 exceedingly dry; and of nearly three thousand trees planted, two-thirds died during the summer. Of Norway 

 Spruce, planted the same day, in the same manner, and on very similar soil, not more than 2 per cent died. It is 

 difficult to explain this greater per cent of loss in the pines, except as we take into account the comparative method 

 of development of tho roots of the two species [and its high transpiration factor. B E. F.]. 



In the spring of 1873 the vacant spaces were filled from the nursery, and again in 1874 trees were set where 

 needed. The result of the three plantings was an almost perfect stand of trees. The cultivation with horse and 

 hoe was kept up thoroughly for three years. During the fourth, fifth, and sixth years the weeds were mowed. But 

 little cultivating was done, because the ground was too wet in the early part of the season. 



For a number of years after the White Pines were fairly started they made admirable growth, and promised to 

 furnish very valuable timber for the prairie soil here, as well as for their native regions. In a report made in 1886 

 the following statement is made : " From the first the living trees have done exceedingly well. Very few trees have 

 died from any cause since they began their growth in their present position. They are now remarkably healthy and 

 vigorous, and the plantation Vies with that of the European Larch iu beauty and prospective value." At present 

 they are not maintaining the early promise. 



No thinning or pruning of any kind was done, except what nature does, until the winter of 1889-90. During 

 that winter and the next the dead branches, to an average height of about 10 feet, were trimmed off, and the dead 

 trees (some more than three hundred and fifty) were cut out. During the winter of 1891-92 sixty-eight more dead 

 trees were cut out, and there are at present fifty-two still standing that have died since the last were cut. The trees 

 cut out the first time had not all died recently. Some of them gave evidence of having been dead for a number of 

 years, while others had died so lately that they still carried dead leaves. Most of the trees that have died were the 

 smaller ones, such as were overgrown or badly crowded. A few only of the larger trees have died. Of the trees 

 still alive, very few have any live branches lower than 20 feet. Many of them have an unthrifty look, either in the 

 top or on the trunk, and the prospect is that there will be a very considerable number of trees to cut out year by 

 year for some time. 



The principal reason for so many trees dying is probably overcrowding [more likely owing to the stiff subsoil. 

 B. E. F.] . As the trees now stand they occupy a space of less than 7 feet square each. The trees have been damaged 

 in other ways than crowding, but not, so far as can be judged, until after they had already begun to die. There is 

 continually a thick mat of leaves on the ground, and these have been partially burned off twice, both times injuring 

 the trees more or less from the ground up 2 or 3 feet, but apparently not any higher. Boys seem to delight to cut 

 their names or designs in the smooth bark of the trees. Occasionally a tree is entirely girdled. The girdling soon 

 kills the trees, but most of the smaller damage to bark soon grows over. A woolly plant louse (Churnus pinicurtidn 

 Fitch) has been very abundant on many of the trees, attacking the trunks and larger branches for several years. 

 They are sometimes so abundant that the whole trunk has from a little distance a white or grayish-white appearance. 



The White Pines do not cast so dense a shade now as they did ten years ago. At that time there was no 

 undergrowth among them. At present there are small wooded plants, such as Grape, Raspberry, Cherry, Box Elder, 

 etc., besides weeds, coming in, and there would likely he more of these were it not for the heavy mulch of leaves 

 that covers the ground. 



In 1886 the average size of the better trees was: Height, 24 feet 9 inches, and a little less than 6 inches in 

 diameter. At present, 1895, the better trees are 38 to 40 feet high, and 8 to 9 inches in diameter. During the winter 

 of 1882-83 the leaders of a considerable proportion of the trees were broken down by the weight of sleet. This 

 was the cause of many trees being crooked at that point, and of others having rnoro than one leader. Except for the 

 trees deformed in this way nearly all have almost perfectly straight trunks. The trees are much more nearly uniform 

 in height than in diameter. The sizes of the trees in the plat are as follows: Fifty-eight are 3 inches in diameter; 

 one hundred and ninety-four, 4 inches; two hundred and fifty-six, 5 inches; two hundred and thirty-six, 6 inches; 

 one hundred and forty-four, 7 inches; seventy, 8 inches; eleven, 9 inches; five, 10 inches. 



In the autumn of 1895 the thirty-nine trees constituting the central row of the plantation were measured, and 

 the average diameter, breast high, was 5.9 inches, the range being from 4.1 inches to 8.6 inches. 



At the old Elgin nurseries, planted in open prairie about 1J miles west of the Fox River, black loam soil, from 

 4 to 5 feet to gravel, White Pines, forty to forty-five years old, with Norway Spruce and Scotch Pine as neighbors, 

 measure 22 inches iu diameter, breast high, and are 52 feet high. In a neighboring grove, twenty-five years from 

 seed, planted exclusively to White Pine, the trees average 11 inches in diameter and 45 feet high. When planted 

 alternately with European Larch 5 to 6 feet apart, the White Pines, thirty-five to thirty-six years old, are perfectly 

 straight and average 13 inches in diameter and 75 feet in height. The European Larch proves to be the best tree to 

 plant with White Pine as a nurse. When planted with Box Elder and Ash the growth Of the pines is not so satis- 

 factory. Where Scotch Pine has been planted alternately with White Pine the latter has outgrown the Scotch, 

 nearly all of which are killed out. In the groves where Larch is planted with White Piue the ground is completely 

 mulched from the foliage of the Larch ; drought has never affected the trees, and no grass or weeds can grow 

 among them. 



Mr. Thomas Hunt, of Hidott, 111., set out White Pine in a plantation of 10 acres twenty-two years ago. The 

 trees were 10 to 18 inches high when set, making their age at time of measurement about tweuty-seveu years. 



The grove is planted on a ridge with thin clay loam underlaid with broken laminated limestone. Mr. Hunt found 

 the land unprofitable under tillage after several years' trial. The trees of each variety are planted iu solid rows, 

 hardwoods and conifers alternating. In a plat of White aud Scotch Pine, Norway Spruce, Arborvita>, European 

 Larch, White Elm, Box Elder, Green Ash, and Willow, the conifers have almost shaded out the hardwoods. The 



