Evelyn's maxim — ^practical advice. 43 



sboold by no means be sbaken ofF, as most of our gardeners do, to trim and quicken 

 tbem, as tbey pretend, which is to cut theui shorter j * * * and therefore Cato ad- 

 vises us to take care that we bind the mold about them, or transfer the roots in bas- 

 kets, to preserve it from forsakinpj them, as now our nurserymen frequently do, by 

 which they of late are able to furnish our grounds, avenues, and gardens in a moment 

 with trees and other plants, which would else require many years to appear in such 

 perfection.' 



Evelyu .also notices the importance of preparing the holes some time 

 beforehand, so that they be left some time open to macerating rains, 

 frosts, and sun — 



So that they resolve the compacted salt (as some will have it), render the earth, 

 friable, mis and qualify it for aliment, and to be more easily drawn in and digested by 

 the roots and analogous stomach of the tree. This, to some degree, may be artificially 

 done by burning of straw in the newly-opened pits and drenching the mold with wa- 

 ter, especially in overdry seasoDS, and by meliorating barren ground with sweet and 

 comminuted lactations. Let, therefore, this be received as a maxim : Never to plant 

 a fruit or forest tree where there has lately been an old decayed one taken up till the 

 pit be well ventilated and furnished with fresh mold. 



This practice of exposing the soil taken from excavations made for 

 tree-planting to the action of frost and other atmospheric influences is 

 sanctioned by the best experience. It is most serviceable in strong 

 clay soils, and is chiefly limited to ornamental planting. 



A practical view of the timber question. 



We shall have elsewhere repeated occasion to mention the eminent 

 success with which the Hon. C. E. Whiting, of Monona County, in 

 Western Iowa, has commenced plantations of timber, and the profits 

 already derived from this source. He has been not less diligent in pre- 

 cept than commendable in practice, and his experience is worthy of 

 careful notice everywhere, and especially in the prairie States of the 

 Northwest, to which it more particularly applies. In an essay presented 

 at a meeting of the State Horticultural Society, in 1876, after mention- 

 ing the rapid waste and consumption of timber throughout the United 

 States, he says: 



The rapid cutting away of what forests we have, and the feeding off and plowing 

 nnder of so large a portion of our prairie grass, are already beginning to tell wirh disas- 

 trous effect on all our inland streams, large and small. The question will here arise : 

 Whiit shall we do? To my mind, in the light of my experience, the answer is plain 

 and the solution easy. Let us nse the timber nature has furnished us for all the pur- 

 poses that our wants really require — ^just as we would use a crop of wheat, corn, 

 cattle, or hogs ; but, as with the latter crops, let us considi r the question of keeping 

 up our stock. In the place of every tree we cut enough should be planted to make the 

 loss at least doubly good. 



The title-deeds which we hold to the broad acres of this good old mother earth of 

 ours gives us no moral right to render them unfit for habitation for those who are to 

 follow us. Nature has formed all things well, if man would only profit by her lesson, 

 oven when she made these vast prairies. One-tenth part of our surface covered with 

 timber — planted in belts — would furnish an abundant supply for every conceivable 

 purpose for which timber is needed. The remaining nine-tenths will furnish more ©f 

 all the necessaries of life, and that with far more uniform certainty, than the whole 

 would without the protection of the one-tenth in' timber-belts. For the last twelve 

 years for every native tree that I have appropriated to my own use I have planted at 

 least one hundred, and it is proving to be, and is likely to continue, one of the best- 

 paying investments ever made in Iowa. Let us now consider a few reasons why every 

 man oa a prairie farm should plant timber: 



1. To those of us who have cbosen our homes in this prairie State it is a binding 

 duty that we owe to ourselves, to our State, and our children. 



2. Timber-growing is no longer an experiment, but, with care, a certain and com- 

 plete success. 



3 The State has wisely offered to, and actually does pay, in exemption from taxation, 

 an amount equal to the entire expense of cultivating the timber. 



'^Hi/lva: or a Discourse of Forest T)-ecs and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's 

 Dominions, 4'o. By John Evelyn (16G9). Hunter's third edition, i, p. 57. 



