38 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of generally two and in one case, at least, the Finns uristata, of 

 sixteen winters, without losing their vitality I And the form of 

 the leaves is such as to offer as little resistance as is possible to the 

 winds and the snows. Surely the wisdom and the goodness of 

 the Creator are seen in this as in all His Avorks. Conifers were 

 created— not evolved. 



Discussion. 



Charles S. Harrison, of Franklin, Nebraska, said that in the 

 west great interest is being awakened in conifers. There their 

 ■cultivation is beset with serious difficulties. The air of the west- 

 •ern plains registers only about 50° of moisture against 90° in the 

 Atlantic States. For this reason many eastern evergreens fail 

 ■entirely. There is no use in planting the White, Black, or Noi'way 

 •Spruce near the 100th meridian. He had spent hundreds of 

 -dollars in finding out what he could not do. 



The Pinus ponderosa is a graceful, hardy, heroic tree. It does 

 well anywhere west of the Missouri River. In form it resembles 

 "the Austrian Pine, but is of a deeper green and finer form. It has 

 long glossy needles, and when in a thrifty condition is crowned 

 with massive plumes, which render it very attractive. On his 

 ■grounds, though the mercury averaged 100° in the shade for over 

 two months and the American siroccos blew like a blast of death, 

 :aud though the rainfall for the year was only seven inches, making 

 it impossible for any water to reach the roots, — in spite of all this, 

 these trees made a growth of a foot and more. They thrive in the 

 foothills of the Rockies, where their roots ma}' not be wet for 

 years. If pressed too hard by the drought, tliey will drop two- 

 thirds of their needles, and by thus taking in sail will live on. 

 'These trees which have been tested in the east have been from the 

 dry, hot foothills. He thought that if brought from an altitude of 

 nine thousand feet, where they lie much of the time under the snow, 

 they could be made to succeed. The Douglas Spruce, he thought 

 would be the most thrifty of all the evergreens. It is so in the 

 ^eastern nursei'ies and on his own grounds. He saw it in the yard 

 ■of D. Hill, of Dundee, where the ground was unfavorable, and it 

 was by far the thriftiest tree on the place. B. E. Fernow, our 

 Chief of the Forestry Division of the l- nited States Department of 

 Agriculture, says he saw on the western slope the greatest burden 

 of timber on earth, of this tree. In tlic liiuiicr altitudes it often 



