The Canadian Ilortiniltnrist. 



129 



cud of the season an amateur would 

 have more than a few hundred seed- 

 linf^s, which could have been bouffht 

 with the same money. 



Seedlinj^ trees are sold at all prices 

 from fifty cents to fifteen dollars a 

 thousand. A thousand will be a 

 small bundle and the freij^ht very- 

 little, and when planted would cover 

 nearly half an acre. They can be 

 planted in a cornfield and cared for 

 when the corn is cut ; need no prun- 

 ing but only to be mounded up 

 with earth in the fall to protect from 

 mice, and after three years need no 

 further care except to keep up the 

 fence. 



After a man has had this much 

 experience, what more lessons will 

 he need ? He will have taught him- 

 self ; and the only thing more I could 

 tell him woukl be what varieties of 

 trees to buy and where to get them. 

 Any one who wanted to know more 

 about tree planting could try raising 

 a few walnuts from the nut, or a small 

 plantation of evergreen trees. 



But my work did not tend in an 

 eas}' course to distinct success. In 

 my first lot the seedlings were late in 

 arriving and too small in size, and 

 the field was not clean enough, so 

 shortly I was entirely overrun with 

 weeds. The loss of some trees, little 

 growth of others, and expense of get- 

 ting it clean again, was discouraging. 



The same with my w'alnuts planted 

 just where the book said, i.e., where 

 they were to grow, as I now know 

 they should not be. Another diffi- 

 culty I had was from not knowing 

 the varieties of the seedlings by sight 

 antl from having too manv varieties 



and too large a number come at once, 

 and then planting in a hurry. The 

 cultivation recjuired is to be fine. 

 They must not be left to be shaded 

 by the weeds and suddenly uncovered 

 I)}' the cultivator. 



No lantl owner need hesitate to 

 plant a timber lot for fear of the ex- 

 pense. Although 1 have seen an es- 

 timate for forty acres of a plantation 

 on the prairie at one hundred dollars 

 per acre, to include cultivation and 

 care for three years, and the charge 

 for plantations by contract in large 

 lots is generally called fift\- dollars 

 per acre, yet in our cultivated land, 

 where we will do the supervision and 

 labor ourselves, the whole cost can 

 be got down to five dollars peracre, 

 to be paid for trees alone. I have 

 known box elder seedlings sold at 

 Si .25 per 1,000, ash at 82, cotton - 

 wood at $2, locust at %\, and the 

 evergreens at very little more. 



As soon as forest plantations are 

 really wanted, I think I have shown 

 that there are no practical difficulties 

 to prevent their being started in Can- 

 ada, nor are there an^• reasons to ex- 

 pect a failure of the trees in after 

 years. We are not threatened with 

 insect pests, as the planters in \'ir- 

 ginia found themselves after their 

 trees were twelve years old. Destruc- 

 tive storms or unusual seasons will 

 not frighten us. We don't fear a 

 stratum of alkali being found bv de- 

 scending roots and killing ofTa whole 

 plantation just as it gets valuable, as 

 some in California have suffered. 



If we are not ready for plantations, 

 we can safely consider the pros- 

 })ect. 



APPLE TREE BORER. 



THIC chief cause of the depreda- 

 tions of this Buprestis is some 

 previous injury to the tree it choosey 

 for attack. The whole family, like 

 the more depraved of human worms, 



Mi(K>r, Milton. 



selects its victims not from those 

 that are robust and able to resist, 

 but from the already enfeebled. 

 There is not a trace of the good Sa- 

 maritan in them. 



