274 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 224. 



At my own grounds some excellent specimens of Retino- 

 spora squarrosa and R. filifera were materially injured, and 

 from observation in other places, the past season has been one 

 of the worst in several years, for many kinds of conifers. The 

 loss of good specimens of Retinosporas within fifty and one 

 hundred miles of New York has been considerable. Pines, 

 Spruces, etc., have fared better, and but few losses are to be 

 noticed even among the Hemlocks and Arbor-vitses, which 

 frequently suffer most in unfavorable seasons in this locality. 



Considering the large e.xposed foliage of Rhododendrons, 

 these plants have suffered comparatively little, although speci- 

 men plants at some of the fine estates on the Hudson and 

 other places have lost a part of their foliage. It is of advantage 

 to arrange all this class of plants in masses in beds or borders, 

 where the conditions are favorable for retaining moisture in 

 summer and winter. 



Mr. Hunnewell is fortunate in having the large specimens of 

 the varieties of Retinospora and Thuyopsis he mentions. 

 Many consider these varieties less hardy than the more com- 

 mon evergreens. Such results in the severe climate of 

 Wellesley indicate that the right treatment has been given, 

 and that the right plants are in the right place. 



It is generally considered that the cold weather and unfavor- 

 able winds of winter and spring are the main causes of the 

 loss of most evergreens. If this is a popular fallac)', and we 

 come to a better understanding of the importance of a normal 

 condition of moistin-e during summer and autumn, it will be 

 comparatively easy in many cases to adopt remedies to avoid 

 the loss of these beautiful trees. 

 New York. Fred. W. Kelsey. 



The Waukegan Nurseries. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — June has come, and it finds the Apple-blossoms here- 

 about just opening and the pink leaves of the White Oak no 

 bigger than squirrels' feet. Rain fell two days out of every 

 three in May, and practically there has been continuous wet 

 weather since February, so tliat looking from the car-window 

 a visitor sees water flowing in the furrow after the belated 

 plow in one field, and the farmer in the next one planting corn 

 in the mud. I rode out to Waukegan to see Robert Douglas, 

 and found the veteran nurseryman in his overcoat. To an 

 inquiry whether this was a fair sample of early June weather 

 in Illinois, he replied that no spring so cold and wet had been 

 experienced in this vicinity since 1844, which was the year 

 when he drove out here in a buggy from the eastern slope of 

 the Green Mountains. In mid-June then all the country was 

 under water about Chicago, and in the young town itself a few 

 wagons were moving through the streets, while many more 

 were fast in the mud. He managed to find a place to sleep on 

 the floor of a hotel, the earlier comers having preempted the 

 dining-room tables, but his horse stood out all night tied to a 

 post without a mouthful to eat, for tlie farmers could hardly 

 get into town without swimming, and any attempt to haul oats 

 or hay was out of the question. The next day he reached 

 drier land, and he kept on through difl'erent depths of mire 

 until he reached Waukegan, where his horse gave out, and 

 left him stranded. Practically his home has been there ever 

 since, although he is known to almost every one between the 

 two oceans who is interested in arboriculture, and of the trees 

 from nursery seedlings now standing in forest-plantations in 

 the United States a greater number have been raised by him 

 than b)' any other man ; in fact, until within a few years more 

 forest-tree seedlings were raised by him than by all other nur- 

 serymen combined. 



When the Waukegan Nurseries were founded, nearly half a 

 century ago, Ellwanger & Barry had recently established the 

 Mount Hope Nurseries ; but west of Rochester the only estab- 

 lishments of sufficient size to warrant the issue of a catalogue 

 were those of Hodges, of Buftalo ; Custed, of Cleveland, and 

 Elliott, of the same city. Mr. Douglas began at the outset to 

 raise seedlings for Apple and Pear stock, and although he was 

 warned that he never could compete with imported Pear 

 stock, he was soon sending large quantities of excellent ma- 

 terial to the older American nurseries in the east. In 1863 he 

 had fifty acres of Apple-seedlings, which he sold at a year old 

 for 58. 00 a thousand. Meanwhile he had begun the pioneer 

 work of raising deciduous forest-trees from seed, and for a 

 long time he had little competition. In later years, however, 

 these trees have been produced in enormous quantities on the 

 cheap land farther west, and comparafively few species are 

 now produced on a large scale at Waukegan. He still grows 

 many Soft Maples and Elms and Birches for ornamental plant- 

 ing, and great blocks of Black Cherries, Catalpas, Green Ash 

 and White Ash, for forest-planting. 



