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New York
State College of A Sriculture
At Cornell University
Ithaca, N. Y.

 

Library

LIBRARY

CORNELL UNIVERSITY -
ITHACA, NEW YORK
ornell Universit

“tina
LIBRARY

Department of Floriculture

and Ornamental Horticulture

New York STATE COLLEGE
of AGRICULTURE

at CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, N.Y.

cit of Wor, oor g
ce ee
(74UR

Date
 

 

 

EVERGREENS

HOW TO GROW THEM

 

Including varieties and characteristics of
the principal Evergreens of the
United States

By C. S. HARRISON
President of Nebraska Park and Forest Asso=
ciation. The Author of “Paeony Manual”
and ‘‘The Gold Mine in the Froat Yard’’
and “Phlox Manual”

¢

SECOND EDITION

ST. PAUL, MINN.
WEBB PUBLISHING CO.
1917

 

 

 

 

 
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A432-

Aid?
Se LG 9 7a

COPYRIGHT 1906

BY
WEBB PUBLISHING CO.
INDEX TO CHAPTERS

CHAPTER IL—A MUTILATED LAND:—

Primeval America; glorious forests; lakes and_ rivers;
protected springs and streams; the magnificent prairies; forests
of the North; the trees of the Rockies, the Sierras and the
Western Slope; the swift, needless and terrible destruction
wrought by man.

The Restoration—Aided By Nature, by the United States
and State Governments and by individuals.
CHAPTER II.—THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS.

Their freshness and cheerfulness; storm in the Rockies:
intent of the tree; first beauty, next use. The Winter Foliage
Garden; formal plantings; the Thurlow farm; Prof. Green’s for-
ests; toplary work in Nebraska; the Hunnewell Italian Garden;
Evergreen shrubs; Berberis Repens.

CHAPTER IIL—EVERGREENS FOR PROFIT.

Impatient American farmers; our foreign born farmers
ahead; the waste of unplanted land; sandy land made produc-
tive; value of forests; of wind breaks and of individual trees;
evergreen barns.

CHAPTER IV.—RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEEDS.

Difference between nursery grown and collected trees; plant
kinds adapted to your locality; and those that can be easily
grown; Ponderosa an exception; better without a screen; the
right kind of soil; the high and low screens; trees grown from
western slope seed worthless; seed from eastern slope of the
Rockies desirable; raise trees from seed grown nearest to you;
damping off and the remedies; making lath sections; grafting
and raising from cuttings.

CHAPTER V.—DIGGING AND HANDLING EVERGREENS.

Little evergreens truthful ‘“‘tell-tales;” difference in han-
dling and packing; Mr. W’s methods; trees must be cleated
solid; case of Jack Pines; wet feet and dry tops in shipping;
how to treat trees on arrival; when to plant and how; the
ball of earth.
iv INDEX.

CHAPTER VI.—HOW MR. SANFORD PLANTED HIS EVER-
GREEN FORESTS.
Danger from fire; wonderful transformation in progress.

CHAPTER VII.—IN THE SAND HILLS.

Planting the sand dunes of France; the original plantings
in Holt Co., Nebraska; remarkable success with Jack pines;
Mr. Charles A. Scott.

CHAPTER VIIL—OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONI-
FERS.

Pinus Divaricata; Pinus Virginiana; Table Mountain Pine;
Norway Pine; Pinus Rigida; White Pine; the Hemlock and the
Spruces; the Balsam Fir and the Cedars; trailing Juniper; the
Cypress and American Larch; trees of the South; the Palustris
or Long Leaved Pine; the Short Leaved Pine; the Loblolly Pine.

CHAPTER IX.—THE EVERGREEN OF THE SIERRAS,

The marvelous Tuberculata; Pinus Albicaulus; Pinus Lam-
bertiana or Sugar Pine; Pinus Monticola; Monterey Pine; the
Concolor and Magnifica Firs; Douglas Spruce; the Incense Cedar
Hemlock of the Sierras; the Marvelous Nut Pines; the Glant
Redwoods and Sequoias.

CHAPTER X—COLLECTING EVERGREENS IN THE ROCK-
TES.

Ride over the plains; the coquetry of Nature; glorious views;
visiting with the clouds; climbing the mountain; digging and
packing; shipping and planting; hunting the Silver spruce; col-
lecting in the Black Hills.

CHAPTER XI.—THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS.

Their silver sheen; gathering seeds; the Picea Pungens and
Picea, Engelmani the Silver Cedar; Juniperus Scopulorum; the
Sub Alpina and Concolor Firs; the Douglas Spruce; Pinus Pon-
derosa; Pinus Flexilis; the Pinon Pines, Aristarta; Pinus Con-
torta,

CHAPTER XIL—FORHIGN EVERGREENS GROWN IN AM-
ERICA,

The Irish and Swedish Junipers; Siberian and Chinese Ar-
bor Vitaes; Norway Spruce; Alcocks Spruce; Nordmann’s Fir;
Scotch and Austrian Pines; European Larch; Japan Evergreens,

CONCLUSION,
INTRODUCTION.

 

EVERGREENS—HOW TO GROW THEM.

 

This work, like its predecessor, “The Gold Mine in the Front
Yard,’ is designed chiefly for the great Prairie States. The
writer having raised evergreens by the million under adverse
circumstances, and being acquainted with leading growers East
and West, has the pleasure of presenting facts and he is sure
he has made instructions so plain that the intelligent farmer
can do his own planting successfully.

This is written for the common people and not for experts.
In the main he has used English names, and why not? For
instance, over twenty names are given to the Douglas Spruce and
its varieties. How much better off would one be for piling up
lumber which would never be used? So we give you the Doug-
las Spruce straight and you will know It just as well as if we
piled a ton of names on it.

The Real Riches,

The Real Riches:—How greedy men are for gold! Let a
mine be opened at the North Pole, and adventurers would go
there no matter what risks or discomforts they would have to
encounter. Strange that men cannot see wealth all around
them. There are values rising into untold millions to be had
for the taking. They are safe. You incur no danger in pos-
sessing them. The farmer lives in the very midst of gifts that
have been waiting patiently for him. I think much of the pos-
sibilities of the prairie. Since 1844 I have lived in six of our
western states and have seen them grow up from babyhood.
I find myself dreaming often of the possibilities of these western
homes. Soon the farmer will turn a little from the mere money
getting department of his work and give more attention to the
comforts, conveniences, and pleasures of life. So many improve-
ments are being made in grain growing and stockraising that mil-
lions will be added to farm values and beautiful homes will rise like
magic from our fertile soil. Our farms will be like the splendid
estates of the rich in the suburbs of our great cities. So much
adornment will surround the home that living in the country
will be like living with God.
vi INTRODUCTION.

There {s no spot on earth so susceptible of {improvement
as the prairie farm. It is a broad canvas on which you can
paint any picture you please. It has an advantage in being bar-
ren of trees at first, s0 you can lay out your grounds to suit
yourself. The soil is absolutely hungry for trees and has an
affinity for evergreens if the proper varieties are selected. The
Conifers are an extensive family. Not all of them are adapted
to one locality. Each has its preference of soil and climate.
Out of their own habitat they seem to pine and die of homesick-
ness. The stalwart Ponderosa, the hero of the arid west wav-
ing defiance to drouth and storm out in the foothills of the
Rockies, becomes a pitiful and helpless thing down on the At-
lantic coast. Though we have not as wide a range of varieties
in the west as in the east, yet we have enough for a fine
selection.

Take a home on a bleak windswept plain with no protection
and it is a picture of desolation. It is bombarded by the storms
and the snows swirl around it. There is the barn out in the
open. Turn the stock out to water when the cutting north wind
is below zero, and they stand shivering as they drink. The ter-
rible cold eats their flesh away. To them winter is a martyrdom,

But all this can easily be changed. We have given years
of study to this subject and have made tedious and expensive
experiments in the semi-arid regions of the west, and we are
sure we can give our readers such information as will enable
them to have homes of comfort on our bleakest prairies; even
the Dakotas can be dotted with farms which will be as Elysiums
of beauty dropped down amid the winter dreariness. To me
there comes at times ua sort of second sight. I see beautiful
groves, myriads of flowers, charming trees, splendid landscapes
floating like flocks in the air, waiting to alight and glorify the
farm. When the farmer is ready for them he can have them.
His land lies on the borders of marvelous wealth and amazing
beauty,
CHAPTER L

A MUTILATED LAND.

When God turned America over to the Anglo Saxon race
it was a series of splendid forests, magnificent parks, broad
prairies, with views unsurpassed by any land or age.

When the Pilgrims landed in that dreary December, they
were in the midst of a winter desolation, and disease carried
off half their number in a few months. But when spring came,
scenes of wonderful beauty opened all around them. The
trees put on their robes of green, the ground was covered with
flowers and the air was laden with their fragrance and tremu:
lous with the blithesome songs of the birds. Nature gave them
genial welcome to a new world. They stood on the margin of
@ vast empire which unfolded before them scenes of beauty
and grandeur unknown before. Look ‘at the condition. In
New England there were great forests of spruce, pine, and noble
deciduous trees, oaks of mammoth size in rich variety, the differ-
ent families of the ash, and the stately and wide-spreading
elms in all their majesty. Away in the North were magnificent
forests waiting to welcome the settlers, furnish material for
his home, and defend Lim from the storms. Here were broad
rivers lined with trees languidly seeking the ocean. Charming
brooks, fringed with ferns and flowers, were murmuring songs
of content. Beautiful lakes were flashing like diamonds in
the bosom of fair Mother Earth. The inland waters were
margined with trees whose majestic forms and drooping branch-
es were mirrored in their placid faces. There were mountains
clothed with verdure to their very summits, and from their
sides springs were gushing, carefully protected by trees and
sheltering bushes so they could not run dry. To the West
great prairies spread out into a vastness which was sublime.
They were God’s great parks on which He had bestowed es-
pecial care and forethought for long milleniums. They were
a EVERGREENS,

carpeted with a rich covering of green, interwoven with flowers.
How broad and grand they were! Their emerald horizons
touched the sapphire of the heavens and the vast expanse
was domed with that arch kalsomined with deepest blue, un-
stained, untarnished with the smoke and dust of our modern
civilization. At night how glorious when the moon came out
and the stars were lighted, when the silence came down upon
you, and you could listen to the stillness and feel that you were
tenting with God.

Further to the West are the great plains—not al} a desola-
tion, for those wide expanses have charmsp peculiarly thelr own,
Yonder, on the borders of the vastness, mighty mountains are
lifted against the sky,—the hoary Rockies, seamed with age.
What tremendous convulsions in those far-off eons, when those
masses of granite were torn from their resting places and hurled
skyward! The horizontal transformed to the perpendicular—
rugged rocks torn and rent from earth’s bosom are tossed heav-
enward—great turrets, domes and steeples, thousands of feet
high, pointing giant fingers of stone to the Creator whose
power upheaved them.

Let us go among them, Here are furrows ua thousand feet
deep, plowed among the rocks. Listen to the roaring of the
streams as they leap over the falls and rush down the rapids
in their mad race to reach the plains. See all those mountain
sides covered with trees; the unsightly brown of the somber
rocks covered with green. What wonderful conifers, with sheen
of emeralds and ermine, softest green and sapphire, noble sen-
tinels are they, standing in robes of state waiting, in Nature’s
courts, to receive and welcome the visitor. How patiently and
wisely faithful Nature has been toiling all the long eons, grind-
ing up the rocks, mixing them With the leaf mould to give sus-
tenance to the tree. Yonder is a grove of the Engelman
spruce, like a fringe around the brow of a bald mountain rising
above the timber line. On that sharp peak, pointing skyward,
there are trees clinging to the fissures in the rocks. Little
nourishment they get but they are there; brave trees, adding
their part to the beauty of the scenery, All those steep mount-
ain sides are covered with forests, the work of ages.

Stand on that lofty peak and overlook it all, and it is like
some mighty sea tossed with the fury of the wildest storm,
with billows thrown to dizzy heights and all turned to stone
and covered with green.

Go further West and you see other mountains tossed out
of the arid plains likeSinal, “the Mount that might be touched.”
Their crests are crowned with forests; their sides are covered
with grass; bushes fasten the soil like flesh to the rocky ribs.
Go further and you see the Yellowstone Park wedged and
packed with the Lodge Pole Pine, where the brave trees grow
even in the spray of the geysers. Go ‘further still and you

‘
A MUTILATED LAND, 8

reach the finest ever seen on this old earth of ours. There
the Douglas Spruce, like a forest of masts crowded together;
there the Giant Redwood the Sugar Pine, the king of all the race
and the mighty Sequoias, emperors of the forest kingdom.

There are trees standing strong and vigorous today that
were giants when the mysterious Babe lay in the manger at
Bethlehem. With the wisdom of God and the forethought
which looked down through the ages, Nature had planned
against deluges and catastrophes. Rains might fall in floods
but they were held in check by millions of dams formed by the
roots of the trees, fallen branches and leaf mould, which, like
sponges, retained the moisture, compelling it to filter out slow-
ly to the rivers. On the prairies the floods were held in check
by the rank grasses so they could not wash away the soil. If
there were heavy snows in the North, God had it so planned that
the thick trees spread out their branches as protection against
the sun, so that they must thaw slowly, and then the myriad
dams beneath were ready to hold the released waters in check.

Under such ‘a2 wise provision all the rivers and streams
would have an even flow. Till vandalism stepped in, the Mis-
sissippi was navigable to the falls of St. Anthony and the Ohio
was an artery pulsating with a busy commerce. Such the
primal condition, beautiful forests of noble trees, hill and moun-
tain sides and rolling prairies were guarded against the wash-
ing of the soil. No one could depict the beauty of the virgin
land which was adorned as a bride for her husband. And the
husband came, commencing a system of cruelty, persecution,
and indignities which present to us today the spectacle of a
murdered land.

In the East the forests were cut away. No thought or
care was given to the hillsides and the rich soll was carried
out into the ocean, only bare and stony fields remained. Farm-
ers said the stones seemed to grow. No; they gathered them
up year by year, releasing more earth to be carried away. In
a generation or two the soil was gone, the stones remained and
the land would no longer support the family.

The forests were cut from the sources of the rivers; Na-
ture’s dams were swept away and the mighty Hudson and the
Connecticut feel the wrong and yearly swell with anger at the
indignities inflicted. Often rich valley farms, that never were
troubled before, were overwhelmed with floods and desolation
took the place of beauty.

Take the Appalachian range in the South. It was
a region of marvelous beauty. The mountains and hill-
sides were covered with noble trees and flowering shrubs,
the streams had an even flow, the valleys were defended from
the floods by the rich vegetation which clothed all the sources
of the streams. Then fools climbed those steep declivities with
their axes. In some cases they girdled the trees and planted
4 EVERGREENS,

corn and before the great trees fell the soll was swept away.
Then they moved higher up and continued the work of destruc-
tion. What was the result? Those rich farms in the fertile
valleys were ruined. Great masses of sand and rock were
hurled upon them, houses and barns were swept away. The
valley of the noble Catawba river became a scene of awful
desolation. In the southern Appalachian region, in a little over
a year, the damage was estimated at over eighteen millions of
dollars, and this only the beginning of the ruin which must
goon. Did the vandals get eighteen millions out of the forests
they destroyed? This thoughtlessness is like children playing
with dynamite, lighting the fuse and throwing it into a neigh-
bor’s yard. Hundreds of lives and hundreds of millions have
been destroyed by this fearful heedlessness and wanton disre-
gard of the wise provisions of Nature. God can work thou-
sands of years to adorn a land with marvelous beauty and in a
short time civilized barbarians can destroy it all.

In Arizona the streams which flow through Texas have their
beginnings. Greed drove in great herds of cattle and horses
and vast flocks of sheep. These destroyed the grass and
bushes which bound the soil to the mountain sides. The for-
ests were cut from the mountains, only a small portion of
the timber was used, the rest was left to invite the fires. The
young timber was ruined, leaving a track of desolation. The
floods came. There was nothing to hola them back. Na-
ture’s dams were all torn away. The rains ripped the soil
from the rocks and poured avalanches of mud into the streams.
They plowed great furrows thirty feet deep through the rich
valleys. The beds of the rivers were filled with mud and rock.
Of course they overflowed. Then they poured into Texas; hun-
dreds of lives were lost and millions of property destroyed. All
because men, heedless as a drove of donkeys, could not see the
result of such diabolical indifference.

Look at our northern forests, A casual observer would have
said, ‘‘They will last forever.” They might have done so if
eared for, giving a perpetual harvest. But to the lumberman
there was no future—only a today, and into that the work
of destruction must be crowded ag fast as possible. The ax,
firebrand and railroad engine found ‘‘a Garden of Eden before
them, and left a desolate wilderness behind them.”

