86 Horticultural Department. [Bulletin 120 



the most encouraging promise of success. The planting consisted of European 

 larch, White ash, Red ash, Green ash, Osage orange, catalpa, ailanthus, Black 

 walnut, White hickory, Soft maple, and willow. 



"Of the larch fifty per cent, died, most of them after the 1st of July. The 

 White ash, one-year seedlings, have grown from two to three feet; the White and 

 Bed ash seed failed to germinate. The Green ash have grown from twelve to 

 twenty inches from the seed. The Osage orange was planted with special refer- 

 ence to forest culture." 



In his report of 1874, Professor Gale says : 



"Among those trees that are making good growth on upland may be mentioned 

 the catalpa, Silver maple, Osage orange, ash, ailanthus, Black walnut, common 

 cottonwood, and Lombardy popular. The European larch, after repeated trials, 

 has not proved a success. The same may be said of the birches, beech, Sugar 

 maple, and chestnut." 



The only species of this planting now growing are Green ash, Silver 

 maple, Osage orange, ailanthus, Black walnut, and catalpa. The 

 growth and success of the catalpa are recorded in Bulletin 108. In the 

 following notes are quotations from the report of 1886, made by Pro- 

 fessor Popenoe, professor of horticulture from 1879 to 1897, and from 

 1899 to 1901, now entomologist of the Experiment Station and pro- 

 fessor of entomology and zoology. 



It may be fairly said that the land occupied by the plantation of 

 1872 is now under forest conditions. The undergrowth contains 

 many plants and shrubs found only in forest areas, and natural seed- 

 ling trees of species not originally planted there are growing. Young 

 trees of elm, ash, hackberry, Honey locust, Box elder, mulberry, cedar, 

 and an occasional oak, are sufficiently numerous to insure succeeding 

 crops of trees. 



The gravelly soil is covered with a good cover of leaves, weeds and 

 twigs in various stages of decomposition. There is no washing, such 

 as takes place upon similar soil that is being cultivated. 



ASH. 



From Kansas Forestry Report, 1886. 



"The ash plantation stands in the best part of the poor land occupied by the 

 entire grove, being in a slight depression heading a small ravine, and facing the 

 south. The trees stood originally in rows about five feet apart. Four years 

 since, in response to an apparent demand for thinning, trees were cut out at such 

 intervals as to allow those remaining to stand at about seven or eight feet apart. 

 The trees cut out, trimmed and seasoned, furnished poles of great value for many 

 purposes, being straight and tough, while some used as fuel proved equal in this 

 regard to the best wood in our markets. Measurements with a tape line, at four 

 feet from the ground, give, as an average of twenty-five specimens taken in suc- 

 cession while walking across the plantation, a circumference of 13 and a fraction 

 inches. Seven of the twenty-five exceeded a diameter of 5 inches at the height 

 given. The trees stood 25 feet high, straight and usually without forks. Ninety 

 per cent, of them will furnish, now, serviceable poles twenty feet in length." 



