122 THE FOREST TREE CULTURIST. 
country will remain sound in almost any position for an 
incredible length of time. 
A few years since I took up an old fence which was 
built nearly or quite fifty years ago, and although the 
posts were not more than five inches in diameter, they ap- 
peared. to be almost as sound as when first planted, 
not more than half an inch of the outer surface being 
decayed. 
Some twenty years since, the Illinois farmers had a 
mania for planting locust for hedges as well as for timber, 
but for the former purpose it proved to be a failure, and 
for the latter but little better, as it was found that when 
grown in the deep, rich prairie soils its durability was 
much inferior to that grown on the sandy soils of Long 
Island and New Jersey. 
The tree is of very rapid growth, .and soon becomes 
1arge enough for use; but it has several faults as well as 
many good qualities. It produces seeds in great abun- 
danee, which become scattered, producing innumerable 
quantities of thorny shrubs, usually just where they are 
not wanted. It also produces a great number of suckers, 
and often at a great distance from the main stem. An- 
other most serious objection to growing the Locust at the 
present time is that a species of borer attacks it in such 
numbers as to almost annihilate it-in many seetions of the 
country. If the ravages of the borer should cease, then. 
the Locust would become one of the most profitable trees 
which could be selected, especially for the poor sandy soils 
of the Atlantic States. The seeds should be sown in 
the fall. 
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