Go to the West and how the forests have been stripped from
the mountains of Colorado! Further West the track of civil-
ization has been the track of ruin. As fast as human ingen-
uity can devise, God’s noblest work and the grandest forests
which ever sprung from earth are doomed to destruction. Only
a little while and blackened stumps will be all that 1s left of
God's richest legacy to man. Fortunately the Govern-
ment has stepped in and is saving shreds and patches here
and there—oases left in the desolation.
a MUTILATED LAND. s

The South suffers every year from Northern heedlessness.
The headwaters of our great rivers have been denuded. The
bottom of the Mississippi is constantly filling up. There must
be great expense in keeping those banks from breaking and
pouring the floods over vast areas. Almost every spring there
is danger of an overflow. And all this is the result of the self-
ish indifference of men who cannot look beyond their own pock-
ets. As the result of this barbarism a mighty timber famine
is upon us. With the growth of our civilization more and more
timber will be needéd when there will be less and less. The
loam from our rich prairie farms is being rapidly washed away,
and there is no thought of retaining the escaping soil. Stand
by any of our western streams after a heavy rain, and they are
thick with mud. They are bearing the very cream of the land
down to the gulf. I have known a heavy rain to carry away
the entire furrow, just leaving the marks of the plow behind.
Strange that the farmer should join the lumberman in the awful
mutilation. In the future the devastation from’ the floods will
be greater rather than less. And when we think that all this
could be prevented, there comes a stinging sense of wrong. This
is a dark picture, but it is true. In some respects our vaunted
civilization is double distilled barbarism.

The wild Indian in the darkest depths of savagery nevet
dreamed of such soulless, heartless murder. He would not think
of charring dear old Mother Earth to cinders—stabbing, scar-
ring and scalping her, despoiling her of her glorious beauty,
making her sit in dust and ashes,

The Restoration.—When we think of these awful devasta-
tions wrought in so short a time, there is no wonder that in
the last few years a strong forestry department has arisen which
will soon demand the services of thousands of skilled men. No
wonder that forestry societies spring up in almost every state
and that men with soul aflame would, if possible, dip their pens
in liquid fire and write words that would burn. :

Though this picture is so dark and the desolation wrought in
a short time is so fearful yet we neéd not despair. Suddenly
the eyes of the nation have been opened and an interest un-
known has been awakened.

After ages of loss and waste the nations of Europe awoke.
Forests were replaced and millions of acres of drifting sands
were crowned with woodland beauty. The conditions today are
better than ever. We have an efficient forest bureau, a Pres-
ident who loves our mountains and trees, and a Secretary of
Agriculture who reflects the will of the people. We have forest
reserves of millions of acres. The Government holds sole

jurisdiction over immense tracts which are the sources of our
streams and rivers; with the splendid system of irrigation now
inaugurated the forests, which are the mothers of the fountains
and streams, must be preserved. Many states are now replant-
o EVERGREENS.

ing the denuded lands and many .private owners see the need
of saving the young trees that there may be a perpetual lumber
harvest. The Government from now on will retain the timber
lands and have the lumbering done under their own supervision,
eutting out the ripe trees and saving the younger ones.

One of the most powerful factors in this work of restoration
is the persistent and tremendous energy of Nature, which with
a motherly forethought hastens to the rescue,

If you visit the Rockies or the Black Hills you will notice
that everywhere she is following up the ax and the firebrand
with an alertness which is remarkable. Here is a vast tract;
every tree sound enough for use is cut away. A few charred
and marred ones are left standing. Threaten a tree with death
and what does it do? It is in tremendous haste to reproduce
itself. No tree believes in “race suicide.’’ Apple trees are
threatened with death by root pruning and girdling and in alarm
at the danger of extinction they load themselves with fruit.
So these charred remnants of the forest are laden with seeds
and the seeds have wings. The strong autumn winds whirl
them out over the ground. They come up by the million and
grow like weeds. You visit one of these young forests—the
ground is covered with vigorous little trees from twelve to
twenty-four inches tall. Ten years after you go again and they
are twenty feet high. They are busy day and night, eager to
restore the waste. Nature has so arranged that some varieties
retain the seeds locked up in the cones with a vicelike grip,
and they are not released till a fire passes over, when the cones
are unlocked, and the seeds shoot out to take root in the ashes—
springing up by the million. When Nature is aided by man
the work of restoration is soon under way. In the East, farms
are often worn out and deserted. The soil is washed away,
and the people have gone. Then Nature moves in. The seeds
of the White Pine come merrily whirling and dancing through
the air, with hop, skip and jump, they take their places among
the chips, stones and brush and lo, in a year or two there are
thousands of thrifty little pines. They grow rapidly. In thirty
or forty years those fields have made better returns than they
made in the same period with all the grubbing and stone gath-
ering, all the sweat and toil which the owner gave to those re-
luctant acres,

You have noticed a peculiar kind of lumber used for shoe
boxes. It is harder, and the grain is coarser than the common
White Pine from the northern forests while there are a great
many sound knots in it. This is the vigorous second growth
of the White Pine of New England. The logs are sawed up
three or four feet long. They are cut into thin boards and then
are edged so as to save all the lumber possible. I think one
of the finest spectacles in the old Bay State is to see these
young and thrifty groves with their bright green foliage taking
A MUTILATED LAND. 7

possession of a worn-out farm. There is much White Pine inthe
East, but I think you seldom see a grove with trees of a cen-
tury’s growth. Old as the country is and crowded with eventful
history, it does look refreshing to see kindly Nature cleaning up
after men and making the country new and fresh again.

The same condition is found in the South. The old wornout
plantations are buried with fresh forests; everywhere the trees
are edging into the fields and there is a constant warfare be-
tween the forest and the plow.

Again, the soil of the great prairies is absolutely hungry
for trees. I came to this place, where the city of York now
stands, in 1871. There was not a bush or a tree growing then.
We began immediately to plant. Now ours is called the Forest
City. In comparatively few years we have trees three feet
through, and some of them would make 1,000 feet of lumber.
Conifers planted in the early days have done remarkably well,
and if, thirty or forty years ago, forests of Ponderosa and
Austrian Pines had been planted by this time they would have
brought fabulous returns,

Every farmer on his own place can help in this universal
work of restoration. He can stop the wash from the side hills
by. planting them to trees. He can dam up the ravines and
catch and hold the soil which would otherwise go to the gulf.
He can plant his lowlands to cottonwoods where nothing else
will grow and those trees will pump gold out of the rich mud,
CHAPTER IL

THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS.

In the economy of a kind Providence these trees stand
well to the front among our benefactors. The wonder is that
men do not surround themselves with these faithful sentinels
which in great armies, would stand guard around their homes,
defending them from the fierce storms and icy blasts.

Evergreengs bring the freshness and beauty of summer into
the dreariness of winter. For mingling of color the green and
the white form the most beautiful blending. I was once in
the heart of the Rockies when a great snow storm fell the
last of August. The green branches were laden with the purest
white. Above, the sky was of the deepest blue. The sun shone
out in his splendor. ‘Whichever way we turned there was the
harmonious blending and it seemed as if we were riding through
an enchanted land. The snow crystals were sparkling in the
light. Every tree, large or small, was wrapped in its mantle
of richest ermine.

What an important part our evergreen forests have played
in the building of a great nation. The apparent intent of these
trees seems to be, first beauty, and then use. First, the tree
is a pyramid of green, the branches pushing outward as the
main stem aspires upward. Then in after years it loses its low-
er branches and gives its attention to developing the trunk.

While visiting the home of Professor Sargent, who has giv-
en us that monumental work on the “Sylva of North America,”’
and walking in his beautiful grounds he said to me: “I am
disgusted with most of our evergreens. They will not hold
their lower limbs. The Picea Pungens is a disappointment.
The Norway Spruce and White Pines will lose their branches.
They are unsatisfactory. I want a tree that will retain its
branches down to old age and be a great pyramid of green.” I
replied, “Professor, a tree seems endowed with a sense of
beauty and forethought. First comes beauty. We all know
that a young evergreen is one of the most charming of trees.
The next stage is usefulness. Its ultimate destiny is a sawlog.
It seems endowed with a conscience as if it knew its mission
and wanted to be faithful to it. All along its history it is in-
tent to please and benefit.”

The marvel is that when these might be raised by the mil-
THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS. 9

lions, when the very character of our somber landscapes might
be changed, giving waves of health and healing to the air
and perennial freshness all around us, we pay so little heed to
them.

A Winter Follage Garden.—We love to have a rich variety
in summer. Each tree has an individuality. The effect of the
various shadings of color is always pleasing. Some have bril-
liant leaves of varnished green, others have a softer tone.
Some have large leaves, and others very small ones. Among the
elms many of our natives show a very rank and _ vigorous
growth, while the Japanese, the English, and the Scotch vari-
eties will have extremely delicate foliage. Some are of yel-
lowish green, others have so deep a color as to be almost blue.
The effect is enhanced if we have now and then a Silver Pop-
lar or a Russian Olive with its various shadings.

In autumn our mountains and forests are gorgeous in their
brilliant robes, when all Nature goes into a carnival of display
before the sober Lent of winter. In planning our landscapes we
should always study autumn effect, so that, when our choice
summer flowers succumb to the frosts for a brief season, all
the trees around us should break forth in a wondrous profusion
of beauty. ‘

But who ever plans for a Winter Foliage Garden, thus mak-
ing beauty perennial, with charms that encircle the year?
When we study the individuality of our evergreens we are im-
pressed with the fact that there is a vast empire of attractive-
ness which is as yet hardly touched. Live among these trees,
study them closely, and you will be delighted with their variety.
The rich and various colorings of our Rocky mountain trees
give effects unknown before, as though the great Horticulturist
had held in reserve the very choicest things with which to en-
rich our landscapes. Here we have a marvelous diversity in
form, in growth and foliage, which makes a collection of Conl-
fers a perpetual joy. In the trying climate of the West we can-
not have so wide a range of variety as in the moister air of
the East. Trees from the northeastern states and the charm-
ing evergreens of Japan cannot endure our winter drouths, and
yet we do have a rich variety which will add much to our com-
fort and pleasure.

Tastes differ: In the East I have seen men at great expense
move the Rocky mountain trees away from the native Ever-
green, as though their presence was a contamination. You
can plant these choice trees together or you can have them in
groups. As, for instance, you can have a Rocky Mountain sec

tion, a space devoted to our northern trees, and one to the trees
of Europe and Asia. In your winter garden what an amazing
and rich diversity you will have! There are a dozen forms
and shades of foliage in the Douglas Spruce alone. This is
true also of the Picea Pungens and Picea Engelmani. The Aus-
£VERGREENS.

1o

 

T. C. Thurlow.

West Newbury, Mass,
THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS. Wm

trian Pine has a color so deep that it is a vivid green bordering
on blue. The Scetch Pine is much lighter. The Concolor is
simply radiant in its blending of silver and emerald. Here you
have the long glazed needles of the Ponderosa and the charm-
ing foliage of the Sub-Alpina. The Scopulorum looks as if
sprayed with the moonlight, while the sturdy Brown Cedar is
solid green. Many of the spruces of our northern Minnesota
and Black Hills forests have a silvery sheen which often is
very clearly pronounced. So you take all these trees and there
are now at least fifteen varieties which do well on our pratries,
and you have material out of which a garden of glorious beauty
can be made and the kindly sentinels which keep guard around
you will not stand there in shabby and ragged garments but
they will be attired in uniforms fit to grace the palaces of
kings.

The Formal Planting of Conlfers.—We love the informal-
ity of Nature as she sows the seeds broadcast and they come
up in groves and forests. And yet, when art aids Nature and
we have the long, straight rows, the effect is fine. You can
plant as Nature does and mix them all together or you can use
the straight rows which, for convenience of cultivating, will be
far preferable. At the home of T. C. Thurlow in West New-
bury, Mass., there is a formal plantation of Norway Spruce—
the rows about eight feet apart each way. The trees growing
so thickly have trimmed themselves as they do in the native
forests. The bodies are like pillars in a grand cathedral. Above,
the branches have woven a canopy of green, so dense as to
shut out the sun. Was there ever a more delightful place?
What a resort for children in the heat of summer—playhouses
scattered all around and plenty of seats and carpets of needles
on which they can frolic and tumble. How the joy of child-
hood is enhanced by such a delightful retreat, and what au
contrast to the wind-swept and sun-scorched plains of the
treeless west!

Isaac Pollard of Nehawka, Nebr., has an evergreen forest
of marvelous beauty. It is wonderful how so mach attractive-
ness can spring up out of the dull earth. There we saw a
clump of Douglas Spruce in its perfection and stately rows of
White and Austrian Pines with here and there the Silver Pun-
gens flashing in the sun. What one man has done, another can
do. J. Stirling Morton has a famous formal grove of White Pines.
His home is near the Missouri river where they could thrive.
A hundred miles west they would have failed, but the Austrian
would have succceded admirably. Prof. Green, at St. Anthony
Park, Minn., has given fine examples of formal planting. What
a place for a nooning when a man is tired! Those rows are
as straight as a line can draw them. The stems are like rows
of posts sustaining a roof of green. The sun is shut out and
the cool breeze, laden with the aroma of the pines, wanders
through, fanning you into drowsiness. What an ideal place for
12 EVERGREENS.

consumptives! There is no such sanitarlum on earth as that
the Great Physician has devised, if men will only carry out his
plans. What a charming place for tired mothers; even the
childless new woman could find here a sweet rest after her
struggles to reach fame instead of home.

Prof. Green’s grove, I think, is fifteen years old. What
will it be in twenty-five years? These columns will be taller
and the green roof wili be raised higher and a sense of
grandeur will grow on you as you walk through it. Here are
conditions every farmer can hav? at a little cost. But too
often he wants the cattle and hog pens near the door. The

barn yard smells are sweeter than the odors of the pines. He
prefers the broad prairie to the charming forest. He lets the
blizzard rage and the storms howl, and the northwind sting
with his cruel lash instead of such a shelter as the waiting
evergreens would give. Strange, when a man might have a
heaven of peace and beauty he chooses a very purgatory of
storm revels, where tempests hold their high carnivals of fury.

Topiary Work Among Evergreens.—This term refers to or-

 

 

 

Showing toplary work in Red Cedars.

namental work or trees shaped by shearing or clipping. We
see too many attempts at this work which amount to mutila-
tion or distortion. A little will go a long way. If your trees
are healthy and will stand clipping, and are not overshadowed
by others of ranker growth which will rob them of their syme
THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS. 13
metry, then you can try it on a small scale. Of all evergreens
the Cedar is adapted to this style of ornamentation.

Some men seem born with an instinctive skill in this di-
rection. Mr. Robinson, a farmer in Fillmore Co., Nebr., had
some vigorous Platte Cedars in hig yard which he commenced

 

   

aE IRY

‘

pete,

eee

 

 

 

 

Red Cedar Trained in the Form of a Lantern.
14 SVERGREENS.

trimming. He has the eye of an artist, the skill of a sculptor,
and we give you in these illustrations a sample of his work.

On the famous estate of H. H. Hunnewell, opposite that
charming lake at Wellesley college, Mass., you will see an Ital-
fan garden in which this topiary work {sprominent. One tree is cut
into theshapeof ahouse. One hasa watch doglyingin its
branches. On another tree 1s a rooster In tne act of crowing.
Mr. Robinson has given several forms. The most conspicuous
is a lantern near his door. In some instances you will see the
art carried to extremes. One tree is cut into the form of a
horse. Another is clipped to represent a cow. Another is a
sheep. It is needless to say that this work requires the high-
est skill, and the most delicate touch and constant care. For
in the growing season that rooster must be watched, or he
will get out of shape, and the dog will have a tree growing out
of his back, and the horse will have horns. Where the White
Pine is used it can be more easily managed as it makes all
its growth in a month. But the Red Cedar grows all summer
and if not constantly watched will play some jokes on your
designs,

Evergreen Shrubs and Plants.—As we reach the drier air
of the West, these for the most part disappear. They may
live through the summer but the winter drouth will wipe
them out. Rhododendrons, Kalmias, Azaleas, Hollies, creeping
Euvonymus, and most evergreen shrubs which do so well in
the East cannot live in the West. Even the hardy Lonicera
Sempervirens will often lose both leaves and branches. And
yet, we need something to enliven the winter dreariness if pos-
sible. Yuccas are all right, and continue green the year round.
I have been experimenting for years with the Berberis Repens
or creeping Berberry of the Black Hills and the Rockies. This,
in a measure, promises to meet the want, It often covers the
ground in its native forests. The leaves are like the Holly.
Those from the Black Hills are the hardiest. In the spring
they bear great trusses of sweetly scented yellow flowers. They
are so fragrant they fill all the air so completely, you feel
that you are wading in their perfume. The blossoms are fol-
lowed by purple berries. These plants are known as the Ore-
gon Grape. In the mountains when the fruit is ripe you will
see women and children gathering them in immense quantities
for jams and jellies. They have a somewhat rank taste but
I think if Professor Hansen could get hold of them and im-
prove them as he has the sand cherry we then would have
one of the finest of ornamental plants that we can depend on.
Without doubt it will thrive all over the northwest. The Holly
THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS. 15

Is almost indispensable for Christmas time, and the foliage of
this plant so much resembles it that it can take its place.

 

 

 

 

Berberis Repens.

Add to this its glorious bloom with delicious tragrance and
its great masses of fruit and you have a combination seldom
gathered in one plant. We are fortunate in having a cut
to represent this berberry.

I have carefully gathered seeds from the open spaces in the
Rockies and have raised plants by the thousand; but they
should be planted in sheltered places on the prairie or be covered
with hay in winter. Ifa screen of some sort were provided, they
would do well. The Black Hills are full of them, and they would
do well in Minnesota and the Dakotas.
CHAPTER IIL

EVERGREENS FOR PROFIT.

