30 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



OPEN LETTERS. 



SMALL TREES vs. BIG TREES. 

 Dear Editor, — I take pleasure in sending 

 you the enclosed clipping written by Mr. T. 

 C. Robinson, of Owen Sound. His true rea- 

 oning is in accordance with nature and 

 botany, and also quite agrees with my little 

 experience of the last four or five years plant- 

 ing of trees. 



SMALL TREES BEST. 



"When a man wants an apple tree, he 

 wants a big one." I suppose this is true of 

 every customer who orders, unless he has 

 had considerable experience. We all like to 

 realize on an investment as soon as possible ; 

 and the very look of a big tree makes a man 

 think he is so much nearer the large luscious 

 fruit than if he set out something about the 

 size of a good raspberry bush. I wonder if 

 it is any use trying to combat this intuitive 

 idea. Let me try. My friend of the BIG 

 TREE, you know, of course, that it is not 

 mere timber that produces the fruit ; but 

 both timber and fruit depend on the roots. 

 Now here is a little tree, with stem as thick 

 as your finger and eighteen inches long, to 

 examine beside your favorite. Now what 

 difference do you see in the roots of the two ? 

 No nurseryman living can afford the time to 

 dig up large stock so thoroughly as to save 

 the full length of the roots, at ordinary 

 prices. No, a man at each side quickly 

 thrusts the spade down about a foot from the 

 trunk, then pry, twist, shake, and there is 

 your BIG TREE with a few prongy big 

 roots, but the main mass of fine fibrous feed- 

 ing roots left behind in the nursery ! Now 

 look up and down the fine showy trunk ; 

 notice what an expanse of bark, and consider 

 that unless that bark is kept moist all summer 

 by sap coming down from the leaves, it be- 

 comes hide-bound, and the tree is apt to die. 

 Now see on your fine branches how many 

 many buds there are . Recollect that each bud 

 will try to make a new leaf-covered branch, 

 and that each leaf will evaporate moisture 

 and help to pump your tree dry, and then 

 ask yourself how those few prongy roots are 

 ever going to manage to send out enough 

 small feeding roots to support the enormous 

 demand for sap, by the time the hot dry 

 weather rushes down upon us. Is it any 

 wonder some trees die every year ? Isn't it 

 a great wonder so many live — though stunted 

 and sickly ? 



" But now look at my modest little tree that 

 was scorned before; see on the short stem , with 

 so few buds and so small an expanse of bark, 

 there is not one-tenth the demand for sap 



that there is in your BIG TREE ; while 

 down below, the roots had not time to grow 

 beyond the spade-stroke, and so the fine 

 feeding-fibres are right here ready for busi- 

 ness, so that there is capacity for furnishing 

 immediately ten times the supply of sap that 

 there is in your BIG TREE. As a conse- 

 quence, of course, the little tree is far more 

 certain to live and will be very apt to outgrow 

 the other, and come into bearing first. Now 

 add to all this the lower price of the small 

 stock, and what is your conclusion ? " 



And I beg to add that small young trees 

 have, specially to our very cold climate, the 

 great advantage to be more easily winter 

 protected ; just before hard frost, bend them 

 carefully, for fear of breaking, to the ground, 

 putting a stone or a piece of wood on the 

 head to keep it there ; then throw over a 

 few branches of evergreen or some such 

 stuff to gather snow. Then in the spring 

 they are all right and fresh, and get more 

 easily used to our rough climate. — L. 

 Pasche, Bryson, P. Q. 



CATALPA SPECIOSA. 



Editor Canadian Horticulturist. 



Sir, — In the issue of your valuable serial 

 for November of the present year, L. H. Kirk- 

 ly condemns the Catalpa speciosa as specially 

 liable, on account of the large size of its 

 foliage, to be broken down and ruined by the 

 wind. 



I have grown and observed this tree for 

 many years, and have suffered more or less 

 in the manner he describes. My trees are 

 near the bluffs, on the east "shore of Lake 

 Michigan, and fully exposed to the strong 

 winds from the lake, which occasionally 

 nearly destroy the foliage, not of the Catalpa 

 only, but even of the peach and of exposed 

 forest trees, especially in early autumn. 



I have several Catalpas in cultivated 

 ground, which make strong annual growths 

 and which have suffered more or less seri- 

 ously in the manner described. I have also 

 a much greater number standing in ground 

 not under tillage, which have made moder- 

 ate, healthy, annual growths, and not one 

 of which has lost a branch from this cause, 

 It seems a pity that so beautiful and vigor- 

 ous a tree, for ornamental purposes, should 

 be condemned and cast aside, if, indeed, so 

 easy a remedy as mere neglect shall suffice 

 to render it acceptable. — Very respectfully, 

 T. T. Lyon. 



