178 



THE ILLIl^OIS FARMEK. 



June 



Ph(enix's denial might have been valid, and yet 

 not have affected the fact. 



We were called East, but while in the East wrote 

 to the parties, or one of them, urging further inves- 

 tigation, and asking them to report such facts as 

 might be obtained. We heard nothing from them, 

 but late in the season had an interview with one 

 of the gentlemen who had no report to make cal- 

 culated to remove this "suspicion;" on the con- 

 trary, statements then made to us, by men whom 

 we do not believe would assail the character of Mr. 

 Ph(enix, nor any other man, wantonly, confirmed 

 that "suspicion." And it has not been removed, 

 although we have no knowledge of our own tending 

 to establish it. Thus the matter has remained 

 until Mr. Phcenix's recent letter decided us to do 

 what might be done to solve the problem. We 

 give the names of the parties who furnished us with 

 the information, and they can, doubtless, furnish 

 the name of the author of the story. This is certain- 

 ly due Hr. Phcenix, if, as he asserts and we hope, he 

 is innocent. It is also due t\iQ public that i\\e facts 

 should be stated — for they relate directly to the 

 public as a party interested. The names of our 

 informants are 0. B. Galusha, Lisbon, 111., and S. 

 G. MiNKLER, Specie Grove, 111., both, we believe, 

 personal friends of Mr. Phoenix. No one, that we 

 are aware of, has pursued this matter with any 

 personal ill-feeling whatever — certainly we have 



not. 



<•» 



White Willows, again. 



Eds. Rural New Yorker : — I have been reading 

 your Western Editor's remarks, at various times, 

 about the Gray, or White Willow. May I ask if 

 he has ever examined the many plantations of it 

 during his travels in Northern Illinois, certainly 

 within a few hours' ride of Chicago, by rail, any 

 day he chose to go out for that purpose. If he had 

 done so, and then deliberately concluded that it is 

 a humbug, he is the first and only person I know 

 or have heard of, out of many hundreds who have 

 visited them, that has come to such a conclusion. 



How any true friend of the West, knowing the 

 destitution of trees on the prairies, can persistently 

 oppose any general effort making to remedy that 

 great want, is more than I can understand. But 

 for the severe drouth the past spring, I am confi 

 dent he would toon see and acknowledge his mis- 

 take. This I assert apart from all incidentals as to 

 high prices, quality or genuineness of cuttings, &c., 

 — that here was in itself a meritorious ettbrt to 

 start general tree planting on the prairies, and with 

 the most hardy, enduring, valuable, soft-wooded 

 tree, of easy propagation, general adaptation, avail- 

 ability and usefulness known for our prairies, and 

 that Mr. Bragdon, against every other man I know 

 of at the West acquainted with the subject, op- 

 posed, cried down the effort per se. I must beg to 

 renew my query: — Has Mr. Bragdon examined 

 the growing plantations of the willow thoroughly ? 

 If not, let him do so. If he has, then it is his judg- 

 ment against that of hundreds of other, perhaps 

 equally competent, judges. Truly, 



Bloomington, 111., 1864. F. K. Phcenx. 



REMARKS BT MR. BRAGDON. 



1. Mr. Ph(ENix has read the Western editor's 

 remarks very carelessly, judging by the above com- 

 PflUqic^tion. 



2. Mr. Bragdon has vi^ted the White Willow 

 plantations of Northern Illinois. But he did not 

 visit them in the pay of any White Willow spec- 

 ulator, nor nurseryman, nor pedler; nor were his 

 expenses paid by any s^uch person, which cannot 

 be said of certain other contemporaries which he 

 might name, and which he will take occasion to 

 name at the proper time. 



3. Mr. Bragdon has not concluded nor asserted 

 that the White Willow is a humbug. And it is 

 highly probitble that Mr. Pacf.nix kntw he had not 

 when he penned the above specimen of special 

 pleading. But he has denounced, and intends to 

 denounce, regardless of the interests of Willow 

 dealers, all efforts made to humbug farmers with 

 this White Willow or by means of it, any other 

 Willow. 



4. Mr. Bragdon has never opposed any "general 

 effort," made legitimately, to remedy the great 

 want of trees on the prairies. But he has opposed, 

 and intends to oppose, the effort which has been 

 made and is making to take money out of the 

 pockets of the farmers of the prairies by false pre- 

 tenses. He has no objection to farmers planting 

 the White Willow. But he is determined they 

 shall plant it for what it is, so far as he can influ- 

 ence them, not for what it is not. And he is firmly 

 convinced that the rascalities which have grown 

 out of this White Willow excitement, have done, 

 and will do, more to retard the progress of tree- 

 plauting OTi the prairies, than any thing which has 

 happened dtring the past ten years. 



5. It is not true — and Mr Phoonix must be wil- 

 fully ignorant in tho matter — that "Mr. Bragdon, 

 against every other man I know of acquainted with 

 the subject, cried down the effort per se." It is 

 true that Mr. B. was one of the first to commend 

 this White Willow as a timber tree. And it is true 

 that he has said it is not a hedge plant, according 

 to the common acceptation of that term ; and he 

 continues so to assert, very much against the wishes 

 of those who have cuttiugs to sell. And he has, 

 and does still doubt that it will be durable as a 

 stockade. And he has not been alone in these 

 positions and opinions. There are men whose 

 sames are quite as well known in the West as Mr. 

 Phcenix's, or any other White Willow dealer, and 

 whose judgements will be quite as likely to be un- 

 biased by self-interest, who occupy the same posi- 

 tion, and repeatedly expressed similar opinions 

 concernhig this White Willow, to those held and 

 expressed by Mr. Bragdon. In order to enlighten 

 Mr. Ph(enix it may be well to name a few whom 

 he will probably recognize. First the late lamented 

 Dr. John A. Kknnicott, who has had this wonder- 

 ful willow growing on his premises many years. 

 Arthur Bryant, Sen., of Princeton, whose judg- 

 ment and knowledge in such matters is not second 

 to that of any other man in Illinois. Prof. John 

 B. Turner, of Jacksonville, (see his article in pres- 

 ent Vol. of Rural, page 39,) who has had a great 

 deal more experience with this willow, for fencing 

 purposes than Mr Phcenix, as the latter will doubt- 

 less concede. Smiley Shepherd, of Hennepin — as 

 honest and ture a man as Illinois can produce, and 

 a practicl, scientific horticulturist, withal. A. R. 

 Whitnit, of Franklin Grove, who knows all about 

 this willow and the willow plantations to which 

 Mr. P. refers. Lewis Ellsworth, of Naperville, 

 whose letters of protest against the indorsment of 