One serious trouble with Americans {!s that they are {m-
patient and cannot wait for results. Too often anything that
will last longer than a corn stalk or a straw stack is not to be
taken into account. Then we are too restless, inclined to
sell and mbve. In this respect our foreign-born farmers
far surpass us. They do not sell; and, strange as it may
seem, the nurserymen have more calls for trees, shrubs and
flowers from them than from the American born. The mem-
ories of the fatherland come over with the emigrant. He
remembers the permanence and beauty of the old estates of
the rich, and when he becomes rich himself and owns those
broad and fertile acres he remembers how it was in the old
country. His land becomes his home and he plans accordingly.
Too often the “get-rich-quick” spirit invades the farm and
nothing must be thought of which does not bring in quick
returns. Too often the rich lands of the West have been push-
ed and crowded like slaves. They have been forced to their
utmost without any returns made—no manure—no fertiliza-
tion; simply pushed to the point of exhaustion.

But few men sit down and plan for the future or look
ahead for half a century. Often there will be low, wet places
which produce nothing but weeds. I frequently ride on a
road which separates two farms. On one side is a grove of
cotton woods, which are making a splendid growth, and in
30 years there willbe lumber enoughon an acre to build a good
parn. The other side has a piece of land just as rich, with
loam 10 feet deep, and it has never raised anything but weeds,
and those weeds might have been turned into splendid trees
which in time would have been worth $200.00 to the acre, It
pays to have a little planning. Farms are all the while ris-
ing in value and every nook and corner should be put to some
use. Plant groves and windbreaks. Those side hills will be
ideal places for evergreens. They will hold the soil that re-
mains and their needles will form a new humus,

There is profit in evergreens. Millions of acres of worth-
less sand in Nebraska and the great West can be made worth
$100.00 per acre in twenty-five or thirty years, and more in
fifty years. This seems a long time to wait for sawlogs but
EVERGREENS FOR PROFIT. 17

& young man can have no better Ife insurance, much safer
than the great institutions in the grasp of frenzied financiers.
You need not wait very long for assured returns. You see
them growing and they are valuable assets. In the Nebraska
sandhills in fifteen years Jack pines made a growth at the rate
of thirteen cords to the acre. No one would cut them at that
stage. But there was the actual value—$40 worth of wood to
the acre in fifteen years. They are costing nothing. They
just rent the land and do all the work, you simply look on and
they will pay you a rental of four to five dollars a year. So in
time you or your children will get so much per acre from land
which, unimproved, would not be worth $5.00 per acre. The
United States government, taking this matter in hand, has
now commenced planting an immense reserve of hundreds of
acres with every assurance of success, Many portions of
Europe, which were nothing but drifting sands, are now bear-
ing grand forests of conifers. How can a young man make
surer, safer provision for his children or for old age than by
planting trees? If the timber lands of the North had been kept
from fires, there might have been a continual harvest every few
years by cutting out the larger trees and saving the smaller
ones,

It takes about 1000 Jack Pines to plant an acre, and these
set down will cost about $4.00. Surely not a large outlay con-
sidering the future which lies before them. The money a man
pays to insure his life, if laid out judiciously in tree planting,
would bring in greater and surer returns. A good healthy tree
knows how to figure a high rate of interest. Remember that
lumber is going to be much higherin the future than now. When
I was a boy we used to buy fencing in Chicago for $5.00 per
1000 feet. Such times are past forever. I have known men to
build fine houses almost entirely from) trees they had planted
twenty-five years before.

There is nothing visionary or chimerical about this proposi-
tion of tree planting. In Kansas there is a grove of Austrian
Pines twenty-five years old, that would turn out a good deal
of lumber. The amount of evergreen planting in the west has
been ridiculously small, and yet what little has been done gives
encouragement to go on on a larger scale. While the most bar-
ren and unproductive lands can be made beautiful and profitable
by planting them, the richest lands would bring in much larger
returns. So plant evergreens. Remember that beauty is wealth,
and when a piece of brown earth is covered with forests of that
deep, rich green which retains its freshness summer and winter,
the view is a perpetual delight.

Then these groves arrest the fury of the storms, check the
hot winds and stop the fearful evaporation they cause, and in
this way protect the land. You cannot estimate.the indirect
value of whole sections planted to Ponderosa Pines out on the
18 EVERGREENS.

plains. How much they would add to the beauty of the land-
scape! The reflection of the heat would be light compared with
that which fairly burns from the bare earth where the fierce
hot winds are generated. All these things, with the intrinsic
value, give strong incentives for planting on a large scale.

Value of Individual Trees.—For instance, the Picea Pungens,
with its peculiar and lusttous bloom, ig like a rare flower in
itself. :

I have known $100. to be refused for a single tree. Look at
it. In shape, a glistening pyramid of mingled blue and silver,
the joy of the beholder, the delight of the owner, - I have seen
single specimens of the northern White Spruce which would add
$100 value to a front yard. Often you see the silver type, and
with its perfect proportions this makes it an ideal tree. I have
seen the stately Concolor so beautiful in foliage and imposing in
form that money could not buy it. Often the Austrian Pine,
where it has a chance to put out its branches, will present a
fine spectacle. The Silver Cedar with its trim form, cone-like
in shape, as if run in a mould, scintillating with those frostings
of silver, wins your admiration, and if growing in your own
yard would be above price. And where it will thrive the White
Pine is a great favorite, healthy in growth, shapely in form, and
its colors pleasing to the eye.

Incidental Values.—There are many things you cannot put
into dollars and cents. A tree is worth more than its cash value
in cordwood and boards, just as a fine, thorough-bred Jersey
is worth more than the price of beef. If you have a forest
of evergreens on the north side of your house you can put no
estimate on its worth as a retreat from the burning sun in sum-
mer, or a defense it gives you from the flerce attacks of old
Boreas.

The Evergreen Barn.—In many places in the West the air is
so dry in the winter that if cattle can be sheltered from the
winds they will do well without a roof over them. In fact,
there are thousands of feeders who give their stock no shelter
whatever, save a barbed wire fence. The gruwing scarcity of
lumber makes the buiiding of a large barn very expensive.

I hereby rresent a feasible plan for the shelter of stock cat-
tle. Lay out one-fourth, or an acre, as the case demands, Have
it well cultivated. Plant around it two rows of Cedar Austrian,
or Ponderosa Pines. Have your rows eight feet apart and plant
eight feet apart in the row. Plant so as to break joints. In
about five years you have a snug enclosure, and your harn is
getting better every year. As your trees grow larger, trim off
the limbs on the inside. By the way, a word about trimming
evergreens. Never cut the limbs close to the tree. It will bleed
pitch and turpentine so as to enfeeble it. Cut off leaving a stub
six to eight inches long. Let this die and become dry, then saw
off close to the tree. In only @ few years you will have quite
EVERGREENS FOR PROFIT. 19

an evergreen roof over your stock. Your hay barn and racks can
be put in the center of the lot, just a movable roof is all that
will be needed for the hay as your growing trees will shelter it
from the driving rains. This enclosure should be cleaned out
and plowed every spring, and perhaps sowed to something which
could be used for fodder. Here you have a building which is
alive, growing better all the while. It has cost but little. You
do not have to insure it and after 15 years, when a lumber barn
begins to show age, your evergreen barn will be a beauty, and
it would take several hundred dollars to buy it. Ten dollars
would be all the frame would cost, and it will put on the sides
and do the shingling itself.

The Wind Break.—I have noted in those years when the hot
winds raged that while whole fields of corn in the open were
burned up in August, those places sheltered by trees or bluffs
produced good crops. It is well known that heavy windstorms
often injure and lodge thegrain. Suppose in the North you have
a hedge row of White Spruce, and further South the Ponderosa.
When once established they grow about two feet a year. Think
of the beauty of a farm thus enclosed, with these staunch de-
fenders, growing taller and stronger every year. They would
soon be so large as to baffle the winds. It is well known that
in a hot, drying wind, raging at the rate of thirty miles an hour,
the evaporation is six times as great as during a calm. So we
must devise some way to encourage the calm and discourage the
wind.

Here then are your groves, shelter belts and evergreen
enclosures. Each year gives you greater protection and comfort
till it seems as if your northern home was moved several hun-
dred miles to the South.
CHAPTER IV.

‘

RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEEDS.

This {s a broad subject and there are many points to be
taken into consideration.

In the first place, the question comes up ‘‘What {s the dif-
ference between collected and nursery-grown trees?” That
depends on the condition of the wild trees, and how and where
they grow. For instance, the Concolor Fir and the Ponderosa
Pine are difficult to transplant from the wild state. But if you
find them growing in gravel or disintegrated granite, where you
can get all the fibrous roots, there is but little trouble. If they
grow on rocky ground, let them alone. The Douglas Spruce
and Picea Pungens, if growing in favorable conditions, trans-
plant very readily. Of the 3,000 of the latter sent to a firm in
Massachusetts 95 per cent lived.

Perhaps it takes a year longer for them to be fully es-
tablished, yet there is quite a gain by using them, and then
you have a chance to pick the choicest colors.

The Ponderosa are raised so easily from seed and they
grow so rapidly, there is no use in trying collected ones; though
of these I generally save fifty per cent and gain a year or two
of time.

As to Jack Pines, they generally grow in sand and often
in the open; in which case there is little difference between
the wild and nursery-grown.

In raising from seed it makes a great difference what kinds
you plant and where you get the seed. If you wish to raise
Ponderosa for the semi-arid regions, get the seed from the
Colorado foot-hills, where it is usually hot and dry. But these
will not do so well in Minnesota or the Dakotas. If you are
raising for those states, get the seed from the high altitudes
of the Rockies or from the highest sections of the Black Hills.
I am convinced that this tree has more to do than any other
in foresting the great, bleak West. In the first place it Is the
most easily grown; besides it is best adapted to all that re-
gion. In scores of instances I have seen the soil scraped off
by the railroads down to the hard pan and the whole ag ,ace
would be filled with little trees; the seeds having been whirled
there by the winds in the fall. They were covered with snow
RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEED. (21

in winter and in the spring they sprouted in the mud and threw
down that taproot for which they are famous, and defied the
blistering sun and the hot winds with no protection whatever.

For years I sowed them in the spring and under the screen
along with other Conifer seeds. But they can be sown in the
fall without any screen, or if you have one take it off as soon
as they come up. I found they damped off much more under
the screen than in the open. Here you have it then: You buy
the seed which will not exceed three dollars a pound, sow in
the fall or early in the spring, protect from birds and squirrels,
be sure they do not dry while germinating, and you can raise
them by the thousand. And where you make a business of
it they will cost you about $1.00 a thousand. If you have a
section of the sand-hills, raise your own plants. Let them grow
two or three years; then plant them out, about a thousand
to the acre, and your expense is light. You lay the foundation
for a fine forest; only, have a good fireguard and keep out the fires.

If you are raising seedlings, much depends on the quality
of the soil. In Franklin County, Nebraska, under the 100th
meridian, the soil was fine and porous and full of humus. I.
could get river sand to cover with and I had splendid success,
though that section bordered on the semi-arid regions. Here
in York the conditions are different. The original humus is
worn out of the soil, and it takes time to restore it by arti-
ficial means; then, too, those pests of prairie loam, the angle-
worms, have come in. They work over the soil and leave it
tough and waxy, and when it dries it is like a brickbat. Then
we have nothing but bank sand, and if this is spread over the
beds, there are impurities enough in it to form a hard cement.
So under these circumstances we will discontinue raising any-
thing but the sturdy Ponderosa.

In central Nebraska, and in ~ the other western states,
buildings should be constructed for raising evergreens from
the smaller seeds, for by no known process can you raise Pun-
gens, Engelman Spruce, or Jack Pines, as you would other
Conifers. Again, you cannot put these trees in the open till
they have obtained some size. I have often lost two-year-olds
by planting in the open; the reflection of the sun in a dry,
hot summer would burn them. When three years old they
would do better and you should not lose more than 5 per cent
in planting. We must have more evergreens for the Prairie
States, and each state should have stations to attend to the
growing of them. It is most too much to expect that the
average nurseryman can attend to it besides all his other work.

I think this a good rule to follow: Instead of trying to.
raise Jack Pines in Nebraska from seed, let them be grown in
their.own habitat. An open space of sand in the woods is the
a2 EVERGREENS,

idéal place where they could be raised by the million. I once
planted 2,000 two-year-olds. They looked insignificant enough,
put I failed to find u dead one in the whole lot. So with Pun-
gens and Engelman, raise them where they grow naturally. I
know scores of rich valleys in the Rockies wnere seedlings
could be raised by the ton for I have dug them by the thous-
ands there. And nature will do better, assisted by art. There
“are sections where they do well elsewhere.

‘Tine Screen: This is a sort of artificial forest to give, if
possible, the conditions of nature out on the prairies. This was
devised by Robert Douglas, the father of the modern system
of Evergreen growing. He told me of his experience. He first
bought a bushel of White Pine seed. They were carefully
sown and,came up beautifully, The beds were fairly green with
them. Then came a heavy thunder storm with a deluge of
rain. Then the bright sun came out, and his little trees were
mowed down with the damps. Then he thought “I must have
forest conditions.” so he devised the screen. He covered acres,
putting up posts and then cross pieces covering with brush.
In this way he raised them by the millions and gave an im-
petus to the business by showing others how to do it.

While living in western Nebraska, I had half an acre of
screen. I put up poles, 8 feet apart each way, strips of corn-
cribbing 1x4 inches were nailed to the tops of the posts, so
they would be four feet apart. Growing on the river bottom
were large groves of fine, straight willows about eight or nine
feet tall. These were cut, bound in bundles, placed on these
cross joists and fastened on with binding twine or baling wire.
This made a good covering. In some respects it was better
than lath, for the drip from the rains was not so heavy. In
building a screen always have your lath or brush run north
and south, for if you have them east or west, the sun will
strike through the same cracks all day and some of your plants
will be in the shade all the time and some in the sun. There
is one trouble with a pérmanent screen of this kind. ‘After a
year or two a fungus seems to creep in, and there is a black
cut-worm that works fearful havoc, mowing down whole beds
in a short time. You need a lot of toads to take care of them,
and then you will have to furnish wings for your toads, for the
great lubberly fellows will crush down your little plants, A
good way is to sow lettuce and then poison that. The worms
will leave the trees for this.

The Tall or Low Screen: Your tall screen should be 7 feet
high, so that you can walk under .it without any
trouble, I have always had the best success
with the low screen. Build a pen 8x32 feet, about
eighteen inches high. Run a cross piece through the center
lengthwise to catch the ends of your lath squares, which we
RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEED. 23

mention later. Prepare the ground thoroughly, level it down
carefully, and sow the seed at the rate of a pound to an
8x8 foot space. If the seeds are very small much more space
will be needed. Cover the seed with river sand or sand and
loam. In a close pen like this there will be but little evapora-
tion. You can remove the lath squares for watering and weed-
ing, and then replace them. You have two advantages by this
temporary screen system. The drip from the high screen 1s
often a serious matter, and by this plan you can have fresh
ground for each planting. In this way I have raised immense
quantities of fine trees and could dig up a hundred at a single
spadeful, A

If you have plenty of screen room you can transplant when
the trees are two years old. Have them covered the first year
and uncover the second year. Then put them in the open for
a couple of years, and they are ready to sell or to plant, ag you
like. Please note these points; Ponderosa Pine, Concolor Fir,
and other beautiful evergreens, grow in the Sierras and on the
Western Slope, but you cannot grow them in the East or Cen-
tral West. The finest evergreens in all the world grow on the
Western Slope, but let them alone. One of the leading nurseries
of Pennsylvania, some thirty years ago, secured a fine lot of
seed and had a good stand of plants, and had great hopes of
them, but when they were about four years old there came
one of those mysterious northwest death waves which wiped
them from the earth. I think there are a few Sequoias grow-
ing in Rochester, New York, and I think there are some in dif-
ferent portions of the East, but they are uncertain and by no
means can they be made to grow in the blistering suns of the
West. Time and again collected trees, handled with the great-
est care, have been planted in Nebraska, but one might as well
try to raise oranges. On the other hand, trees from the east-
ern slope of the Rockies do remarkably well on our western
prairies. For remember that vast system of mountains was
lifted out of the great burning plains and the climate and con-
ditions are much alike. This is the case also with trees from
the Black Hills. They generally do well on the western prairies,
So if you want to raise White Spruce get the seed or trees
from the Black Hills. Those raised from seed grown in Maine
cannot grow in Minnesota or Nebraska to advantage. For the
extreme north and Manitoba secure seed and trees from the
northern forests, Going on the cars west of Winnipeg I saw
beautiful White Spruce growing in the dunes of drifting sands.
They were self-planted and in several instances those trees
had been planted around the homes on the bleak prairies. They
were doing well, but because they are a success in Manitoba
don’t think you can move them into Kansas or Oklahoma, for
there they would sunburn, You cannot move southern Conifirs
far north. The beautiful long leafed pine of Alabama is not
24 RVERGREENS.

hardy and cannot be made to grow as far north as Nebraska,
If you want to raise White Pine get seed from the native belt
nearest you. And now have a care; for the White Pine, no
matter what the brand, cannot be made to grow west of the
100th meridian.

