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the order of preference : The elm, maple, tulip, ash, linden or 

 basswood, hemlock, white oak, black walnut, and hickory. 



The white ash deserves more favor both as an ornamental 

 and a timber tree. Combining lightness, strength, toughness, 

 elasticity -and beauty of grain in a rare degree, it is in great 

 and growing demand for farming tools, furniture, interior 

 finishing of houses and railroad cars, the construction of car- 

 riages, for oars and pulley blocks, and many other purposes. 

 The excellence of our ash is one secret of the preference given 

 abroad to American agricultural implements. It is hardy, will 

 bear the bleakest exposure, is a rapid grower and attains large 

 size, but will not thrive on poor lands. It is every way supe- 

 rior to the European ash, much as that has been cultivated and 

 lauded abroad. 



Connecticut is rich in its variety of native trees, having 

 nearly sixty species, of which about forty are sizable for tim- 

 ber. The elm, when growing under favorable conditions, has 

 been pronounced " the most magnificent vegetable of the tem- 

 perate zone." The tulip tree or common white wood deserves 

 much greater favor as an ornamental tree. It is a rapid grower, 

 has a straight stem and attains large size. Taken from the 

 woods when ten or fifteen feet high, it is not likely to live, but 

 transplanted young from the nursery it proves thrifty and 

 hardy. It is a common mistake to select too old trees for 

 transplanting so old that they must be beheaded. Not even 

 the elm ever developes its full symmetry when subjected to 

 such unnatural treatment. It is better to transplant all trees 

 so young that with complete roots and good care they can grow 

 without cropping. 



Among imported trees the European larch should hold a 

 prominent place. It combines the three qualities of rapidity 

 of growth, symmetry of form and durability of timber. Mr. 

 Maro Hammond, of Vernon, covered a worn-out, unsightly, 

 gravelly hill in the rear of his home with a thousand larch, dur- 

 ing this spring of 1880. If these thrive, he is to set out a much 

 larger number next spring. John W. Nichols, of Branford, 

 plants a large number this year. Three thousand larch and 

 other exotics were set out in Clinton last .year, besides many 

 native trees. Some ten thousand larch trees were planted 



