Trees for the Northwest— By c. L. Melkr, X"., 



COSTLY EFFORTS OF THE AVERAGE MAN WHO KNOWS JUST A LITTLE BIT ABOUT TREES AND WHO PLANTS WITH- 

 OUT EXPERT ADVICE —WHY THE TREES OF THE NORTHWEST ARE POORLY SELECTED AND BADLY PLACED 



THHE fact is that there is verj' little 

 -■- reliable information on the adapta- 

 bility of trees in Northwestern regions. 

 We are still in the experimental stage, 

 but for all that there are some sufficiently 

 definite facts regarding the more commonly 

 grown trees that should be known to 

 everyone who contemplates planting trees 

 for beauty. The fundamental blunder 

 equally common to the East as to the West 

 lies in the planting of too many quick- 

 growing, soft-wooded trees that look well 

 in the very earliest years, but are utterly 

 useless before the planter himself has 

 become an old man. The planting of 

 trees of this type is the worst kind of 

 extravagance. 



AN EXPENSIVE ECONOMY 



Not far from where I write, a man for 

 the sake of economy set out cottonwoods 

 and an expensive economy he will find it. 

 Cottonwoods are of value for an imme- 

 diate shelter belt or cheap fuel, but for 

 landscape planting they have no merit. 

 They are weeds for growth and he who 

 plants them will live to see his trees tall 

 and lanky, and when other trees are enter- 

 ing upon their prime, his will be old and 

 dilapidated. This spring I cut down six 

 tall cottonwoods which the owner had set 

 out not thirty years ago. The balm of 

 Gilead is another of the poplars sometimes 

 used for lawn planting for which purpose, 

 however, it is even less to be recommended 

 than the cottonwood on account of its 

 suckering tendency. The Carolina poplar 

 is also used, but to no better effect. 



THE PLACE OF THE BOXELDER 



For hardiness, ease in starting and 

 rapidity of growth the boxelder is a close 

 second to the cottonwoods. It is, how- 

 ever, always a lowheaded tree with crooked 

 trunk and many crotches. Left to itself 



Up to eigliteen .years the boxelcier is one of the pretti- 

 est of trees, beating the elm 



it invariably brings its branches down 

 lower than a man's head and on this 

 account is not adapted to every location. 

 These trees are generally set out without 

 regard to their growth, and when they 

 crowd and head low someone wades in 

 and trims them up, when they soon be- 

 come a menace to life and limb with their 

 crotches unable to bear the load of long 

 and heavy branches. In Madison, Wis- 

 consin, it became necessary to cut down 

 large boxelder s along the streets and in 

 private gardens whereas elms planted with 



these boxelders are now only starting on 

 their prime. 



In spite of these defects, however, a 

 boxelder has its uses. Rightly managed it 

 is not a bad tree. No other tree will give 

 more shade in the first fifteen years of its 

 growth; but you should plant some more 

 enduring tree close enough so that when 

 it becomes time to cut out the boxelder 

 the better tree is there to fill the gap. The 

 boxelder has one quality that few decidu- 

 ous trees possess, it lends itself to topiary 

 work. Boxelder seedlings will spring up 

 anywhere. I have had to weed them out 

 of my shrubbery groups, out of neglected 

 gardens and even from between the stones 

 in the curbing. Boxelders afford no fall 

 tints. 



Equally as rapid in its growth and 

 equally as short lived is the soft maple. 

 It carries its branches up higher and 

 possesses a straight trunk which, however, 

 tends to divide low down and when young 

 often suffers from sunscald. For general 

 purposes it is not quite the equal of a 

 boxelder, though for street planting it is 

 a little better. Its wood is brittle and its 

 crotches weak; moreover, it soon becomes 

 necessary to head the tree back and in 

 spite of your best efforts it is ultimately 

 necessary to saw back branches of a con- 

 siderable diameter. What dignity or 

 beauty can a ring of twigs growing from 

 such a cut end ever possess? A soft maple 

 can readily be induced to send up several 

 trunks from the same root and when such 

 a group is encircled by a seat there is 

 beauty and comfort in the combination. 

 The foliage assumes some autumn tints. 



The Norway maple gives promise of 

 becoming a valuable shade tree on the 

 prairies where it takes the place of the 

 hard maple. The latter, though it will 

 grow, is somewhat doubtful; for example 

 I know of one hard maple in Fargo the 



Plant willows only on wet land, but an old, pictur- 

 esque tree is worth preserving 



Though having a certain beauty, the cottonwood is 

 a bad tree, failing in thirty years 



222 



Like ail soft-wooded trees the soft maple fails early, 

 but it is a good nurse 