I had a beautiful lot of fine thrifty ones, 6 feet tall, that
grew there, and it seemed as if they would succeed, but with
the American Sirocco blowing a gale, with the mercury 112 in
the shade, you could smell them as they were cooking. Yet in
the eastern part of Nebraska there are fine groves of them,
but as you get 100 miles west of the river the conditions grow
more unfavorable, There are, perhaps, 20 in York County to-
day, remnants of the thousands that have been planted. It
don’t pay to plant a hundred trees to get one to live. The
Scotch Pine will grow in the eastern part of many of our west-
ern states, but beware how you try to move it too far West.
Experts found fine groves of this tree growing in western Kan-
Bas, and recommended it for that region. How does this hap-
pen? The wet and dry seasons move in cycles. There will be
a succession of wet ones, as we have had for the last four years,
and are deluded with the thought that it will always be so, In
these wet years Scotch Pine, and perhaps Norway Spruce, and
even White Pine may grow a few years and then come the
dry and scorching winds and the mercury soaring—so hot you
can smell the scorching prairie grass,and down go your hopes and
your groves of White Spruce, White Pine, Norway Spruce. But
the Ponderosa will be there with its long plumes waving de-
fiance to all that comes, and beside it will stand the Austrian
Pine unmoved. But take care how far north you move this
same Austrian. While the Scotch Pine with its soft foliage
cannot endure the intense heat of the plains, it is hardier in
the north than the Austrian, or the foot-hills Ponderosa, As a
general rule trees with hard, stiff needles will endure the heat
better than those with soft foliage. Red Cedars from southern
Illinois are not hardy in Nebraska and the Platte Cedars are
not hardy in North Dakota, though they are of the same
species. The delicate and beautiful evergreen of Japan—the
Retinisporas—do well in Massachusetts, but what bedraggled,
despondent and homesick-looking things they become when
moved to. Kansas. So, take Pinus Ponderosa to the eastern
sea coast and it is the picture of despair.

These suggestions are the result of years of close observa-
ticns, and if you are going to raise evergreens there are always
some kinds that are waiting for you and will succeed in your
locality. But be sure of them before you begin to raise them
on a large scale. I can imagine a man from’ the East coming
to a western prairie farm. He is all enthusiasm, he will show
the natives how it is done. He has had a thorough training
in @ first-class agricultural college and he knows just what to
RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEED. ay

plant. He loves Birch and Maple; he likes the Norway and
White Spruce and White Pine, and he orders them from the:
East and plants them all in the best manner. But there comes
in a year or two one of those hot waves which kills every tree
on his place. Such attempts have been often made with like
results, yet, if the right kinds had been planted there would:
have been no failure. :

Damping Off: This is the terror of despair of the Ever-
green grower. The seeds will come up all right, and he be-
gins to figure his profits, when there will come a heavy rain
followed by a bright sun and his trees go down by the thou-’
sand. This usually happens when the trees are quite tender and
the stem is weak and before the second set of leaves has form-
ed and the stem has become woody. After this there is not
much danger. It is then highly important to give the trees as
early a start as possible, so they can harden up before the ex-
cessive heat of summer. Many kinds will do best planted in
the fall, or they may first be sprouted in warm water, and
then planted quite early. P #

Many plans have been devised for circumventing this dif-:
ficulty. We must follow the lines of nature. I have often
watched seedlings in the forest. How are they started there?
The cones open and the seed falls in the leaf mould. Deciduous
trees are often near and when the seed falls they are covered
with needles and the leaves of the neighboring trees. The
point of danger, where the damps attack the seedling, is just
between the air and earth. Nature guards this point careful-
ly. One cause of the trouble in the nursery is that the rain
spatters the mud on the tender plant and this in some way in-
duces the damps. I have found Nature’s plan to work well,
and after sowing the seed have covered the beds with a coat
of moss or crushed leaves, worked up fine so that the seedlings
could come up through them; pine needles also may be used.
Mr. Scott, of the Dismal River station, has devised this plan:
he carefully sows the seeds and covers them with fine gravel.
This prevents the spattering of the mud when it rains and he
finds the danger with this method comparatively small. So
there are several things to be taken into consideration:

1st: There should be a location chosen with congenial soil
and climate.. While you cannot raise trees from the smallest
seeds like the Pungens, Engelman and Jack Pine in Kansas and
Nebraska, yet in many parts of Illinois, Ohio and the eastern
ytates they can be grown to advantage.

2nd: In the West plant those kinds which are the least
liable to damp off, mainly Ponderosa, the Chinese and Siberian
Arborvitaes, and with care you can grow the Austrian Pine,
Douglas Spruce and Concolor Fir.
26 EVERGREENS.

8rd: Defend in some way the seedlings most Hable to the
damps or blight. Many growers have dry sand ready to use
with the first symptoms of the trouble.

How to Make Lath Sections: After using various methods
for years, I finally adopted the following plan, which has the
approval of Prof. Green and others: Lay aside sixteen com-
mon lath for a square. Take three picket lath, about a half
an inch thick, put one in the center and one at each end. As
you nail them on, push every other lath about four inches be-
yond your end cross piece. This makes your section a little
over four feet wide, so that it will readily catch on the four
foot sides of your pen. Understand, your pen is made 8x32 feet
with a strip running through the center, which really makes two
spaces, 4x32, It takes eight lath squares to cover one space
and sixteen to cover the whole. As the sides will sometimes
spread you will see the need of having your squares a little
more than four feet wide. Saw one of your thick laths In two,
and brace your square or it will work all out of shape. One
thick lath will make a brace for two squares. I often have a
dozen of these pens and squares to match. When not in use
the squares should be stored. These pens with their coverings
are just the thing for raising perennials or starting early gar-
den vegetables, as by their use you avoid the drying winds of
spring. If you use the tall screen system, these squares can
be placed overhead, and you can fasten them with binding
twine so you can remove them and let in more sun, if you
choose. They are good things for the average farmer or gar-
dener to have. You can make your pens 4x12 or 4x16, or use
the double pen mentioned above,

Other Modes of Propagation: While Conifers are mostly
raised from seeds, in some cases grafting is done. For in-
stance, the Pungens is put on the Norway Spruce. The work
igs usually done with potted plants in a greenhouse and none
but an expert need attempt it. Grafting evergreens out of
doors, as in the case of the deciduous trees, would be an utter
waste of time. There are an almost infinite number of types
and variations in the different species. Take for instance the
Chinese, Siberian, and American Arborvitaes, their name is
legion. These sports are propagated by bottom heat in green-
houses, but it takes great skill and care and I have known
hundreds to be killed by a slight oversight.

Some claim they can raise any kind of an evergreen by
cutting off small thrifty sHoots in the fall, shearing off the low-
er leaves and putting in cold storage, or in a cold place for two
or three months, and then subjecting them to bottom heat; but
the vrocess will seldom work.
CHAPTER V.

DIGGING AND HANDLING EVERGREENS.

One great obstacle in the way of growing these beautiful
and profitable trees is the way in which they are too often dug
and shipped. A man who grows them should have a tender
conscience and do business with the Golden Rule. The great-~-
est deception is often practiced but there is no more truthful
“tell tale’? than the little evergreen. It always speaks the
truth. Often the largest growers are at fault. When the rush
is on, there is so much to do that inexperienced help will often
be used, the roots will be exposed only for a short time and
the tree is killed. A fine, healthy tree, properly set out at the
right time, in the right way, will live. If it dies its death tells
the story of misuse and injury. Sometimes, after they are
thoroughly ruined the dealer will dip them in mud and pack
them carefully in moss. When the purchaser receives them
he says, “That man knows his business. I shall know where
to buy after this.’”’ But the trees all die. They tell the truth,
that they were carelessly handled and that a ten minute ex-
posure to the hot sun had killed them. And yet I have known
men to be just so careless and pack trees they knew were
dead, when fifty cents worth of care would have saved 10,000
of them.

I once bought 5,000 Black Hills Spruce. They were beau-
tifully packed, and came with plenty of wet moss. But my
experience told me they had been badly handled. I had dug
trees in the Black Hills myself. However, I planted them with
the greatest care under screen, and all but ten of them died.
Just a little care would have saved them when they were dug.
One spring I purchased quite a lot from two nurserymen. The
trees were fine and looked much alike. I knew one dealer was
a little short on conscience and I implored him to be very care-
ful, but ninety-five per cent of his trees died and ninety-five
per cent of the other man’s lived. Did it pay? One man never
sold me or my friends another tree, and orders for thousands on
thousands were poured in on the other man.

Mr. W. is a fair sample of an intelligent and conscientious
grower. If a dealer sends him an order he is sure of good
trees, well packed. Several firms, with myself, buy of him and
have for years We always know just what to depend on.
28 EVERGREENS,

He does not try to do so much that he cannot super-
vise things himself. I have had trees three weeks on the
way, and nearly dried out through evaporation from the foll-
age, and yet plunged immediately into thick mud and planted
I have sometimes lost not over two per cent. It is just as
easy to handle evergreens and just as sure as it 1s to plant
Elms or Ash, and there should be no more loss and need not
be. I wish it to be distinctly understood that itis justas easy to
raise an evergreen as a deciduous tree. Once establish this
fact and you will have evergreens in abundance. They should
be very carefully dug so as to get all the roots possible. Then
to avoid all danger they should be immediately dipped into a
puddle of mud, stiff enough to completely coat the roots. This
seals them up from the air. In puddling them the richest loam
should be used. When this process was first used clay was
taken, but it was found that this made a hard covering through
which the tiny rootlets could not penetrate. If you take the
richest earth you can find, the tree is virtually planted from
the start, and I have often received trees the new roots of
which had already penetrated the coating. They commenced
growing on the way. After the mud has stiffened a Mttle, then
pack them. Mr. W. usually packs a double tier, roots against
roots in the center of the box, and the tops towards the
ends which are open for the trees to breathe. If evergreens are
packed in atight boxthey willimmediately begin to heat. The first
box I ever received was so hot many of the trees were ruined.
Your box has a strong cleat in the centre. Lay some paper or
moss over this and then put in two or three layers root to root.
Now pile in plenty of wet moss. Don’t be afraid of it; use no
substitutes. Excelsior and rotted leaves will not do; anything
but moss is a failure. After putting a few layers, put cleats
across them—good strong ones. Get onto them and press them
down all you can, and nail them by driving into the ends
through the sides of the box. Now fill up with moss and cover
the cleats so they will not bruise the trees. Put on more
layers, and then use more. cleats. Everything de-
pends on having them solid. Do the best you
can, there is a constant evaporation from the needles, and
they may get dry, but if packed so solidly that the air can-
not get In they will be safe with that mudcoat and moss. I
once collected a lot of evergreens in the mountains and ship-
ped to one of the U. S. Government stations. When the bill
was presented report was returned “your trees came dry.”
However, they had accepted and planted them. Fortunately
they had fallen into good hands, and when I visited the sta-
tion they were doing far better than nursery-grown trees
shipped from the East and there was no trouble in getting pay
for them. Of course, if possible, trees should be packed so wet
DIGGING AND HANDLING EVERGREENS, 29

that they cannot evaporate the water unless unreasonably de-
layed.

I once ordered a lot of Jack Pines from Wisconsin. Fear-
ing the man did not understand evergreens, I charged him to
pack and cleat solid, because railroad men will tumble boxes
around, the trees will break loose, the air will get at the roots
and that ends it. The trees came standing upright in the box,
and so poorly fastened they shucked about and let in the air,
while the moss worked down from the roots. That was one
mistake. The other was that the trees had started to grow be-
fore they were dug. They had new sprouts from one to four
{Inches long. Now if an evergreen grows like that it is prey-
Ing on itself with no root-backing. The upshot was that with
the very best care I could not save five per cent. There was
the aggravation of paying for the trees, including a heavy
express bill, with the stock, which was fine, killed by maltreat-
ment.

Next spring I ordered Jack Pines from another man. These
were cleated solid and packed with wet moss containing a deluge
of water. Now expressage on water is just as heavy as on
trees, and the cost was just three times what it should have
been, then too, it is bad for the foliage to have trees packed so
wet. Turn such a box wrong side up and the water saturates
the leaves and rots them. Remember in packing evergreens
you must have the roots wet and the tops dry. It is just as
fatal to pack with wet tops as with dry roots. Perhaps it is
wet weather and the foliage holds a good deal of moisture.
Hold on! Don’t pack till the tops are dry or you will kill your
trees.

A man once sent me a few Colorado Blue Spruce of the
finest brand. Fortunately there were only a few. He packed
in a tight box in hot weather and packed wet moss around the
tops. When I saw them it made the toe of my boot ache,
They commenced to grow, the shoots were pale and white.
Though planted under a screen the sun burned them or the
needles fell off. Some died, and it took the rest two years
to recover,

I once shipped a beautiful lot of Blue Spruce and Concolor
Firs from the Rockies to Massachusetts. Complaint came that
though they seemed to come in excellent condition the needles
were falling off. Now there happened to be on the line where
a transfer was made a very conscientious and faithful express-
man. Said he, ‘Here are a beautiful lot of trees and we must
get them through in the best of shape.’’ So he gave the tops
a good soaking. That did the mischief. In the moist air of
the East, however, they rallied and put on new foliage. In the
dry air of the West they must have died.

Evergreens should, if possible, always be sent by express.
It costs a little more but live trees are much cheaper than dead
30 EVERGREENS,

ones. When it takes a month. to send trees 560 miles by freight
it is cheaper to express them.

As soonas thetrees arereceived dipthem again ina puddle of
stiff mud. Heel them in where the sun will not shine on the
tops for they will often be sun-scalded when the tops are com-
pact. Stamp the earth solidly about them. If you are not
watchful you will be surprised at the evaporation through the
tops, and the roots will be dry again before you are aware. It
is better to plant them out immediately if the conditions are
favorable.

Planting. The finest and best-handled trees in the world
can be ruined by being poorly planted. Hardly one man in a
hundred knows how to do it. I have had men work for me
for years who must be constantly watched. The earth must be
packed solidly around the roots or they are sure to die, They
must be packed solidly at the bottom. Take @ tree eight to
twelve inches and a mani, if he does it right, can set out two to
three thousand. If he does it wrong he will work harder and
plant perhaps 500. I had a good, faithful man work for me for
years. I would say ‘‘Now, Charlie, watch me.” I would in-
sert the spade, put in the tree, and then strike one hard blow
with the heel pressing the earth solid. One stroke well direct-
ed is enough. Then pass on and leave that heel mark to catch
the rain. Invariably Charlie would put in the tree, be careful
not to press the earth about the roots, and then he would get
up a war dance on top and stamp and stamp, and then say “I’ve
got him this time.’”’ Then I would take the tree and it would
work up and down like a churn dasher, and if twenty-five per
cent of his trees lived they would do well. Robert Douglas
often used a tamper, a good solid one, to pack the earth around
the roots, especially if the ground was a little dry.

Time to Plant. In the New England states many men
plant in August because at that time the evergreen commences
to throw out roots to carry it through the winter and give it
strength for the spring’s work. People do not understand
this. They see the tree make that vigorous push upward of
a foot or two in June, and the new growth is matured in a
short time. They think that is all there is of it and often
neglect the tree the rest of the year. But August and Sep-
tember are the months when the tree is doing its most impor-
tant work, laying in strength for the winter and gathering
force for that tremendous growth which it makes the last of
May and the first of June.

While August planting may be done with safety in the
moist climate of the East, it will not do in the West. I have
tried {t repeatedly, but the loss is too great.

The best time to plant an evergreen in the West is just
before the buds begin to swell. If you plant too early, the dry
DIGGING AND HANDLING EVERGREENS,. 3

air pumps the moisture from the tree before the roots are
established to supply the waste. While living in Pueblo, Color-
ado, the mountaineers would bring down trees with a lump of
earth the last of February and guarantee them to grow. But
the hot sun and drying winds, playing around the tree before
it is well established, would do the work and almost every
one would die. When the ground is thawed out in March
and the conditions seem favorable you are tempted to plant
your evergreens. Don’t do it. The drying winds would like
nothing better than to wring all the moisture out.

Planted just at the right time the tree is bound to go forward
if the conditions are right. It is a bad plan to plant in w high
wind for the evaporation ig too strong. It can be done, how-
ever, if you mud the roots as heavily as possible. The ground
should be moist also, so that it will pack well about the tree.

If you are making quite a plantation, the better way’ will
be to get wu few thousand seedlings or small trees, say eight
to fourteen inches, and put them in nursery rows and let them
grow two or three years. If the conditions are just right you
can put them out after two years. If not, you can let them
stand a year longer. You can watch the right time. If the
ground is moist and the weather cloudy you have just the
conditions. Dig up your trees and put them on a sled or stone
boat with all the earth on them and you can transplant them
without their knowing it and they will make quite a growth the
first year. By this process you can continue the work even
after they have started a little.

Some theorists insist that June is the time to plant. This
is sheer nonsense. Often the trees have made a foot of growth
which is sure to wilt down as soon as they are planted
you have a poor, sickly, droopy thing. It is the worst time
possible to move a tree.

One year, when the work was crowding, I had a few thou-
sand Ponderosas to move. They were three-year-old seedlings,
and had made a growth of four inches. I knew it was wrong,
but they would be too large if left another year, and I wanted
the ground. ‘The earth was moist and the weather cloudy,
but with the best care only one-half lived and the shock was
such they could make no growth. Had they been moved two
weeks earlier they would have been all right.

The Ball of Earth. When an evergreen is from two to five
feet tall, if possible, it should be moved with a ball of earth
about the roots. In Holland they have a process of grafting
the brightest forms of the Silver Spruce which are sent back
to us by the thousand and are invariably shipped with the ball
of earth. Foreign-grown Azaleas and Rhododendrons are sent
in the same way. In short, this is the only way in which
evergreen trees of whatever kind should be handled. In Florida
and California Lemon and Orange trees must always have the
32 EVERGREENS,

ball of earth, for they are evergreens and would die if ship-
ped like Apple and Pear trees.

