96 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PLANT PROPAGATION FOR PARKS.* 
The subject of Plant Propagation for Parks is one 
which is often brought before park officials for consid- 
eration, there being so few parks throughout the country 
so well supplied with native trees and shrubs that none 
need be procured. In the majority of parks, and espec- 
ially small ones, it is usual to obtain plants by collection 
from the surrounding country, or by purchase from nur- 
series. In larger parks, where thousands of plants are 
required, it is very essential in order to obtain the best 
results, as well as from an economical standpoint, that a 
park nursery be established where such trees as the Elm, 
Oak, Ash, Linden, Negundo, Birch, Maple, etc., may be 
kept growing in a healthy condition until such time as 
they may be needed. These trees when young can be 
purchased from nurseries very reasonably, and when in 
nursery rows they can be had at any time they are 
wanted, thus saving delay, as the seasons of planting are 
usually so short. Another advantage is that the trees 
will have become acclimated. But the principal object 
of a park nursery is to furnish quickly and in large 
quantities such varieties of trees, shrubs and plants as 
will be mostly used in the plantation, — such as Spiraeas, 
Cornus, Ligustrum, Philadelphus, Ribes, Symphoricar- 
pus, Lonicera, Poplars and Willows. These with many 
others may be readily increased from cuttings obtained 
from plants already about the park, collecting or by pur- 
chase. A place for these cuttings should be prepared 
early in the winter by covering a piece of ground with 
spent horse manure, or leaves, to keep the frost out, 
sandy places being the best for the purpose. Cuttings 
should be taken in the winter and cut to about ten 
inches in length. The old tough wood does not root 
easily, therefore cuttings taken from young ripened wood 
are preferable. Put the cuttings in the prepared ground. 
The leaves or manure can be removed as fast as space 
is wanted for the cuttings, and after the cuttings are in 
place the manure or leaves can be put over them to pre- 
vent hard freezing, as it is necessary to keep all the vi- 
tality in the cuttings. 
The planting of the cuttings into the nursery should 
begin when the heavy frost is over, or about the 15 th. of 
April, when most of the cuttings will have calloused in 
their winter quarters. A suitable piece of ground for 
the nursery can usually be found in some uncompleted 
portion of the park. The ground should be well plowed 
and pulverized and ample provisions made for water. 
Cuttings should be planted in rows running north and 
south, so that the sun can penetrate between the rows, 
as they make better plants and grow straighter than if 
planted east and west. 
For park purposes cuttings may be planted from 12 
to 14 inches between rows and from 6 to 8 inches in rows, 
or about 50,000 to the acre. One man with a good hand 
cultivator can attend during the summer about 100,000 
plants. At one year old cuttings will have grown into 
fine plants ready for use in the plantations, and when 
planted at one year old the cost is very little compared 
with what it would be if the plants were allowed to grow 
another year or two in the nursery. They are easy to 
handle and only a small hole need be dug to insert the 
roots. In plantations where the ground is soft as it 
should be one man can plant about 500 per day. 
The laising of their own plants, as before described, 
has been practiced by the South Park Commissioners 
*Paper read at Minneapolis Convention of American Park and Out- 
door Art Association. By Fred Kanst, Chicago, 
for the past years and over 400,000 trees and shrubs, all 
grown in this way, are now planted in different parts of 
the park and all in fine condition. There are also 150,- 
000 cuttings, which were made last winter, growing in 
the nursery at the present time which will be ready for 
next spring’s planting. 
STREET TREES. 
The very excellent article on page 64 on the 
above subject suggests another phase which, so far 
as I have observed, has not been treated in this 
series. I refer to the practice of planting what are 
known as “pole trees.’’ These trees are usually 
contracted for with the nomadic tree planter and 
tree agent. They are usually dug by this person 
from groves of slender y r oung saplings in the out- 
skirts of the forest. In setting them on the street 
their character of stem, top and roots are such as 
to call for radical transformation. This change is 
brought about by lopping off the entire top, which 
reduces the tree to the form of a pole — hence “pole 
tree.” While the removal of the top very often 
saves the life of the tree it is a practice that should 
be discouraged, especially with bushy topped trees 
like hard maples. Why is a pole tree inferior to 
one headed back to a reasonable extent? ( 1 ) For 
the reason that the young branches making the new 
head are forced out near together at the extremity 7 ; 
(2) these crowd each other in a few y 7 ears causing 
decay and the final breaking down of the head in 
part or whole. In addition, heart rot is often 
induced by the wound made in removing the top. 
To substantiate these statements one but needs to 
look at the street trees in many of our cities. It is 
true that the natural spreading habit of the elm 
tends to overcome the defects encouraged by this 
system, but the same misfortune also often over- 
takes this noble tree. The mistake that lies at the 
root of the matter is in the selection of forest-grown 
saplings. These are entirely unsuited in every way. 
The nursery grown and transplanted tree is a better 
tree, will transplant with greater success and with- 
out the necessity of severe heading back. Let us 
discourage the pole tree; let us plant trees 
symmetrical and well grown. 
Ithaca, N. Y. John Craig. 
| CORRESPONDENCE. § 
A correspondent asks: In case a party agrees to purchase a 
lot in a cemetery, buries upon it, and then refuses to pay for the 
same, what method can the Cemetery Association adopt to get 
possession of the lot? 
There has been much unfortunate experience in this direc- 
tion, in which many superintendents have participated. What 
they have done under the circumstances and its results would 
be instructive. [Ed.] 
