FOKEST PLANTING IN MINNESOTA. 



539 



In relation to the latter it may be remarked that measures are now in 

 progress for opening the region drained by the Saint Louis River by 

 the construction of a short line of railroad from tbe Saint Paul and 

 Duluth Eailroad to a point on the Saint Louis favorable for the location 

 of saw-mills. We have no statistics of the resources particularly the 

 object of this enterprise. The hydraulic power along this river is enor- 

 mous, and up to the present time almost wholly unimproved, although 

 railroad facilities and lake navigation offer great opportunities for man- 

 ufacturing enterprises in this region. 



The Minnesota State Horticultural Society has for several years 

 proved an efficient agency for awakening an interest in tree-planting, by 

 the discussions that have been had and the publications it has issued. 

 It has been its practice for several years to recommend lists of trees 

 found worthy of confidence, from the experience of its members. The 

 society in January, 1874, continued its list of the previous year, which 

 then stood, with some additions, as follows:^ 



Shade-trees for streets and laicns. — White elm, basswood, white ash, 

 box-elder, soft maple, sugar-maple, butternut, walnut, and hackberry. 



Ornamental trees. — Mountain ash, white birch, European larch, and 

 Kentucky coffee-tree. 



Evergreens. — 1, Norway spruce; 2, Austrian pine; 3, Scotch pine; 4, 

 balsam-fir; 5, American arbor vitse; 6, American black spruce; 7, white 

 spruce; 8, red cedar (when clipped); 9, Siberian arbor vitse, for small 

 yards. 



In a discussion in the society in 1875 the merits and defects of various 

 evergreen trees were again considered in the light of further experience, 

 and the result gave the following classification in order of preference, 

 with the vote for and against, the vote being on placing 1st, 2d, &c., on 

 the list, to the 12th: 2 



Vote. 



1. White spruce 10 to 8 



2. Norway spruce 11 to 8 



3. Scotch piue 13 to 



4. Balsam-fir 15 to 



5. White pine 11 to 



6. American arbor vitsB 11 to 2 



Vote. 



7. Red cedar 11 to 4 



8. Red or Norway pine 11 to o 



9. Austrian pine 9 to 7 



10. Mountain pine 8 to o 



11. Siberian arbor vitse 14 to 



12. Trailing juniper 13 to 



It is noticed that where fires were kindled in the underbrush of our oak thickets, 

 and thus tracts were burned over, the dead trees became tilled with the \axxvdoi Elaters 

 and other destructive insects, which were in this way suddenly increased in numbers. 

 A suggestion from this fact might apply to allowing dead timber to remain standing 

 anywhere in large quantities. — (O.i.^cmcfc, Minneapolis, Minn.) 



Amount of maple sugar and sirup made in Minnesota through a series of years. 



It is noticeable that many of the valleys, particularly those running east and west, 

 as Crooked Creek Valley, have the bluffs along the north side of the creek destitute, or 



1 Transactions, p. 60. 



* Transactions, summer meeting of 1875, and winter, meeting of 1876, p. 134. 