A firm on Long Island, N. Y., ordered fifty fine Pungens of
me one fall. Now the fall is a bad time to handle them, but
they stipulated for the ball of earth. The trees were eighteen
inches tall and I put four or five together with, all the earth
that would adhere to them, and sent them on. They were
three weeks on the way, but they arrived in the best of order,
and were immediately planted out and made a fine growth. If
you have w large tree, dig it with the greatest care and then
bind up the ball of earth tight with burlap. Dig a hole for it
and set it in, burlap and all, if you choose. Put fine earth
about it, pack it solid. Always plant a tree, like this, in a
depression that will hold a barrel of water, for it may need
watering some the first year, and a little sprinkling on the sur-
face will not answer. 1 have known people to water with the
hose every day all summer, still the trees would die in spite
of them for not a drop of water had reached the roots.

In one of our western cities I passed by the grounds of a
gentleman who took great pride in his trees, ‘What is the
matter with my elms?” he asked. “I paid a great price fer
them and they are dying.” “The roots are dry’ I said. ‘That
can't be, for I have given them water every day. See for your-
self.””’ I went to examine them and sank in the mud half way
to my shoe tops. He laughed and said “Now you see you were
mistaken.” “No I am not, the roots are dry; I will show you.”
He got a spade and used it with vigor and sure enough his
trees might as well have been in a bed of ashes, ‘Well, that
beats me.” ‘What shall I do?’ “Dig a hole as close to the
tree as you can, and then run in a full barrel of water. Let
that soak in and fill it again. You must wet those roots.” He
did so. Two days after I went that way; the drooping leaves
were erect and the whole company of them seemed to say,
“Thank you, sir.”

If you plant a fine evergreen in your lawn take care of It,
especially for a year or two, till it is well established. You
should allow no grass to grow around it. Keep it well culti-
vated or mulched and it will reward you with a sturdy growth
and a bright foliage. Keep the dogs away from it. Their
system of irrigation is death.

Transplanting From the Seed Bed. On the United States
Government grounds on the Dismal river the trees are planted
in rows. Two boards are placed together with hinges a little
distance apart. The seed is scattered along with the edges
of the boards lifted, and they fall in a row in the center where
they are covered. When they are a year or two old a root prun-
er is run under them to cut off the tap roots, and make the
rootlets spread more near the surface, It is thought much
DIGGING AND HANDLING EVERGREENS. 33

benefit Ig derived from this process, for instead of a long tap
root you have a mass of fibrous ones.

The roo. of a two-year-old seedling will be from twelve ts
elghteen inches long, and if you are not careful you will cut off
a good poriuion. A good way is to dig a trench by the side
of the bed and drift under, and spading off a great clump ot
them, and getting the root at full length. You need not dig a
hole as deep as the length of the root: you can double it up
in the hole as you plant it, and have the whole of it nourish the
top for it is needed. In shipping small trees and seedlings you
can save expressage by packing in snug bundles in wet moss.
Wrap them in _ oiled paper so there can be nv
evaporation from the roots. Roll them up in
buriap and bind as_ solid as_ possible. It is well
to put astrap and buckle around them, and draw
them snug and then bind them. This is an excellent way to
treat small trees. But as they get larger, the stiff limbs wili
rebel against too much pressure, and if you are to ship a quan-
tity they should be boxed.

Since the first edition of this work I have made some suc-
cessful experiments with Pinus Ponderosa. It was not con-
venient to plant in the fall, so early in the spring I soaked
the seeds in warm water till they sprouted, taking the pre-
caution to change the water every 12 hours, so it would not
sour. They were planted in a well prepared bed and covered
with half an inch of fine earth. Precaution was taken to keep
the ground moist till they came up.

They were a mass of vivid green. They grew all summer
in the full blaze of the sun. Often it was very hot and dry.
They were in such fine condition, I planted them out the fol-
lowing spring in the open. Had they grown under a screen
they would probably have sunburned. As it was they were
so well toughened they made a splendid stand and a vigorous
growth in one of the hottest and dryest seasons on record.
Next spring I tried again with the same results. I take our
murserymen around to see them and show them there is no
bugaboo abovk the business, and it is one of the easiest things
in the world to raise these evergreens.
CHAPTER VI.

HOW JOHN SANFORD PLANTED HIS EVERGREEN
FOREST.

A Supposable Case.

It takes people a long time to become acquainted with the
beneficent plans of God. He plants a beautiful forest, you go
through it and it is a land of delight. Stony stretches of
worthless land are covered with stately trees, they grow in
sandy places where without them the land would be worthless.
They grow with greater vigor in rich, dark loam.

This work is not all laid out for this forest alone. There
is a lesson here. If it is hot, these trees give genial shade.
If the winds are lashing the wide prairies in their fury, all is
calm in these deep woods. In winter, when the northwind
sweeps the land, his terrors cannot invade this forest of ever-
greens. The iesson is “Plant a forest around your home.”

With great courage Mr. Sanford moved put onto a new
farm in one of the northwest prairie counties of the state. His
land, save a sandy knoll, was rich, producing fine crops. But
how the winds would blow! Spring and fall it seemed at times
a martyrdom to live; while in the winter his home was like a
fort, bombarded by all the storms that swept the land. The
family was homesick. How could they help it?
They held a _ consultation. All they had was in-
vested there. The land was’ good, they mad good
neighbors. If they could only be screened from the winds and
have forest conditions out on that bleak prairie, instead of be-
ing dreary, it would be a delightful land. They took farm
papers and bought books and laid their plans, They wanted a
grove of Pines on the sandy land on the North. They wanted a
row of evergreens all around the farm. First they would plant
deciduous trees, such as: grew in the nearest forests and would
be sure to live. Some one told them to plant Tree Honey-
suckles around the garden. Finding where they could get the
hardy Tartarian for five dollars per 100 they secured and plant-
ed them. They grew rapidly. Outside of these there was a
row of Ash. All were well cultivated. North of the plat de-
signed for evergreens several rows of native trees were planted
and well cultivated. They were agreeably surprised in a year
or two by the protecton these afforded.

In the meantime preparations were made for a nursery of
evergreens in the sheltered garden. Mr. Sanford had heard
that the Ponderosa Pine could be grown like peas, if sown in
JOHN SANFORD'S EVERGREEN FOREST. 35

the open, with no protection whatever. He had heard
that for northern Minnesota seed should be procured from
the highest northern elevation of the Black Hills. He secured
five pounds which he planted in a pen eight feet by thirty-
two, made thus for convenience of weeding. In the fall the
ground was well spaded and levelled down, the seeds were sown
and covered with a half-inch of sand. He had nothing more to
do until spring. He had placed boards a foot high around his
bed. When spring came he knew while germinating the seeds
must not be allowed to dry. It was a dry spring and every
night he watered them thoroughly. They began to come up and
the family watched them in delight. How they grew! These
need no screening from the sun. Keep birds, chickens and
mice away and they will care for themselves. They do not damp
off, like other evergreens and so do not need the screen.

In the spring he sent for a lot of three-year-old Jiack Pines.
These were planted in nursery rows. They were about a foot
high and were planted in rows two feet apart and six inches
apart in the row. He had heard that there was a man in the
northern part of the state who collected little White Spruce
and kept them in the nursery a couple of years and sold them.
He secured 2,000 of these. Then he sent for a few Colorado
Blue Spruce and waited results. He gave the best of culti-
vation. The trees were planted thus close together for a sort
of mutual protection till they should get suitable age. In the
meantime a strip had been plowed around the farm and after
the trees had grown two years he was ready to plant. The
spring was cloudy and wet—just the condition for planting
evergreens. Soon after a good rain he sent a man out to dig
the holes and he and a boy followed. The White Spruce for
the windbreak were about two feet tall—fine, vigorous little
fellows. He dug them, leaving the fibrous roots encased in a
ball of earth. These were carefully placed on a sled for con-
venience of lifting. They drove by the row of holes. Mr, San-
ford had them dug eight feet apart. When he came to one he
carefully lifted a tree and put it in its place, dirt and all. He
put in a little loose earth and then stamped the roots solid
packing the earth firmly. Then he passed on and was surpris-
ed at the rapidity with which the work was accomplished.
The two miles were planted in a day. The next day he fol-
lowed with a hoe. The trees were left in a depression and
were planted two inches deeper than they were in the nursery.
It was a good job well done. The wrong way would have been
to shake off the earth, distributing the trees along the line for
the sun and wind to play with and then plant them loosely on
@ ridge instead of in a depression. By planting in the center
furrow he could work the earth gradually toward them and
eventually have them so solid that the fiercest winds could not
move them He had furrowed out his rows for the Jack Pines
36 EVERGREENS.

and they were handled very much in the same way. These
were put eight feet apart each way and the alternate rows
were planted with ash so as to be cut out when the trees be-
gan to crowd. It took six hundred and eighty trees to the acre
when planted this distance apart. He found he had 8,000 to
10,000 Ponderosa Pines and he managed to dig these with great
care and planted just as the buds began to swell. They made
a splendid stand. It took twelve hundred and eighty trees to
plant around the farm and they were so well handled they
hardly knew they were transplanted and they made a vigorous
growth the first year. If we return to the garden we find that
row of Tree Honeysuckles has done remarkably well; they have
made an even compact hedge. In May they were a mass of fra-
grant flowers and later on they were covered with showy red
berries, making them very attractive. All the evergreens were
so carefully cultivated they made an excellent growth.

There is a decided advantage in the home nursery. Sup-
pose he had sent for two thousand White Spruce two feet high.
The freight would have been quite an item. Then it would have
been impossible to have sent the ball of earth. They might
arrive in the best condition. But suppose the ground was dry
and the spring winds were blowing a gale; it would be no time
to plant and if he did, he would need to water them as he went
along. If he had them growing in his garden he could take his
time. If perchance, the spring was too dry and the winds too
strong he could let them stand another year. Besides, he would
have some chance to get acquainted with his trees. Even the
first year quite a change on the farm is perceptible. Another
year passes and the trees seem to fairly get down to their work
as though they were conscious of their mission. The row
around the farm is looking finely. Planted in the open they
throw out their branches and look like separate pyramids of
green. The grove is making good headway. The trees are
growing so rapidly they have shaded the ground so the weeds
cannot grow and cultivation is no longer necessary. Five years
have passq@d and it does not seem' possible that there could be
such a transformation. In ten years the trees are efghteen to
twenty feet high. And now you have a land of delight.

The great prairie is gemmed with beauty. God had been
waiting to help the man, and when he was ready, this miracle was
wrought. As the years pass by, living is u luxury. There are
cozy nooks out in the grove where the ground has a rich carpet
of brown needles. Your couch is already made out there in Na-
ture’s tall room; sit down and rest. What a delightful resort
for the children!

One day a dude hunter with his gun and a costly overcoat
on his arm came to see the place and in walking along care-
lessly threw down the stub of his cigar. In almost uw moment
the needles were ablaze; a gentle wind was blowing under the
JOHN SANFORD’S EVERGREEN FOREST. 37

branches; Mr. Sanford was in consternation. In a few moments
his labor would be destroyed. It was the work of an instant.
He seized the costly overcoat of the dude, slapped it on the fire
and in a few moments had it extinguished. Gathering the re-
maining smouldering needles in a heap with his feet he threw
the burned coat over them and stamped and stamped until the
fire was out.

The dude was mad. ‘It seems you are taking liberties with
my property.” Mr. Sanford’s eyes fairly blazed. ‘You heedless
wretch. By this time the fire would have been beyond control
and thousands of dollars ruined and my beautiful place would
have been a desolation. I did the only thing I could do and you
know it. What is your coat compared with the ruin you would
have wrought, turning this Elysium into a charred desolation.”
The man quailed before these blazing eyes and went his way.

“There,’”’ said the owner to himself, “is a problem to be
solved. There must never be any grass left near my road trees
and I must have wide firebreaks and driveways through this
grove.” And the next day he began cutting a wide roadway and
plowing it up so that if a fire should break out in one part it
would not destroy the whole. Strange, men will be so care-
less. Years ago a man in Albany threw a stump of a cigar in
some rubbish and half the business part of the city was in ashes.
In a great hotel in New York a man lately lit his cigar and toss-
ed his match away, not knowing or caring where it fell. It was
thrown into a lace curtain which caught fire. Soon a million-
dollar-building was in ashes and forty people lost their lives.
Innumerable prairje and forest fires have been heedlessly set
and millions of property and hundreds of lives lost by such sheer
carelessness,

Twenty years have passed. Some of the children have mar-
ried and gone away; some cling to home as the dearest spot on
earth. That farm has been an object lesson. The farmers,
finding what can be done, have also planted. Some of the busy
ones induced Mr. Sanford to plant a large nursery of evergreens.
“We cannot attend to it, but you can.’ So he turned much of
-his farm into meadow and pasture and gave his time to helping
his neighbors. Though his charges were not high, he found it
much more profitable than wheat growing.

On his own place the protection was so perfect that he se-
cured an immense number of flowering shrubs and Perennials,
planting them here and there so that whichever way you went
you fell into perfect ambuscades of loveliness. In those shelter-
ed spots charming Columbines, Oriental Poppies, Delphiniums
and Phloxes grew. The place became a Mecca for the lovers of
the beautiful.and people came and went carrying away the con-
tagion for home adornment,
CHAPTER VIL
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PLANTATION

AMONG THE SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA.

At least one-fifth of this great state is sand and compara-
tively worthless. How to save this immense area is a problem.
The effort to forest this region was in a measure inspired by the
remarkable success secured in France in kindred circumstances.

 

Forest of Maritime Pine on the Drifting Sand Dunes of France.
(By Kindness of Forestry Department.)
AMONG THE SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA. 39

Between the Gironde andthe Pyrenees there was atractof drift-
ing sands which was a menace to the fairest portions of the em-
pire. When the gales blew, the sands swept inland like resist-
less armies, burying fields, meadows, vineyards, dwellings and
even villages. It was a Sahara in the heart of Sunny France,
widening its area year by year. In the days of Napoleon, a man
named Bremontier conceived the idea of planting the whole re-
gion to the Maritime Pine and thus fasten the drifting sands.
The beautiful adjoining country could be saved and a revenue
obtained from a region then worthless. The idea was presented
to Napoleon who immediately adopted it and the large area was
planted by government aid, thus showing that if that colossal
intellect had been given to the arts of peace instead of war,
the emperor would have been one of the greatest benefactors of
his age. The victory over the drifting sand dunes was far great-
er than if he had won at Waterloo.

We are happy to present a picture of this redeemed land,
which is now yielding an immense revenue of wood, lumber, re-
sin and turpentine.

The Holt County Experlment. Under the direction of the
Chief of Forestry, B. E. Fernow, « piece of land belonging to
the Bruner Brothers was planted in 1891 to Jack, Austrian,
Scotch, Norway and Ponderosa Pines,

While all other varieties did well, the Jack Pines took the
lead and made a tremendous growth, overshadowing all others.
In thirteen years many of them were twenty feet tall. They
had commenced seeding and little trees were springing up all
around them, Probably in the long run the other Pines will
eatch up with and perhaps overshadow the Jack Pines but for
quick results the latter will be preferred.

I wish to add that the energetic efforts of the Government
in planting so large a tract of trees awakened the interest
of private owners, cattle men and others, who need shelter for
their stock and see gold in the sands which the trees can mine
for them.

The economy manifested by the Government experts is

having a fine effect. When these lands can be planted at from
- $3.00 to $5.00 per acre it is a matter of encouragement to all
interested. From experiments conducted by the writer, reaching
through a series of years, he has demonstrated that the Pon-
derosa Pine can be raised by the planter himself at a cost of
$1.00 per 1,000, and if he does his own work the expense of
planting forty acres with 1000 to the acre will be light.

Several neighbors can band together and secure seeds at

the lowest cost, and they can send some one to the Jack Pine
forests to collect their own seedlings as the Government have.
They set them down on their plantation at from $2.00 to $3.00
per 1000. Kimberly, Minnesota, sends out a good many of these
trees and millions of fine seedlings are grown there and there
is access to millions of wild ones well rooted. One year the
4 EVERGREENS.

writer secured 2000 from that place and did not lose two per
cent. But, if you get Jack Pines you must be in season. To be
successful you must plant them before they start to grow.

The economy of the Government is manifest in the whole of
the vast enterprise. Those having charge of the work are in-
structed to do everything at the least cost and to keep exact
record of all expenses.

For instance, when seeds are to be gathered, letters are sent
to a hundred range riders on the various Government reserves
and when a favorable report comes in from a certain section a
foreman goes out and with the assistance of the range rider and
the neighbors seeds are gathered at a much lower rate than
they can be secured from wholesale dealers.
EVERGREENS,

 

Charles A. Scott, Formerly in charge of Forest Reserve Service,
now State Forester of Kansas, at Manhattan.

We are happy to introduce our readers to this gentleman.
No man in the West is entrusted with a greater responsibility.
He is in the van of transforming the worthless sand drifts into
an estimated value of $100.00 per acre. He is a young man of
fine presence, strong and robust and of excellent executive
ability.
WORK OF THE FOREST SERVICE IN NEBRASKA,

Special Article Written by Charles A. Scott, Who is in Charge
of this Work of the Government.

