90 



PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



season. This is one of the most rapid growing of all our 

 maples, and succeeds in a great variety of soils, but is best 

 adapted to a rich, moist one. Its wood is white, fine grained, 

 and rather light and soft, but takes a fair polish, and is much 

 used for purposes where a very hard surface is not required. The 

 sap is sweet, and sugar can be made from it, but is much 

 inferior to that of the Sugar Maple. Occasionally a tree yields 

 the accidental form known as Curled and Bird's-eye Maple. 

 This species of maple has been raised in large quantities by 

 Eastern nurserymen, and sold for planting in streets and parks, 

 for its rapid growth and adaptation to almost all kinds of soil 

 and situation, has made it a general favorite with those who 

 desire to secure shade trees with as little delay as possible. The 

 tree in favorable soils often reaches a hight of eighty feet or 

 more, with stem three or four feet in diameter. I have raised 

 trees from seed that were ten feet high at the close of the fourth 

 season, and in twenty-five years, more than forty feet high, 

 with stems eighteen inches in diameter at the base, and this too, 

 in rather light and only moderately rich soil. The White 

 Maple is more abundant west than east of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, although it is found sparingly in Northern Ver- 

 mont, and thence westward to Minnesota, and southward to 

 Florida. When planted singly it forms a large spreading top, 

 the outer branches often becoming somewhat pendulous or 

 drooping. While we have many better timber trees than this 

 species of maple, still its rapid growth and adataption to such a 

 great variety of soils, and wide range of climate, gives it a 

 value possessed by no other species, and it deserves more at- 

 tention than it has ever received from those who are in haste 

 to obtain shelter and good fuel in a few years, and with little 

 expense. The branches are abundant and flexible, a merit of no 

 small moment with trees to be employed as wind-breaks in prairie 

 regions of country. There are several ornamental varieties of 

 this species cultivated in nurseries, among which the following 

 are desirable as lawn trees, or for planting in parks, and other 

 pleasure grounds : Crisp-leaved {A. dasycarpum^ var. crispum); 

 leaves deeply cut and much curled ; more or less upright. 

 Wagner's Cut-leaved {A, d. Wagnerii laciniatiim), a handsome 

 variety with divided or cut leaves. Weir's Cut-leaved {A, d, 

 Weirii laciniatum), a very graceful tree usually of weeping habit, 

 but in some specimens the branches assume a wide, spreading 

 habit, and droop but slightly or not at all. Varieties of the 



