PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 65 



TREES FOR COLORADO SPRINGS. 



Address before the El Paso Horticultural Society, July 20, 1902. 



The pioneers of the plains country, all that vast region west of the Mis- 

 souri river, would have had a far more difficult time had it not been for the 

 abundance of the cottonwood and box elder which bordered every stream. 

 These were the primitive trees of all this region and are entitled to credit as 

 such. 



The downy seed, floating in the air, was wafted by the breezes to every 

 nook and corner of all this western world. Had every seed of the cottonwood 

 produced a tree, these mountains and plains would now be a dense forest wil- 

 derness, instead of a treeless desert. But all this prodigality of nature in seed 

 production has been wasted, except where the running streams of water 

 moistened the earth and gave vitality to the seed. Both these trees demand 

 large quantities of water and will not succeed without it. In the cities the 

 cottonwood sinks its roots into the sewers, clogging them at times, in search 

 of water. 



I recently saw a large, fine cistern, in Kansas, which had been ruined by 

 the roots of a giant cottonwood which had penetrated the walls and opened 

 crevices in the cement so that it would no longer hold water. 



It was natural that the pioneer settlers of the West, finding the cotton- 

 wood abundant, should take it for granted that nature did not intend other 

 trees for this semi-arid region, and thus confine their tree planting to these 

 two trees ; and so. we find in Colorado Springs a vast majority of trees on 

 your streets are of these species of trees, and but few of the finer fibered and 

 better trees have been planted. 



But there are many serious objections to the cottonwood. 



1. The flying seeds have at times caused death to the persons who in- 

 haled them and the cottony seed is a general nuisance during the period of its 

 falling. 



2. There is no tree known to arboriculture which possesses so many 

 enemies, insect and fungoid, as the few members of the Populns family 

 included in Balm of Gilead, large leaf cottonwood, narrow leaf cottonwood, 

 aspen and the so-called Carolina poplar, which is only a cottonwood although 

 sold at high prices under a false name. 



Americans are always in a hurry. People want trees already grown and 

 are not content to wait. They want trees which grow with greatest rapidity. 

 Well, this all right if not carried to the exclusion of these slower growing 

 but finer foliage and more durable sorts. 