The work of the Federal forest service in Nebraska in previ-
ous years has been thoroughly discussed in former articles
in The Twentieth Century Farmer and I will confine my re-
marks entirely to the work of the last two years. As my
work has been almost wholly in connection with the federal
reserves within Nebraska, I will speak first of what has been
done there. These reserves, as most of you know, are situated
in the sand hill regions of the state, and they are practical-
ly treeless. Our purpose is to plant the area within their
bounds, approximately 225,000 acres, to trees that will in time
supply the local demands for timber. Up to the present time
we have planted about 1,000,000 trees on 1,000 acres of land.

On beginning this work many new problems confronted us.
It was the first such undertaking the government had attempt-
ed. The question of what species to try arose. This was
discussed and threshed over by men of authority on trees,
aud the list simmered down to two trees that were likely to
wucceed, the jack pine (Pinus Divaracata), and the western
yellow pine (Pinus Ponderosa). Up to the present time both
ere proving to be valuable. In addition ta these two, we are
giving the red spruce (Pseudotsuga Taxifolia), a good trizl, and
it is promising well. We are now almost convinced that the
red pine (Pinus Resinosa), will do well in the sand hills, and
it will be given a trial as soon as seed can be secured.

Another question that arose was, how and where can we get
eatisfactory stock for planting? The advisability of using wild
seedlings in preference to nursery grown stock, was thoroughly
discussed. It was decided that nursery grown stock would
undoubtedly be more successful, but the species wanted were
not on the market in such quantities as we would require, and
we would have to grow our own stock. It would require three
years’ time to prepare nurseries and grow the seedlings. The
forestry officials and the public were anxious to see a begin-
ning made, so we resorted to extreme measures. We shipped
in wild seedlings from the forests of the Black Hills of South
Dakota and the sand barrens of Minnesota. The result was, we
learned and profited by success and failure. The results have
been freely given to the public at all times, and I am’ glad
today to tell you more about the results of our work.

In the beginning let me say that we cannot attribute any
of our failures to weather conditions, for the summers of 1903,
1904 and 1905 have been very favorable. The winter of 1903-1904
was very dry and probably injured us some, but not severely.
THE FOREST SERVICE IN NEBRASKA. 43

Things Learned by Experlence. One of the first things that
we learned was that we could not ship in western yellow pine
seedlings from the forests and grow them successfully. The
reason is obvious to those who are acquainted with the habit
of growth and nature of the tree. It is impossible to dig the
seedlings from their natural seed beds among the rocks with-
out murdering their roots, and the roots are the vital parts
of a pine tree.

Another thing that we learned by experience in the spring
of 1903 was that we could successfully grow jack pine seedlings
from the sandy barrens of Minnesota. Of the 70,000 trees of
this species planted that season between 30 and 40 per cent.
grew. That is not a large percentage, but it was enough to
encourage us. We saw where we could improve the methods
of handling the trees and we determined to double the per
cent. of living trees in another year. In our next attempt
with the same kind of stock we succeeded in getting 6744 per
cent. to grow. We made no changes in our method of plant-
ing, but we sent two men to the woods to see that the trees
were dug from the ground, not pulled, and to see that the
men digging the trees carried pails partly filled with water
and that the roots were put into the buckets as soon as the
trees were dug, instead of being carried around under the
arm until a good big bunch had been secured. Our men also
saw that they were properly packed. The moral of this is:
Protect the roots of a pine tree if you expect it to live after
transplanting. I have a very keen appreciation of the high de-
gree of intelligence of nurserymen, but the fact remains that
some of them do not know how to handle pine trees. The very
best treatment is none too good for the roots of a pine.

The success of the jack pine as a tree for the sand hills
has not stopped with our own planting. We recommended it
for general planting throughout the sand hill region of this
state, and to my knowledge over 6,000 jack pines were ship-
ped into this state last spring by one dealer. Five thousand
of these came to Thedford. Two weeks ago I wrote to each
of the men who bought trees and asked for the results of their
planting. A summary of the replies gives the following results:
The average of all the reports received show that 76 per cent.
of the trees are growing. The best report gives 97 per cent.
of the trees growing, the poorest 35 per cent. The writer of
this report states that the trees were planted on low ground
near the river and that the trees drowned out. The trees
were planted under various conditions, according to the tastes
of the planter. The greater number were planted in the grass
sod, the ground not being prepared in any way, and the remain-
der were planted in plowed ground. Seventy-five per cent.

of those planted in the sod are growing, and 71 per cent. of
those planted in plowed ground are living. The soil around
Thedford, Neb., is as light and sandy as can be found any-
44

where in the sand hill region. As a result of the success of
this year’s planting there are a lot of enthusiastic tree planters
around Thedford and the indications are a large number of
trees will be planted in that vicinity next season.

Growth of Pine Trees. Pine trees do not make rapid growth
the first and second year after they are set out in the hills, but
after that their growth is quite surprising. On an area of five
square rods that was staked off for a sample plot, planted
to jack pine in 1903, there are thirty-four trees, the average
height of which is 11 inches, the average height growth of these
trees for this year is 6.56 inches, or 59% per cent. of their
entire height. This is but the beginning of their growth, and it
will not surprise me if they average one foot in height growth
in another year.

 

 

Planting Trees in Furrows on the Dismal River Forest
Reserve in Nebraska.

Our experience with nursery grown western yellow pine
up to the present time has been very encouraging, but we are
not yet recommending it for general planting, because of the
indifferent success so many have met with in transplanting it.
Last year we planted about 350,000 1-year-old trees of this
species in furrows in the hills. Between 80 and 90 per cent. liv-
THE FOREST SERVICE IN NEBRASKA, 45

ed through the planting and we were much elated over the suc-
cess of our work. The seedlings used in this planting were
not over four inches in height, in the fall when the grass dried
up and the sand began to fill up the furrows a great many
of the little trees were buried, and those surviving are not mak-
ing the growth they should, but it is very probable that they
will make a good growth next year.

This year we planted 275,000 western yellow pine trees, part
were planted in furrows and part in the grass sod without
preparing the ground in any way. At the present time 85 per
cent. of those planted in the furrows and 89 per cent. of those
planted in the sod are growing. Some of the stock of this
year’s planting is 2 years old; it is growing exceptionally well,
and if future planting does as well we will no doubt soon recom-
mend it for general planting, as it is a tree of more economic
value than the jack pine. This 2-year-old stock that is doing so
well with us is planted in furrows, but the 1l-year-old stock is
more successful in the sod.

Planting trees in the hills is a simple operation. We or-
ganize our force in squads of threes, one man carries the trees
in @ bucket, and the other two do the planting with spades.
When planting in furrows, the furrows are plowed six feet apart
and the trees are set six feet apart in the bottom of the furrow.
When planting in the sod a line of stakes is set for the leader
to follow, and each successive squad follows to the flank of the
preceding squad.

Planting Trees In Furrows. Planting trees in furrows costs
from $1.75 to $3 per thousand trees, depending upon the charac-
ter of the ground to be planted, the rougher and more uneven
the ground the more it will cost to plant.

We find that the direction of the slope of the ground is a
tremendous factor in the success of planting, 10 to 15 per cent.
more trees live on a north slope than on @ south slope, and an
east slope is preferable to a west slope. To sum up the re-
sults of our experience in tree planting we have reached the fol-
lowing conclusions: -

1. For general planting throughout the sand hills of this
state we recommend the jack pine; 2-year-old stock should be
used, six to eight inches in height; wild seedlings grow very
successfully and are much cheaper than nursery stock.

2. The best results are obtained from planting on northern
exposures, followed by the northeast, east and southeast ex-
posures; south and west exposures give the poorest results; side
hills are more preferable for planting than depressions or pockets
or the crests of hills.

3. On ground where the sand is light and loose the trees
should be planted in the grass sod with the least possible dis-
turbance of the soil. In the valleys or on nearly level ground,
where the soil is firm and the grass sod thick and heavy, single
46 EVERGREENS.

furrows should be plowed. six feet apart and the trees planted in
the bottom of the furrow.

4. Pine trees should be planted early in May in damp or
toggy weather if possible. Never attempt to plant pine trees tn
dry, windy weather.

5. Every precaution must be taken to prevent undue expos-
ure of the roots to the sun and wind.

In connection with tree planting, growing the seedlings has
required much of our time and attention. Time will not per-
mit me to go into detail in discussing this work. Suffice it to
say that we now have two and one-half acres of seed beds un-
der slatted roof, which gives us a capacity of from 3,000,000 to
4,000,000 of seedlings. The slatted roof over the beds gives us
part shade, which is necessary the first year. The western
yellow pine and the red spruce are easily raised from seed;
they are strong, thrifty seedlings and require very little atten-
tion. The jack pine is a very tender little seedling, and if one-
half of the plants that start out survive the first year they are
extremely fortunate. The first and great calamity to befall them
is an attack of ‘‘damping off.” The best remedy that I have
found to prevent serious loss from this source is a good dress-
ing of gravel over the surface of the seed beds. Sow the seed
on the surface of the bed and then with a shovel scatter a thin
layer of gravel over the. seed; it should never be over one-
half inch in depth. The gravel permits the surface of the beds
to drain quickly, prevents the soil from spattering up over the
plants in times of rain, thus leaving the stems clean at all times
and in the very best possible condition. In some experimental
beds in which we sowed the same amount of seed on the same
area of ground the difference in number of plants produced at
the close of the season was more than five to one in favor of
the gravel cover.
CHAPTER VIII

OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONIFERS.

Pinus Bankslana (Pinus Divaricata) called Jack Pine or
Scrub Pine. This is differently described by people in different
localities. Newhall calls it a small evergreen tree, or often a
shrub nine to thirty feet high, with long spreading branches and
wood of but little value.

Prof. S. B. Green on the other hand says ‘This tree under
favcrable cirsumstances will occasionally attain a height of 125
feet with a diameter of 12 inches.”’ The fact is they differ much
in their respective locations. In some portions of Wisconsin and
Minnesota the forests are packed and crowded with them,
much like the Lodge Pole Pine of the West. A single acre
will yield 40 or 50 cords of wood and a good deal of framing tim-
ber; the timber is not worthless. It makes a tremendous
growth while young. Plant it side by side with the Black Hills
Spruce and in a short time it will be five or six times as large
as the latter, and its growth in the sands of Nebraska is phe-
nomenal. It has short needles, two in a sheath. It has many
whorls,or systems of branches which are thrown out in a single
season and is unlike other Pines in this respect for they will send
up a single system of branches and make one vigorous push in
June and that ends it. The rapid growth of this tree while
young, surpassing a dozen other kinds beside it, makes it very
valuable for the speedy work of foresting. Probably in the
long run the Scotch, Ponderosa, and Austrian will surpass it,
but its tremendous vigor in youth makes it a favorite for tim-
ber plantations. It would doubtless make a fine nurse tree to
shelter the White Pine, Red Pine, and Douglas Spruce, which
with their peculiar foliage, cannot so well resist the winds and
storms in the open, unprotected.

The Pinus Virginiana is much like the Jack Pine. It
grows on the sands of Long Island, New Jersey, Virginia and
other portions of the South.

Neither of these should ever be planted as ornamental trees.
The Jack Pine has persistent cones which hang on year by year,
constantly reinforced by successive cones which give the tree
a ragged appearance. They commence seeding quite young and
though fair in appearance at first they soon become unsightly.

Table Mountains or Pinus Pungens. This grows along the
Allegheny mountains and upon table mountains in North Caro-
lina, It fs often fifty feet tall and is much used for charcoal.
I have tested this in York. One to which I paid special atten-
tion died and I gave the rest to our city park where they are
doing fairly well. They might do to make up a collection, but
they have no special merit over other Conifers.

The Norway Pine—Pinus Resinosa, Also Pinus Rubra, or Red
Pine. This has very long needles two in a sheath, which give
the branches a plume shape, making a very beautiful tree. Its
range is much farther north than that of the White Pine. In
appearance it somewhat resembles the long leaved Pine of the
48

EVERGREENS.

 

 

Jack Pines in the Sand Hills,
15 Years Old.

(By Permission of Forestry Department.)
OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONIFERS. 49

South. But while that will endure any amount of heat, this
will endure the severest cold but is very sensitive to the heat.
I have often tried it in Nebraska, sometimes keeping it under
a screen, but hot winds with 110° in the shade would always
kill it. They will doubtless do well in North Dakota, the
northern half of Minnesota, and in northwest Canada, for they
grow wild in Manitoba. It is a more rapid grower than the
White Pine, The Jack Pine at first will outgrow it but it is
sure to overhaul it sooner or later.

 

Norway Pine In Minnesota Forest.

From “Forestry and Irrigation.”

in the East, where the climate is congenial, this Pine Is
much used in landscape work. It must be very popular all
through the north. It was reported as doing fairly well in the
first plantings in the sand hills of Nebraska, though none as
yet have been tried in the Dismal River Reserve, If they should
succeed there, they will make a splendid investment as they
50 EVERGREENS.

afford very valuable lumber. They live about twice as long as
the Jack Pines and ultimately push beyond them, attaining both
size and symmetry.

The sand hills, having a much higher elevation than the
eastern and middle portions of the state, may prove more con-
genial to many kinds of trees which cannot endure the intens-
er heat of the plains further south and at a much lower eleva-
tion. There the Ponderosa will succeed the best of any. A
pound of Red Pine contains about 40,000 seeds of which about
80 per cent will germinate. The seeds are difficult to gather but
where a nursery ig placed in a congenial locality a few pounds
of seed will produce a large amount of trees.

Pinus Rigida or Pitch PIne. This tree has three needles in
a sheath, three to six inches long. ‘The bark is thick and rough.
The tree grows from 30 to 80 feet tall. The wood is hard and
full of pitch—good for fuel and charcoal. Its native belt reaches
from New Brunswick down to Northern Georgia. It would pro-
bably be of no value for Western planting.

White Pine—Weymouth Pine. The leaves are five In a
sheath. They are very soft and delicate and fill the air with a
delightful aroma. This has been the leading Conifer of Ameri-
ca. It grows from 80 to 150 feet. The wood is straight grain-
edand soft. Itis easily worked, and though so soft it is muchmore
durable than many of the pitch-laden varieties. [Where this
can be raised it should have the preference. Standing by itself
it is one of the most graceful of all. It builds itself up in mar-
velous symmetry and is one of the finest for ornamentation.

I note that in reforesting the mountiins of New Hampshire
the collectors find beds of thrifty seedlings and transplant them.
In the humid climate of the East these trees are often found
growing in the open. They will push on and take possession
of wornout pastures and deserted farms and soon clothe deso-
lation with beauty. In planting in those localities where they
will succeed in the West, great care must be taken to secure
seeds from the extreme Western belt. I am certain that many
failures have resulted from using seed from Eastern localities.
I did not know this when I made my plantation under the 100th
meridian in Nebraska, and lost every one of them. I am con-
fident that the Wisconsin and Minnesota belt can be pushed
quite a distance South and West with safety.

The Hemlock—Tsuga Canadensis. This is one of our most
charming evergreens. When given a chance it forms a pyramid-
al and shapely tree. Its lower branches seem more persistent than
those of most other Conifers. So you will see these of larger size and
finer symmetry than any of their neighbors. The foliage is very
soft and even in states where it grows naturally it cannot be
grown successfully in Southern exposures. It has often been tried

in the West but in almost every instance it is a failure. There
are cases, however, where it is defended from the sun and hot
winds, when it does fairly well in Nebraska. Thurlow does not
OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONIFERS. st

recommend it, even for Massachusetts where it grows wild.
There is a charming native grove of these trees in the Arnold
Arboretum of Boston, where I used to recline on the soft needles
which carpeted the ground. This was on a North slope where
the sun had but little effect.

The Piceas or Spruces. Remember the trees with drooping
cones are Spruces or Piceas. The trees with upright cones are
Firs or Abies. In the old system they were mixed together
and even now writers will say Abies Piceas, which leads to end-
less confusion.

The Black Spruce—Plicea Nigra. The needles are one-fourth
to two-thirds of an inch long. The cones are dark purple when
young, and reddish when ripe. These trees reach from the
Northern states, where they often grow in dense forests, down
as far as North Carolina. They grow to a height of 30 to 60
feet. The wood is light, straight grained and strong, and is used
for masts and framing lumber.

White Spruce—Picea Alba. The needles of this species are
a little longer than those of the Black Spruce. This for orna-
mentation is a most charming tree, symmetrical and graceful; a
beautiful poem in green. In the deep woods it is often of the
Glauca or Silver type, having a sheen much like that of the
Pungens. This grows in the North and is largely used for paper,
thousands of acres being worked up every year for this purpose.
We are glad to note that the lumbermen are making an effort
to save the young trees, to secure a perpetual forest. Large
tracts of these trees are found in our Northeastern states, a belt:
of them swinging over Wisconsin, Minnesota, and coming down
on the Black Hills. It is this latter type which is so success-
ful and popular all through the west.

The Balsam Fir. This is a very beautiful and symmetrical
tree, growing in graceful proportions to a height of 30 to 60 feet.
The leaves are silvery on the under side and green on the up-
per. It is a beautiful tree for the lawn in the Eastern and
middle states but is not a success west of the Missouri river.
But the Concolor Sir of the Rockies, a much better tree every
way, takes its place in the West where it succeeds admirably.

