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PARK AND CEMETERY 
dense mat of strong, healthy roots free from bruises 
and malformations ; have straight, smooth barked 
stems tapering gradually and regularly to their apices, 
and have a well proportioned caliper of trunk and 
branch system. Some sorts should have a single 
leader from the roots to the apex with all the main 
branches springing directly from this leader, but 
others, as, for example, the American elm as it grows 
in eastern North America, need not necessarily have 
a single leader extending from the ground to the 
top of the tree. The branch system should be about 
two-thirds of the height of the tree. 
Such trees, if free from disease or injury and if 
properly dug and not unduly exposed to the air, sun 
or cold, and if properly packed and transported with- 
out undue delay or through violent atmospheric 
changes, might be accepted as first class nursery 
grown trees. Although the above are some of the 
principal characteristics of first class trees it is al- 
ways advantageous to personally inspect stock in the 
nurseries previous to selecting. Thus a tree thor- 
oughly and continuously tilled is preferable to one 
reared in soil “where the weeds are kept down.” One 
grown in a closely planted row is less desirable than 
another which was widely spaced from all others and 
grew in a freer circulation of air and a great- 
er exposure to light. The ideal would be one 
having been grown in isolation. An Amer- 
ican tree is frequently much preferable to a 
phere and duller light do not secure the sturdiness 
of growth or thoroughness of ripening obtained in 
American reared plants. Furthermore, they some- 
times have the disadvantage of having been grown 
in soil so light as to render them objectionable for 
ordinary planting in heavier soils. But trees grown 
from seed collected in northern districts we appraise 
of no greater value than those reared from southern 
grown seed though plants grown in the more northern 
latitudes of its natural range we should prefer to 
those from the more southern districts. 
Emil T. Mische. 
ELEAGNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA (RUSSIAN OLIVE.) 
The attention the Russian olive has received of 
late from writers on horticultural topics leaves but 
little for me to say and the main object in again men- 
tioning its name before the readers of Park and Ceme- 
tery is due to the accompanying illustration. 
But very few have seen Eleagnus angustifolia in 
its prime, and as the species in question is from 25 to 
30 years old, we may assume that it has attained 
maturity, inasmuch as botanists never give its height 
in its native state as more than 15 to 20 feet. The 
species in the illustration has outgrown this by 4 to 
5 feet. 
Some enthusiastic friends of the Russian olive 
are predicting it a great future on our woodless 
plains and allusion has been made to it as a future 
forest tree. 
It needs no prophet to foretell that the latter is 
out of question. Eleagnus is not a forest tree, but 
rather an intermediate between a tree and a shrub, 
and consequently devoid of a straight trunk to cut 
lumber from. Nevertheless its wood may have some 
ELEAGNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA — HUMBOLUT PARK, CHICAGO. 
value outside of fire wood, but not as a paying in- 
vestment. 
Its great value to our arid plains is of a different 
nature, namely, as a shelter for growing crops, fruits 
and even trees of better quality and for this it is 
admirably adapted and I doubt if surpassed by any- 
thing else. 
As such we may look forward to the Russian olive 
as one of the great agencies that some day will 
divert our arid plains into great fertile gardens. 
James Jensen. 
FORESTRY IN NEW JERSEY. 
To most minds propositions for forest conserva- 
tion generally suggest the newer states, or states like 
New York that have tree-covered mountain ranges, 
or those like Maine with wealth of pine timber. It is 
something of a surprise, then, to read of an advanced 
movement in forestry in New Jersey. Yet this state 
has a forest acreage of 2,069,819, the annual product 
of which, even with the wasteful methods employed, 
is valued at over $4,000,00. This could be increased, 
forestry experts think, with scientific methods, while 
at the same time the source of revenue, now in danger 
of extinction, as in most other states, could be con- 
served. How best to do this is the problem being 
studied by the state geological survey, a competent 
commission of successful business men, with Gov- 
ernor Voorhees at its head.— N. Y. Evening Post. 
