TREES AND THEIR VALUE FOR PLANTING 87 



The wood is hard, heavy, strong, and rather coarse grained. 

 It is used for the manufacture of agricultural implements, 

 carriages, furniture, and often as a substitute for white ash. 

 It has a relatively high fuel value. Although the wood is not 

 very durable, it is often used for fence posts, especially where 

 other species are rare. It is reproduced by seed and by coppice 

 growth. The seed should be collected from the trees and 

 either kept dry over winter or stratified in moist sand. If 

 kept dry the seed should be soaked in water several hours 

 before planting. It can be propagated by sowing the seed 

 broadcast. The trees should be planted closely together, 4 by 

 4 feet, because the tree does not have a heavy foliage. It is 

 often mixed with hackberry, box elder, white elm, Scotch pine 

 and red cedar. It is sometimes planted for windbreaks. 



Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis}. The hackberry is a tree 

 of wide distribution from Massachusetts to Oregon and from 

 Canada to New Mexico and Florida. It is found in the forest 

 in mixture with other species. In rich soil it grows to be a 

 tree 100 feet in height and 3 feet in diameter, but on ordinary 

 soil it is a much smaller tree. It is a long-lived tree and of 

 slow growth. It will live on almost any kind of soil and 

 with a very small amount of moisture. It will live where 

 almost any other tree would die. It is adapted for planting 

 in the arid regions of the Middle West. The wood is straight 

 grained, light and elastic. It is used chiefly for fuel and the 

 manufacture of cheap furniture. It is not durable in contact 

 with the soil and has little strength. It is one of the best trees 

 to plant for windbreaks on land too dry for cottonwood in 

 Minnesota, North and South Dakota and northern Nebraska. 

 For this purpose it should be planted in double rows 3 feet 

 apart with the trees 4 feet apart in the rows. It is often 

 planted with light-foliaged trees like green ash and cotton- 

 wood to shade the soil. It is a tree adapted to mixed stands. 

 It seeds abundantly. The seed should be picked from the trees 

 in the fall of the year and stratified in moist sand. It should 