The White Cedar. This grows largely in northern swamps.
The trees are from 30 to 75 feet tall. They are often closely
packed so that there is an immense burden to the acre. Tre-
mendous inroads are being made on the swamps, posts, railroad
ties and telegraph poles by the million are required and the
question comes up, what substitute can be found for this valuc
able tree when the supply is exhausted? As the seedlings are
easily gathered in the forests they are put on the market at
a very low price and efforts are made to sell them for hedges
all through the prairie states and thousands have been sold
in Kansas and Nebraska, but they are utterly worthless. In
‘heir own habitat, in a colder climate and always with wet feet,
ga EVERGREENS,

they are a success; but they cannot endure the scorching sun
and the hot winds of the semi-arid West. One year I planted
1,000 with the greatest care under a screen and gave them the
best attention, but even there our Western sirocco found and
killed all but four of them. Beside them I planted 1,000 Chinese
Arborvitae and lost but few of them. Our advice for the West
fg to let them entirely alone.

The Arborvitae—Thuga. The White Cedar and Arborvitae
are generally used synonymously but Newhall and others make
a distinction. This is more of a Southern tree, growing from 20
to 50 feet tall, with very close, dense branches.

Red Cedar—Juniperus Virginiana. This is-the most widely
distributed of all our evergreens. You see them from Maine
to Florida and you find different forms of growth according to
different localities. In the Eastern states they take the form of
the Irish Juniper and are called Savins. In the Western states
they are more branching. The Southern type is worthless in the
North. They cannot be moved over 300 miles North of their
habitat with safety nor is it safe to move them too far West
from the humid, into the drier air of the trans-Missouri coun-
try. The Platte Cedar for years has been famous for its rapid
growth and hardiness hut during our recent wet seasons a
blight has mowed them down by the million. W. H. Bruning,
who devised a process for raising them from seed the first year
after planting, lost $20,000 worth in one year, and gave up the
business.

Added to this, most of our state Experiment stations East
and West, North and South, charge them with generating the
apple rust which has killed many of our choice trees. Notably
the Wealthy, which is probably the best we have, fs very sensi-
tive to their influence and we often see whole trees defoliated
with Cedar rust. So for the present this tree, usually so hardy
and valuable, is at a discount. The Western type being very
hardy will probably not be affected west of the 100th meridian,
where it will be a companion of the Ponderosa Pine. I think
there will be no trouble with it in Western Kansas and Nebras-
ka, where it is found growing wild.

Propagation. We have mofe inquiries regarding the propa-
gation of this tree than for anything else. Mr. Bruning, who
made such wonderful success, having worked 30 years to per-
fect his process, refuses to divulge it without compensation
and we cannot blame him. Two methods are used: First, put
the ripe seeds on a board and with a brick rub off the pulp.
Throw the seed in water to soak a few days. Wash them clean.
Boak in weak lye for wu day or so, then wash them and plant
fn a bed covered with sand an inch deep. This must be done
In the fall. Put hay or coarse litter over the bed to keep from
drying, and be sure the seeds do not dry in gemmating the fol-
lowing spring. Second method. Plant the berries in the fall
OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONIFERS. $3

in a bed where you wish them to grow. Cover with brush or
rubbish. Take it off the second spring when they will come up.
How long this rust will continue we cannot tell. But few Red
Cedars are being planted, while thousands are being cut down
yearly.

Trailing Juniper. This trails on the ground and roots from
the limbs and so can be multiplied rapidly. You see much of
it in Eastern pastures, often reaching out and covering a space
twelve feet or a rod square. It is of no use, only here and there
one may do for ornament. You see another form, much more
beautiful I think, growing in the Rockies and the Black Hills.
They succeed very well when transplanted to the plains. Jack-
s0n Dawson, Superintendent of Arnold Arboretum at Boston,
is our Eastern wizard. He can do almost anything he likes. He
put a trailing Juniper on the stem of a Red Cedar and made
an umbrella of it, selling it, as a curiosity, for $50.00.

The American Larch or Tamarack. We have two forms of
this. One growing in the Sierras and the other in our Northern
swamps. In the early days in Minnesota we used to cut large
quantities for our log houses and framing timber. The trees
grow tall and straight and there is a large burden to the acre.
They usually grow in swamps like the White Cedar; but they
are much more hardy and I have some fine specimens growing
in York. I think we can depend on them in many localities,
They are deciduous Conifers, dropping their leaves in the fall.
The companion tree of this class is the. :

Cypress. Btt this is a Southern tree. I have seen it grow-
{ng in Northern Illinois, and theugh I have often tried it in Ne-
braska 30 below zero does not seem to agree with it. Perhaps
a few out ef a hundred might survive and it is probable that
seedlings from the extreme Northern belt might succeed and
we could raise a few for variety, but we cannot depend on them.

The Most PromInent Conlfers of the South. The Long
Leaved Pine—Pinus Palustris. This is one of the most beautl-
ful trees. In form it is much like the Norway Pine, only the
needles are much larger. It grows very straight, and is a thrifty
tree. I was much interested in watching the growth while I
wag in Alabama. You often find a tuft of long, bright, green,
glossy needles in the weeds and grass. These needles would
be twelve to fifteen Inches tall—a beautiful compact cluster.
Examine closely and you find them all coming out of one bud
close to the ground. This is a yearling tree. Next year the
bud is Hfted perhaps a foot higher, and then year by year it

pushes upward, throwing out branches covered with those long
needles. A young, symmetrical tree presents a very striking
appearance, It is graceful in form and is covered with those
long plumes. These are larger on young, thrifty trees than on
the old ones. No tree seems more anxious to make a sawlog
than this. It retaing its branches till a strong root system is
EVERGREENS.

 

 

Forest of Long Leaved Pine in Florida,

(By Permission of Forestry Department.)
OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONIFERS. 55

formed, then the limbs fall and it shoots upward straight as
an arrow. The grand forests of the South are being rapidly
cut away but the young trees spring up in haste to take their
places. There is one trouble, I understand, with the young trees.
The southern razor-backed hog is always ravenous and he must
eat and it takes a great deal to fill him up, and if he can find
nothing else he will root out and devour the young Pine. This
voracious shark of the forests seems to have the right-of-way
at the South and is about as heedless as the white man and
makes no more of destroying a young forest than would a North-
ern lumberman. He seems to be doing for the South what the
other is doing for the North, and between the two they form an
anti-forest trust that is doing a large amount of business,

The lumber from the Long Leaved Pine is largely used for
framing, ceiling and flooring. It is hard and wears well. Tur-
pentine is made from this tree. All along a system of tree
butchery has been used which kills the tree. But recently, gov-
ernment experts have come to the rescue with a system which,
while it secures the sap, saves the tree, and we saw many fine
groves in a thrifty condition, which on inspection showed they
had been tapped without material injury. It Is a great pity
that we cannot move such a beautiful and valuable tree to the
North, But it cannot be done; the air in winter is too dry and
it Is too cold.

The Short Leaved Pine—Pinus Echinata presents quite a
contrast to the Palustris. It is, however, a thrifty, vigorous
tree.

The Loblolly Pine—PInus Taeda. This is one of the most vi-
gorous and enterprising of trees. It seems overflowing with
vitality and is very thrifty and aggressive. It is a more rapid
grower than the Long Leaved Pine. The timber is not very
durable but recently the government has been giving it a
chemical treatment which promises to make it valuable for
railroad ties. By the way, many experiments are being made,
especially in Europe, so that worthless timber like the Beech
can be made to last twenty or thirty years. <A process will
doubtiess soon be found for extending the durability of the
Pines and even the cottonwoods. The growing scarcity of tim-
ber enbances the work of the chemist.
CHAPTER IX,

THE EVERGREENS OF THE SIERRAS AND THE PACIFIC
SLOPE.

When we come to the Rockies we find Conifers entirely dif-
ferent from those of the East—a race by themselves. And as
we cross the range we find most of the Colorado families, be-
sides numerous species and varieties which belong to those re-
gions alone. As this book is for the average reader it is not ne-
cessary to give the long array of names attached, like their own
cones, to these various trees.

Just think! the evergreen trees of the Pacific slope com-
prise 60 species, with twenty-five marked varieties. Should you
wish to familiarize yourself with them all, read “Cone Bearing
Trees of Northwest America’ by J. G. Lemmon. Many of these
Species are obscure and rare—hidden off in inaccessible places
—all, of course, interesting, but, for practical use, beyond the
reach cf the average planter. What we want most of all is
to encourage the planting of evergreens in the great prairie
states where they are most needed, and to give general infor-
mation regarding the great family. One of the most remarkable
of all the evergreens is the Pinus Tuberculata. It fs a slender
and graceful tree and, I think, is also called the Attenuata, When
about eight years old it begins to bear cones—not out of the
branches like other trees, but on the main stem, and they
stay there like ticks securely fastened. They never open to let
out the seeds and never fall off. The cones are about four inches
long; sometimes the bark will close over them and they will be
found solidly embedded in the tree. As the main stem grows
new cones appear clinging to it. Then, as branches shoot out,
closely attached to them will be other cones. These are exceed-
ingly strong and solid, coated with a sort of water-proof var-
nish, making them well nigh exempt from worms and squirrels.
Sometimes a tree will be split open, ingrowing cones will be im-
bedded there, and all those seeds will be good. Most seeds of
the deciduous cone bearers, like the larch, are worthless after
a year or two. But these are kept so perfectly that they will
be good when a hundred years old.

Now what is Nature’s design in preserving these seeds?
Simply this: These trees are in exposed places which are sub-
THE SIERRAS AND PACIFIC SLOPE. 57

ject to the ravages of fire. It sweeps through the forest. It
finds the cones imbedded in that resinous coating. Of course,
the resin invites the fire. The cones are burned. The intense
heat opens them. The seeds pop out, fall in the ashes, then
take root and another forest springs up In the place of the dead
one. If the seeds had fallen from the cones, as in the case of
other evergreens, thére would have been no provision for this
reproduction,

The Pinus Albicaulis builds a comfortable shed for the
weary traveler as he climbs up to the edge of the timber line.
This often grows like an umbrella. It is frequently flat and com-
pact on the top so that a man can walk on it. For years it has
been pressed down by the great burdens of snow. It forms a
fringe around the bald-headed mountain. There it clings and
hangs, wrestling with wind and storm.

John Muir says, ‘In detached clumps, never touched by fire,
the fallen needles of centuries growth make a fine, elastic
mattress for the weary mountaineer while the tasseled branches
spread a roof over him and the dead roots, half resin, usually
found in abundance, make capital camp fires, unquenchable in
thickest storms of rain and snow. Seen from a distance the
belts and patches of this tree darkening the mountain sides look
like mosses on a roof.”

Pinus Lambertlana or Sugar Plne. This tree is by far the
most kingly of the whole Pine family.

About the year 1826 David Douglas, an enthusiastic English
botanist, making Fort Vancouver, then head quarters of the
Hudson Bay Co., his stopping place, would often sally forth
in the wonderland of Oregon. One day he saw some seeds In
the pouch of an Indian which aroused his curiosity and he
could not rest until he found the giant which produced them.
After a perilous journey, with his life threatened by the sav-
ages, he found a grove of these monsters. He saw one that
had blown down, which wag thirty-seven feet nine inches in
circumference, and the extreme length was 245 feet. It is no
uncommon thing to find them over two hundred feet in height.
This tree has immense cones fifteen to twenty-four inches in
length—the largest by far of any. The wood is fragrant and of
fine texture, and is used much as we use the White Pine. The
name Sugar Pine is given because sugar exudes from wounds
made by the axe or fire, The taste much resembles maple
sugar, but like that made from box elder it has something of a
cathartic nature and cannot be eaten freely. Mr. Douglas nami-
ed this tree from an intimate friend, Dr. Lambert in England.

There is a variety called Purpurea, or Purple Cone, which
is somewhat smaller.

Pinus Montlcola or Mountaln Plne. This tree occupies the
same relative position in the Sierras that the Picea Engelmani
58 EVERGREENS.

does in the Rockies. It is a hardy, vigorous, thrifty tree, nine-
ty or one hundred feet tall, and five or six feet in diameter. It
somewhat resembles the eastern White Pine. Its finest develop-
ment is at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. It is possible, grow-
ing at such a high elevation, that it would be hardy in the Da-
kotas and Minnesota, though, in raising trees, there are more
than certain degrees of cold to be taken into consideration.
The soil may not be congenial; the winter air, though of the
same degree of coldness, may be much drier and so not fit. But
these things should be tested and all through the Northwest
we should find out how large are the resources from which we
can draw.

Monterey PIne—Pinus Radiata. This tree is remarkable in
that it loves the sea coast and can endure the ocean air. It is
found in the hot valleys of California. It often grows to the
height of one hundred feet and grows very rapidly, sometimes
the annual layers will be one-half to one inch thick, showing
very vigorous growth.

Many of the trees of the Rockies grow in the Sierras, where
they are much larger than their Eastern relatives. This is true
of the Ponderosa, which in the West is called The Yellow or Sil-
ver Pine. There it has been known to reach the height of 220
feet with a diameter of eight feet. If in the Rockies you find
one four feet through and 100 feet tall you will do well.

The Concolor, one of the most charming Conifers of Color-
ado, grows in California to an immense size, often reaching a
height of 200 feet and six feet in diameter. Pinus Contorta,
Pinus Flexilis, and Pinus Aristarta or Foxtail Pine are also in
the Sierras, growing on a much larger scale,

Ables Magnifica. This is much like the Concolor, only tall-
er and grander, sometimes reaching the height. of 250 feet.
This is called the Red Fir by lumbermen who always use the
branches to sleep on. They make a delightful bed and the
leaves are unsurpassed for pillows. Douglas, who first found
and described these trees, went into raptures over their kingly
and imposing majesty.

The Douglas, Spruce, named from David Douglas, is in the
fullness of its glory on the Western slope. There is probably
no tree of such dimensions as closely packed in so small a com-
pass as this, a single acre of these stately columns producing a
fabulous amount of the best framing lumber to be found. Our
Rocky Mountain trees, though of the same species, are like
dwarfs beside their stalwart Western cousins.

The Incense Cedar—Libocedrus Decurrens. This is also a
giant. I hardly know what we would have done for shingles if
it had not been for this tree, available after the best White
Pine material had been used up. It is used extensively for other
purposes. When our house here in York was built, we used
TRE S5iRRAS AND PACIFIC SLOPE. 59

Cedar doors. These, when finished with hard oil, show the grain
to good advantage and give the best of satisfaction. Our
house is also weather-boarded with the same material.

Hemlock Spruce—Tsuga Pattonlana. This is called by Muir
the most singularly beautiful of all the California Conifers. ‘So
slender is its axis at the top that it bends over and droops like
the stalk of a nodding lily.’”” The branches divide into droop-
ing, waving sprays, the whole tree looking like a beautiful
fountain, whose gently falling waters had turned to softest
green.

Though apparently delicate and tender, it yet has a robust-
ness which enables it to endure the cold and storms, the floods
and snow massing. It delights in an elevation of 9,000 to 10,-
000 feet.

When the first snows fall the branches of the young trees
quietly yield to the burden. More snow falls and the whole
forest of young trees will bend lower and lower till they le
prone on the earth. Then come the great snow masses which
cover them completely—packed so solid you can ride on horse-
back over them. Then spring comes. The burden is lifted and
slowly the beautiful trees rise erect again; their plumes nodding
in the gentle breeze.

The U. S. government has recently published a work on the
Western Hemlock, calling attention to its strength and fitness
for framing lumber. Our Eastern Hemlock was neglected for
years. You might go through our Pine forests of the North,
and you would see the Hemlock yet untouched. But, as lum-
ber grows scarcer this comes in play, and though it splits too
bedly for finishing lumber it has its place for sheeting and
scantling.

The Nut Pines. These constitute the wild orchards of the
Indians, furnishing food in immense quantities for man and
beast. Tons of these seeds are shipped away to be sold and
eaten as nuts. They are about the size of a pea and are eaten
like peanuts, either raw or roasted. One of the prominent
members of the group is Pinus Sabiniana. Full grown speci-
mens will be forty to fifty feet tall and two or three feet in
diameter. This is a great favorite with birds, squirrels, bears

and Indians.

PInus Monophylla. This is a low, bushy tree, built down
on the ground with cones as accessible as possible. The Indians
claim these as their own and many a white man has been kill-
ed for cutting them down.

The Pinyon Edulis varies but little from the former. In
short, Providence seems to have placed these trees in immense
quantities where they are most needed—where the rainfall 1s
light, and otker things do not readily grow without irrigation.
60 EVERGREENS,

What an exciting time when the Pine seeds are ripe. The
Indians in wild hordes get ready—men, women, and children.
They are armed with long beating poles and are loaded down
with bags, baskets, and mats. It is a gala time. Men leave
thelr work on the ranches and the women, scattered from home
as servants, all rally for the great cavalcade, with men in pic-
turesque garb and women flaunting gaudy celors—often two
squaws riding astride of one pony with the papooses strapped
on somehow. With joy and glee and wild abandon the great
crowd pitches camp on some stream and then the work begins.
The long poles bring down the heavy cones, which are chased
by squaws and children as they roll down the hillside. Fires
are kindled and the cones under intense heat are made
to disgorge the seeds, and feast follows feast, but the principal
part of the menu of the wild carnival is the Pine Nut. You can
imagine the scene. The cones are covered with pitch not yet
hardened. Of course, the soft pitch and the dust blend well,
and you have a happy, sticky, rollicking mass of humanity;
only we would think that if the Indian mother and her darling
child were on too intimate terms, they would have to be pried
apart.

Tons upon tons are taken home, and stored for the winter.
Tons are sent away. In all our western cities you see them
exposed by the bushel at the fruit stands. Dogs eat them with
avidity, and for horses they make a substitute for oats and
barley; if you are hungry you couid make a good meal of them
yourself.

