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CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



difference between Ohio and Ontario. 

 The Ailanthus has run wild in Ohio, 

 but freezes like a tender rose in 

 Ontario. The Sweet Potato is a main 

 crop there and a curiosity here. Ohio 

 seems to have been the home of the 

 Black Walnut — its soil and climate ex- 

 actly right for it, though the tree grows 

 well from Ottawa to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. The Ash is another tree of 

 great range, moves all over North 

 America without trouble. The Pine 

 seems equal to storms of the north as 

 well as heat of the south, but all trees, 

 like any other emigrants, do not like to 

 move too far at once, and a variety of 

 any tree may be found quite hardy in 

 Canada West, when brought from a 

 northern limit of its natural growth, 

 when the very same variety from 

 Southern seed will fail. Within a still 

 shorter range some individual trees 

 may come out hardy, (like persons with 

 a good constitution) yet all others 

 grown from the same lot of seed may 

 fail ; nurserymen take advantage of 

 this to propagate by grafting from the 

 hardy individual instead of sowing 

 seed. A good deal of disappointment 

 about the Russian mulberry has been 

 caused by a neglect of this care. It 

 certainly grows in colder countries than 

 Ontario, and has been introduced at 

 high prices in small lots here to all fail in 

 a year or two. 



Nurserymen seeking novelties, and 

 urging them upon the inexperienced, 

 have done a great injury to the fruit 

 interests, as well as to forestry and 

 tree growing. I have a bill of com- 

 plaint against the largest nursery in 

 Ontario for sending me a lot of trees at 

 seventy-five cents each, which they 



knew could never grow here. Well, 

 they lost money by it as well as myself, 

 and I know better now. 



For purely ornamental planting the 

 choice of trees may be very extensive, 

 and may include almost any tree, not 

 tropical, in so many places in cities or 

 near houses. The temperature never 

 falls to the real level of the latitude 

 and even one of these unusual trees is a 

 great improvement to the collection ; 

 but alas, how few lawns or parks in 

 Ontario can boast of a collection of 

 trees of any kind. Is there one where 

 any good reason can be found for the 

 choice or position of even one tree, or 

 even for the shape of the land on which 

 it grows. This leads me to think of 

 the size, color, growth, season and life 

 of trees, and what can be done either 

 in a park or plantation with the native 

 trees of Ontario only, and hope that 

 someone may find enough even for one 

 lawn and go and try it. 



Note. — Forester writes from North- 

 ern Ontario, and from his point of 

 observation is correct in his statements 

 concerning the Catalpa, but in Southern 

 Ontario this tree thrives well. Even 

 the Southern variety, Catalpa bignoni- 

 oides, succeeds at Grimsby, a favored 

 spot on the southern shore of Lake 

 Ontario ; the writer having a tree some 

 twenty-five years planted, and perfectly 

 hardy. The hardy Catalpa, C. Speciosa, 

 is reported successful at Goderich and 

 Collingwood ; it was distributed for 

 testing in the spring of 1885, and the 

 members of our Association should now 

 be able to report upon it from all 

 sections, and we hope they will do so. 

 The Chinese Ailanthus is also perfectly 

 hardy at Grimsby. 



