. PKOPAGATIOi^. 85 



as a safe general rule that seeds are most desirable which 

 come from trees grown in as severe a climate as that in 

 which the seeds are to be sown. It has been found that 

 trees of Box-elder and Red Cedar grown from seeds gathered 

 in Missouri are not nearly as hardy in Minnesota as those 

 from seeds grown in that State. It has also been found 

 that seeds from the western slopes of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, where the climate is very humid, produce trees 

 which are not so well adapted to withstanding the con- 

 ditions of the Central States as trees grown from seeds from 

 the eastern slopes, where the summers are very dry and 

 hot and the winters very dry and cold. The climate of 

 our Western prairie States is especially trying to trees, 

 and it is necessary to exercise much more care in the 

 selection of tree seeds there than it is in the more 

 favored climate of the Eastern and Western coast 

 States. 



There are Conditions Under Which Every Species of 

 Tree Thrives Best and makes its greatest growth, but 

 the trees produced under these conditions are not always 

 the hardiest. As they reach the limits of their growth, 

 trees have a tendency, on account of drought or cold, to 

 become smaller, more compact in form, and to fruit 

 younger; e.g., the Box-elder is a large tree in Kansas and 

 Missouri, but as it gets towards the Manitoba line, we 

 find it becomes dwarfed and more bushy in habit. To- 

 wards the southern limit of its range the tree becomes 

 more open in habit and more liable to disease. The 

 Scotch Pine seeds imported into this coutnry are gener- 

 ally saved from the small scrubby trees that are found 

 in the higher altitudes of the mountains of Europe, because 

 such trees produce the most seeds and they are most easily 

 gathered from them, while seeds are seldom gathered 

 from the large timber trees of this species, and it is very 

 likely that this poor seed stock is responsible for much 



