THE LOCUST TREE. 



AT Maplehurst we have a dozen fine old 

 locust trees, the kind botanically 

 known as Robinia Pseudacacia. They were 

 planted over one hundred years ago by the 

 first member of our family who purchased the 

 old homestead, and they are such rapid grow- 

 ers that now they rival maples and elms of 

 two or three times their age in the wood lot. 

 They are interesting trees, and have some 

 merit for ornament with their racemes of 

 pea-like flowers in early spring and their 

 delicately pinnate leaves. They grow to a 

 lofty height and are not so dense in foliage 

 as to hide distant views ; yet as lawn trees 

 they are not very popular, because they are 

 inclined to sucker, they are late in foliage, 

 and they make considerable litter both of 

 flowers and leaves and broken boughs. 



But as an investment, the growing of 

 locust trees for fence posts on sandy soil 

 would no doubt be a paying one, and we 

 quote from the Vermont Experiment Station 

 Bulletin a valuable extract on this subject : — 



" Every farmer in New England ought 

 to produce posts for his own use at 

 least if not to sell. There are three com- 

 mon trees especially suited for posts — the 

 Red Cedar (juniper), the White Cedar (ar- 

 bor vitae), and the common Locust (black or 

 yellow locust). The last will make the 

 quickest growth, is easily started, and best 

 adapted to otherwise worthless soils. Good 

 locust posts will usually be standing long 

 after the man who sets them is gone. 



" Believing that the growing of locusts 

 on a fairly large scale for sale as posts ought 

 to prove profitable, the Vermont Experiment 

 station has recently been investigating the 

 question and started some experimental 

 plantations. Preliminary plantings of some 

 nine varieties of trees have been made at 

 intervals since 1897. The outcome is es- 

 pecially favorable in the case of the white 

 pines and the locusts, and a considerable 

 larger plantation of each of these was made 

 in 1902. This trial is being made on the 



dryest area of the level sand plain east of 

 Burlington. Pitch pine is the only tree that 

 makes a vigorous natural growth here, al- 

 though the white pine succeeds fairly well 

 when planted. The locust far outstrips all 

 others, however. Of several thousand seed- 

 lings set last spring, when less than a foot 

 high, ninety-two per cent, are now alive and 

 three feet or more in height with leafy 

 branching tops. Seedling trees near by in 

 exactly similar soil have a trunk diameter of 

 five inches and a height of sixteen feet at 

 eleven years of age ; others nineteen years 

 old, growing in equally sandy but moister 

 soil are averaging nine inches in diameter at 

 the base, and a clean shaft of twenty-four 

 or more feet, which is sufficient for three 

 fence posts and some fire wood besides. 

 Twenty years from seed will give a crop fit 

 for posts on this last soil, and the coppice 

 growth, following the cutting of the first 

 crop, will ensure a second crop in even less 

 time. The seedling trees cost only $3.50 

 per thousand, and can probably be raised at 

 a less expense. Allowing 1000 such trees 

 per acre yielding three posts each once in 

 twenty years, a handsome return is assured. 

 The serious danger and source of uncertain- 

 ty in locust culture is the borer. Fortunate- 

 ly its worst attacks are confined to the young 

 trees, and if these survive then the danger 

 is soon outgrown. It is said that the use of 

 heavier foliaged trees for one-third the plan- 

 tation in mixtures with the locusts, will re- 

 duce this danger from borers. White pine 

 is considered the best tree for this purpose 

 in sandy soil. The reason for the especial 

 success of the locust on barren soil is that 

 as a member of the pea family it secures its 

 nitrogen indirectly from the air. It thus 

 gains its own supply of this element, and at 

 the same time enriches the soil where it 

 grows. This latter result is shown by the 

 fact that grass around locust trees may ap- 

 pear even greener and more luxuriant than 

 in the open field." 