The raising of coniferous trees from seed, however, requires 

 special skill, and the production of these trees continues to be 

 the leading specialty at Waukegan. After many experiments 

 and some costly failures Mr. Douglas learned that the 

 methods pursued in the Old World could not be trusted in our 

 dry and hot climate, but he finally succeeded in securing 

 proper conditions of shade and moisture by various devices, 

 and especially by covering high frames with the leafy boughs 

 of forest-trees, and since then his success has been assured. 

 Constant watchfulness is required, since young seedlings re- 

 main sometimes as long as three years in the seed-bed before 

 they are transplanted to the nursery rows, but the vigor of the 

 trees raised here has been tested all over the country, and the 

 luxuriant growth of the young trees now standing in the 

 nursery bears witness to the intelligent and thorough way in 

 which they are brought forward. White Pines are raised here 

 by the million. The Red Pine is produced in smaller quanti- 

 ties, not because it is more difficult to grow, but because 

 the demand for it is so limited. Buyers seem slow to recog- 

 nize the superior merit of this tree, both for forest and orna- 

 mental planting. It requires greater care in starting, but it is 

 worth all the trouble it costs, and the time must soon come 

 when it will be very largely used not only for its Ijeauty in 

 parks and private grounds, but for its usefulness in forests. 

 Special attention is devoted here to raising the hardy ever- 

 greens from the Colorado Mountains, particularly the Douglas 

 Spruce, the Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) and the 

 beautiful Fir, Abies concolor. Mr. Douglas was among the 

 earliest to secure seeds of these trees, and collecting them as 

 he does in regions where the winters are severe and the sum- 

 mers are dry, the seedlings prove perfectly hardy. Nothing can 

 be more beautifid than the long stretches of Picea pungens 

 which are standing at an even height of four and a half or five 

 feet in the nursery rows. These trees give perfect satis- 

 faction wherever they are used, and even in parts of 

 Minnesota where the Box Elder and the Green Ash fail, 

 they endure the winters without harm. The Douglas 

 Spruce is a still more beautiful tree which is just begin- 

 ning to Ije appreciated, and long rows of specimens, from 

 six to eight feet high, already show its remarkably graceful 

 habit and soft foliage. The White Spruce is another tree 

 which is very largely grown, and it is much more satisfactory 

 under many conditions than the Norway Spruce. All the 

 hardy conifers, native and foreign, are grown here in quan- 

 tities, and the scale on which this business is conducted can 

 be seen from the fact that as many as five million seedling 

 trees have been sold in a single year. 



At different times we have given accounts of the forest-plan- 

 tations which have been made by the firm of Douglas & Sons 

 under special contract. Under these contracts the firm agrees 

 not only to furnish the trees but to prepare the ground for 

 them, to plant them four feet apart each way, and to take en- 

 tire charge of the plantation for a number of years and deliver 

 the forests to the owners after each acre contains a guaranteed 

 number of trees of a given size which completely shade the 

 ground. When the trees have reached this size it is assumed 

 that they can hold their own against the encroachments of 

 prairie-grass and weeds. The advantages of this arrangement 

 are that the work of planting, as well as the care of the trees 

 while they are young and feeble and need the most intelligent 

 attention, is confided to trained hands. \cxy few people in 

 the country have planted a hundred acres of forest-trees in a 

 single body, but under this arrangement Mr. Douglas has 

 planted many larger tracts, one or two of which cover a square 

 mile in area. The firm has planted 3,000,000 Catalpa-trees in 

 a single county of Kansas. 



Of course, so close an observer as Mr. Douglas would find 

 varieties of trees which have special merit, and some of the 

 specialties of the Waukegan Nurseries, like the Arbor-vitse 

 known as Douglas' Little Gem, the Waukegan Trailing Juni- 

 per, the Golden Abor-vitse and a silver-tipped form of the 

 same tree, are well knovi'n to planters. Of special interest 

 just now is a large block of what Mr. Douglas calls the Large 

 Cone Balsam. The original trees came from the Wolf River, in 

 Wisconsin. Someof them, which liaveattaineda heightof some 

 thirty feet, are standing on the beautiful lawn in front of Mr. 

 Douglas' old place, and they are certainl}^ splendid specimens. 

 The lower limbs have not died away, as is usuall}' the case 

 with the common Balsam, but they are furnished full)' to the 

 ground. The leaves are longer and the cones are much 

 larger, and they are so different from the common Balsam 

 that they can be readily detected at a distance even in the 

 seed-beds. Altogether, the tree is distinct and beautiful, and 

 promises to be of great value in ornamental planting. 

 But, after all the treasures of the Waukegan Nurseries have 



