IN THE FRONT YARD. 71 



Eight liere let me say that the root of the Persian 

 lilac is the best to graft on of anything I ever tried. 

 Both the tree lilacs, and almost all the other kinds, 

 take ^vell on it, and it does not sprout like the Vulgaris. 

 You must train these trees to a single stem. If not, 

 they will branch too low, or be bushy. It is not a hard 

 matter to do this. They will grow about as fast and as 

 large as our native ash. They require rich ground and 

 good cultivation. I know several people who got small 

 trees, and put them in the sod, and then complained 

 that tliey did not do well. If any one doubts tlie ability 

 of the lilacs to make trees, let him see the splendid grove 

 of them here in York. 



The Syringa Japonica or Japan Lilac. When this 

 was first introduced into the east it created quite a 

 furor, and the trees rapidly sold for $5 each. The 

 Shady Hill ISTursery sent to Japan for a bushel of seed, 

 and commenced growing them on a large scale. One 

 grcAv from seed, in the Arnold Arboritum, of J^oston, 

 in twenty years, to a height of thirty feet, and it was 

 tl-irty inches around three feet from the ground. I 

 measured it myself. It is said that in tlieir native 

 mountains of Japan they gTOw to be a foot through and 

 fifty feet tall. I judge this tree would not stop till 

 it reached those dimensions. They are hardy in the 

 north. Prof. Green has some fine ones on the experi- 

 ment grounds of the Minnesota University, and he has 

 raised hundreds from the seeds gathered from them. 

 They can readily be grafted on the root of the common 

 Persian lilac. 



