KINDS OF TREES TO PLANT. 65 
attained its full growth; it is usually from two to three 
feet in diameter, with a straight trunk free from branch- 
es to the height of thirty or forty feet. We find the 
white ash in the New England States, New York, in the 
Northern States, and in the Dominion of Canada, but it 
is fast becoming scarce. It is common, but not by any 
means abundant, in northern Illinois and Iowa, but is 
met with less frequently in proceeding southward. It 
also grows to a small extent in southern Kansas, but 
is so small and crooked that it is worthless, except for 
fuel. 
The white ash needs a moist, cool, deep soil, and will 
not thrive to any extent in poor, dryland. The prairies 
of Iowa and Illinois afford the best soil for the cultiva- 
tion of the white ash; the other members of the ash 
species would thrive and perhaps be of more value far- 
ther south. Those trees of the ash family that have 
been of the most rapid growth afford the best timber, 
while that from slow-growing, stunted trees is generally 
weak and brittle. 
Ash is very extensively used in constructing carriages, 
furniture, and agricultural implements; it also makes 
very good firewood. The supply is fast diminishing and 
its use increasing, and those who propose to take advan- 
tage of this cannot be too soon in planting and getting 
ready to help fill the demand. The American ashes are 
dicecious, ¢. ¢., the fertile and the barren flowers are on 
different trees. Seed is only produced by white-ash trees 
that are growing in open ground; it bears transplanting 
well, even when partially grown. It is a handsome and 
ornamental tree, and the only insect that attacks it is the 
May-bug, which devours the leaves early in the summer. 
The seed is ripe in October, and falls with the first frost. 
THE BLUE ASH. 
This tree grows principally upon the river bottoms of 
the Mississippi valley ; also on the banks of the Illinois 
3% 
