17 



PLAT 5. 



E 13 O B E 13 

 B 13 B 13 B B 

 O B E B O B 



B B B B B B B Box Elder (Ncgundo aceroides] 



E White Elm ( Ulmus Americana ) 

 E B O B E B O Burr Oak (Quercus tnacro- 



caupa). 

 P B B B B B 



O B E B O B 

 B B B B B B 



In this plat, as in the last, box elder is used as a nurse tree, 

 the permanent form being white elm and burr oak, both of 

 which species are indigenous in this county. 



The elm seems to be especially adapted for cultivation in 

 prairie regions. It is hardy and a rapid grower. It has sev- 

 eral peculiarities in youth which are apt to bother the grower. 

 The first is a tendency to form forked branches, the two parts 

 being of such equal strength that one is always tempted to 

 begin pruning at once. In our plats this tendency is already 

 apparent, but in the large trees, one branch always gets the 

 lead of the other, and carries the trunk upward, so that there is 

 but little danger of splitting. The most destructive pest that 

 has yet troubled the elm is the jack-rabbit, which peels the 

 trees from a point just above the ground. The inner bark of 

 the elm seems a favorite food of the rabbit, and as it is tough 

 and stringy, instead of breaking like the bark of the apple, for 

 instance, it is pulled off in long strips. So that girdling this 

 tree is much more destructive than the barking of other species. 

 Very few elms have been killed, but they have been so in- 

 jured that new shoots have sprung from crown buds, and thus 

 many specimens consist of of a number of shoots, instead of one 

 upright trunk. Last year the rabbits commenced barking the 