The Sequolas. Here we come‘to the grandest work of
God in the vegetable kingdom. There have been massive trees
{n other lands and climes, but never anything approaching the
tmperial grandeur of these monarchs of the woods. They have
siarvelous tenacity of life and are born for the millenium,

Sequola Sempervirens, This is the mighty Redwood of the
Pacific slope, and the grand forests of this majestic tree are
rapidly‘falling before the rapacity of the lumbermen. Strange
that men can see no value in anything unless {t can be re-
duced to dollars and cents. You stand in awe before one of
these majestic monuments of God’s fatherly care; you think of
His tender guardianship over it for a thousand years; how the
rains have watered it and the genial suns have Kissed its
branches; how it now looms up in the majesty of its youth
though ten centuries have passed over it. You linger beside ft;
your eyes ache as they reach its topmost branches and you take
tn its symmetry and grandeur. You would stay there for days
tn companionship of this silent majesty. Along comes u man
with an ax. He sees no beauty there, he pulls out his tape line

and measures it. ‘That will make so much lumber. Yes, there
Is a hundred dollars worth in that tree. Boys, cut it down!"
Soon the monarch lies prone on the earth before his rapacious
THE SIERRAS -AND PACIFIC SLOPE. 6r

greed. About one-half to two-thirds of the tree is taken. The
superb crown, nurtured by the care of The Infinite, woven into
such symmetrical form, gemmed with cones lika
jewels in a king’s diadem, there it lies; ito
days eut short; its hope for coming centuries
blighted. Say, how do five twenty dollar gold pieces look, beside
that glorious shaft crowned by the hand of the Creator—a tri-
bute to His protecting care, with eloquence unspoken, declaring
His praise—the winds sounding notes of triumph through those
branches as though a mighty organ voicing Nature’s trium-
phant song to the great Creator?

Yet this tree has a marvelous tenacity. It does not want
to die. Cut down a catalpa or a chestnut and immediately
sprouts will come up which will soon grow into trees. I think
the Redwood is the only cone-bearing tree which does the same
thing. From the stump a cluster of sprouts will arise to take
the place of the one that has fallen. The force held in re-
serve in that root system, which sends out its feeders near and
far, now rushes to the rescue and in a short time the sprouts
become saplings and then the saplings, trees. But it takes a
long time to restore the wreck of a thousand years.

The Sequola Gigantea. This is the larger of the two and
seems almost destined for immortality. Rings have been count-
ed on a stump which showed the growth of 4,000 years. A
mighty tree when Alexander was driving Darius to the wall—
a tree which started well back with Nineveh and Babylon. Mr.
Muir tells us that in all his research he never saw one that died
a natural death. And he thinks that monarchs, the stumps
of which have been eaten out by fire, have lain on the ground
from three to five hundred years before fully decaying. The
tree has a marvelous prepotency if we may apply this term.
It yields an enormous amount of seed. These seeds are sent
to different parts of the world. If I remember aright I have
seen fine specimens growing in Rochester, N. Y., and other parts
of the East. Without doubt there will be localities both in
Europe and America which will be congenial to this wonderful
tree. In its own habitat it seems tohave an ambition toreproduce
itself. Muir counted 536 promising seedlings growing on two
acres of rough, avalanche soil. Often the ground, fire swept,
will be covered with these trees. From all that we can gather
these seem to be the most thrifty of all our evergreens, and
doubtless our Forestry department will make careful research
for congenial localities where they can be grown in abundance,

We cannot imagine anything grander than God’s mighty
Cathedral in the Yosemite, which He has been thousands of
years in building. Did men ever rear such shafts? How mas-
sive! Think of pillars twenty-five to thirty feet in diameter,
and three hundred feet high, supporting a roof kalsomined with
62 EVERGREENS.

the emerald of their branches. What awe and reverence come
over men as they stand in that great temple, as when they feel
the earth tremble beneath them, or see the ocean lashed with
tempest, and the mountain billows thundering on the rocky
shore,
CHAPTER X,

COLLECTING EVERGREENS IN THE ROCKIES.

We do not wonder that President Roosevelt loves the moun-
tains and welcomes their rugged grandeur and prefers the
camp, with all its wildness to the comforts of the White House.
Often in Springtime, wearied with doing the work of two men
I have turned to the glorious Rockies for change and rest. Let
me describe one trip. We took the stage from Pueblo to
Beulah, a distance of twenty-eight miles. As we cross the
intervening plains we have a magnificent view. Nature is in
one of her coquettish moods, as if she was giving joyous wel-
come to her lover. Now she draws a screen of cloud from the
foothills to the highest crest, and the whole range is hidden
from view. Then the curtains are moved aside and we see
the projecting cliffs, the rocks, forests and mountain sides.
Then another shift is made and great gulfs and frowning preci-
pices appear. The curtains rise and fall again and then are
moved from side to side, when as if by magic, the mighty veil
is lifted and rolled away, and the majestic range stands out
to view, crowned with old Baldy who rises almost 14,000 feet
into the heavens. As we move nearer, the scene becomes much
more distinct and impressive. Now we pass Muldoon hill, where
Barnum’s great Muldoon, the missing link, half ape and half
man, was found, which years ago created such a flurry in the
scientific world. The spot was well chosen. I have dug up fine
petrifactions on the same spot and right there the specimens
of Selenite, (crystallized gypsum.) I was digging for speci-
mens one day when a passing mountaineer called out, ‘‘What
are you doing there?” “Oh, just gathering fossils.” ‘Well,
keep on, you may find some little Muldoons yet.” As we near
the mountains, two great buttes rise from the plains like two
immense gun-boats, one is called Monitor and the other Mer-
rimac. Now the road winds around the brow of a cliff and we
descend into one of the most charming valleys on which the
sun ever shone, Here the changes of scenery seem well nigh
infinite. You have constantly new views of the mountains
with their crowns of forests and snow and the play of Nght
and shadow around the summits.

I remember one day a cloud like an umbrella slowly set-
&4 EVERGREENS.

tled down over the valley and hung there a few hundred feet
above us like a great dome. There were mountains on every
hand, and through the fringes of the great canopy we could see
forests and rocks—the green and the brown. The whole scene
was weird and awe inspiring as if a mighty cathedral had been
extemporized for our worship. Now we go into the little vil-
lage; and here are our cottages. In the yard are glistening
Spruces which we brought years ago from the highest altitudes
and here is a grove of Ponderosa Pines, one of them nearly
eleven feet in circumference and its wide drooping branches
and massive head make a fine carriage house and wood-shed for
one of our tenants. As we go into our cottage we see over
Mount Nebo a train of clouds like a flock of sheep coming down
the mountain side, They come right into the yard and are
over and around us, giving kindly welcome and cheering us
with their unspoken sympathy. Did you ever “keep Batch?”
It is just as easy and natural as can be. Here is a gem pan;
stir up flour and oatmeal, half and half, put in water, a little
butter and baking powder. Have your oven hot and in ten min-
utes you have a feast fit for a king. Fry your ham and po-
tatoes in the meantime. What biscuits you have left, butter
well and put into your dinner pail and you have something
that will wear. Why make such a fuss about housekeeping?
I have seen women putter and dawdle around three hours
getting breakfast and it would be no better than mine—all
on the table in just thirty minutes from the time of getting out
of bed.

By six o’clock we are ready for our start; we have a task
on hand. Wighty-five thousand trees to gather for the United
States government besides thousands for other parties. We had
a man out prospecting and he has found a good place for us.
It is some miles away and the rough road rises up and up all
the way. It is slow work for the mules. Note the trees by the
wayside. Here are the hardy brown cedars which will endure
any amount of heat and drouth; scattered here and there are
the Scopulorum or Silver Cedars in their glistening robes as
if sprayed with the moonbeams. Here is the all prevailing
Ponderosa, rugged, brave, patient and persistent—growing every:
where; out of the clefts of the rocks, perched upon the clifts
waving defiance from the front of the yawning precipice, grow-
ing stately and grand where it can, doing the best possible
everywhere, always full of courage in every condition. Here
are groves of Douglas Spruce, each group a foliage garden of
itself, some are light green, others are almost blue, some are rigid
in form and others have a pendulous grace. On some the
needles are long, on others they are short. To heighten the ef-
fect, near them are the charming Abies Concolor with their
changing and shifting tints of light and dark green and sliver
shadings. Up a steep mountain we climb and come to a level
COLLECTING EVERGREENS IN THE ROCKIES. os

plain which is edged with drifts of snow and here we begin
our work, ‘‘Now, boys, be very careful. Don’t pull them. Dig
every one carefully with the spade. Be sure and get all the
roots. As fast as you dig, cover with earth. When you have
an armful bring them to me and I will keep them under this
wet burlap.”

The work begins in earnest. Reader, did you ever have a
taste of mountain air? Where the rich ozone goes tingling
through your nerves and then comes to you the joy of living.
You can almost feel wings growing. The blues and the “tired
feelings’ and the despondency all fly away and you are left
in a delightful ecstasy. Oh, this is glorious! The white snow,.
these grand trees! Yonder, clear sky and those fleecy clouds
which Mother Nature has washed so clean and has now hung
them up on invisible clothes lines to dry.

Most of the Conifers we gather are the Douglas Spruce.
It is my part to sort and tie them in bunches of twenty-five
and it keeps me busy. The air is moist, so is the burlap we
use. When we get ten bundles they are laid by the snow bank
and the roots are covered with snow. We have a lively time
until noon. I build a fire and prepare coffee and then we have
our lunch and a brief chat about our work. Our nooning fs short,
for we want to get to camp in good season. We start about
five o’clock. Our trees are packed in a great bundle, roots to
roots and the tops outside. They are wrapped in burlap, the
roots being layered in snow. We reach camp, find a nice clean
spot of earth; a puddle of mud is made, the trees are dipped;
they are then heeled in solid. Our first day’s work is twelve
thousand—a very gvod beginning. Then we get our supper
and are tired enough to sleep. Some of these tress are mud-
ded again, packed in moss and shipped to the different experi-
ment stations. But we must build a screen and plant forty
thousand ourselves. My partner says: “We never can do this.”
‘Flow long will it take,” I ask. ‘“Why, a man can only plant
two thousand a day.” ‘Pull out your watch; there are one
thousand and I will plant them and do it In an hour.”

When you plant under a screen you put them close to-
gether. It takes two years for them to be well rooted. We do
not expect they will grow much ‘and so we mark our rows six-
teen inches apart, spading down straight on one side. Now set
your trees upright with one hand and with the other put the
earth against them. They need be only two inches apart and
the rows sixteen inches. When set you stamp them solid so
that the earth is packed firmly around each tree and the loss
{s very small indeed. The thousand were easily planted in forty-
five minutes. My man soon “caught on” and it did not take
long to put the forty thousand away in good shape.
6€ EVERGREENS.
HuntlIng the Plcea Pungens.

One Fall an order came from an Eastern firm for three
‘thousand pungens of selected bright colors. While fall planting

will do well enough in the East it is seldom practiced in the
West, although here in York, in selling a piece of ground, I
had to remove a lot of little two-year-old trees. I did it under
protest quite late in the fall. The ground was moist and I
covered them with cornstalks to secure a good ventilation and
they all lived,

To secure those bright Silver Spruce I had to get up at
four o’clock and start out at five, riding a burro and how slow
he was. It was only by feeding him up like a horse that I
could get any speed at all out of him. It took about half the
time to go and come. Strange, {fs it not, that in this age things
of real merit will come to the front? Three thousand trees
were a great many. They went to a nursery near Boston where
choice things are appreciated. If I found an exceptionally bright
one I would say, ‘‘Here, my little fellow, you must not lose your
charms in this wilderness. You were born to shine.’”’ Some
of these trees sold for $12.00 and $15.00 each.” Most of them
went at from $2.00 to $5.00 and today you will find some in
the Arnold Arboretum, some in the Hunnewell estate but most
of them in the private homes of prosperous people and those long
donkey rides had much to do in adding to the beauty of the
old Bay State. Thus it is in this age, the rich draw the choic-
est things from all parts of the world and if there is a tree
or shrub of real merit it must come to the front.

Most plants and trees do best under good cultivation. Take
the Pungens. In its own habitat it drew the attention of the
traveler. Hundreds were taken into the Western states and
planted {In the East. I have know instances where $100.00 was
refused for a single tree and some of them at their best
estate are almost priceless. The hunter delights in finding and
shooting game but I have found joy more intense in hunting
beautiful trees and sending them to their destination where as
courtly sentinels they stand on dress parade—the admiration
of the beholder.

Hunting the Black Hills Spruce.

The hunter delights in the trophies of the chase, The skin
of the bear or horns of the elk are witnesses of his skill and
prowess. Before me as I write there are a couple of Black Hills
Spruce which, with thousands of others, are my trophies. These
are the genuine White Spruce—a section of the family swinging
around into the Black Hills where the climate is something
like that of the contiguous regions and being but a few hundred
miles away they can be successfully moved. Here the same
precautions are used as in the Rockies, For years the wardens
of that section have made themselves obnoxious by refusing
to allow any trees to be removed, even prosecuting those who
COLLECTING EVERGREENS IN THE ROCKIES, 67

 

 

 

 

Black Hills Spruce.
68 EVERGREENS,

took them. But this 1s contrary to the wishes and Intent of
the Forestry department. The Black Hills are the nurseries for
the great prairie states. Cattle are allowed to destroy forty
to every one that is taken. And if those thickets were left to
themselves they would destroy and crowd out each other,
Better far for them to adorn prairie homes than to be strangled
to death in the struggle for existence.

This description is not a covert advertisement for long ago
I gave up collecting evergreens,
CHAPTER XI,

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS

We find here an altogether different class of trees from those
ef the East, and it would not seem as if they belonged to the
same continent. They appear to have been invented for en-
tirely different conditions.

Not long ago I had a talk with M. Brugger, a banker at
Columbus, Neb. He was born in Switzerland, amid the grand
mountain scenery, which sets people wild with rapture. I asked
him the difference between the two systems of mountains. He
said they were as widely different as if belonging to two worlds.
The air of one is soft and humid, clothing hill and mountain
with a freshness and greenness foreign to our own. Said he:

“With the same conditions your Colorado peaks would be
capped with glaciers and you would have far softer and more
beautiful scenery. Ycur mountains are piled up in the heart
of the arid regions, where rainfall is light and the air is dry.
You have vastness and grandeur. We have softness and beauty.”

This accounts for the fact that trees nurtured for millen-
ijums in these mountains are fitted for a like atmospheric re-
lation on the plains. While evergreens brought from Switzer-
land could not live a year on our bleak prairies, the Silver
Cedar and Ponderosa thrive under care far better than in their
own habitat.

The Silver Sheen. This is a striking peculiarity of our
mountain trees, especially the Cedars, Spruces and Firs. What
is the cause of this? Probably the high altitude and the
shelter of the deep gorges. You seldom find these exquisite
colors in trees exposed to the full glare of the sun and the
full sweep of the winds.

The most charming and delicate shading {s found in the most
sheltered places, where the evolution of beauty has been going
on for ages, and those garments of more than courtly splendor
have descended from parent to child. This rare beauty {s a sort
of a bloom like that on a peach, which covers the needles and
is easily rubbed off, so that a tree of rarest beauty exposed on
a bleak prairie, whipped and cuffed by the winds, must lose
much of its attractiveness,
yo EVERGREENS.

It is with trees as with human beings. <A girl tenderly
nurtured in a city, shielded from sun and storm, has a soft,
velvety complexion, and if later on her children and grand-
children grow up in the same conditions there would be even
greater delicacy of features. If d sister of this same girl
grew up on Western plains and was much out of doors, bronzed
by the hot suns and toughened by the winds, she would have a
countenance entirely different, and if this exposure should be
kept up for generations it would seem as if they could not pos-
sibly have been related.

Rich Coloring Can Be Preserved. With care the rich color-
ing can be preserved and even enhanced. When you trans-
plant a tree from the mountains to a prairie nursery and give
it good care, it grows much morerapidly and hasa deeper, fintr
color, You can find nowhere in the mountains such lovely
trees as you see in a well-sheltered nursery. And here a
strange thing occurs. In some parts of Massachusetts are
places very congenial and the trees put on a radiance that is
charming, and the same trees in some portions of Ohio will
lose their brightness entirely in August and be green the rest
of the year.

Too much wet is not favorable to the sheen or delicate coat-
ing of needles. I knew 500 bright Pungens rejected as worth-
less for color in a wet season, but the purchaser was persuad-
ed to wait another year, when they came around all right.

The great Horticulturist seems to have held these trees
of rare loveliness for these latter days, when the whole world
is searching for the very best—an age when there is more
thought of home and farm adornment than ever was known be-
fore. It is an age of parks. Fifty years ago these were un-
known. Now za large area of our largest cities is given to the
public and the world is searched for finest trees, shrubs and
flowers.

If you want to see the most exquisite robes that trees
ever wore, seek some deep gorge, where there is such a blending
of beauty as will photograph a picture of loveliness on your
memory. There, kind Mother Nature has been performing
work no artist can copy. Lie in the shade and let the sun
and wu gentle breeze put that beauty on exhibition. On the
background is the gray granite. There is the Ponderosa, wav-
ing its plumes of deepest green. There is the Dougiassi in
soft colors, from light green to richest silver, and there theSilver
Fir, so true to name, with green and ermine commingled; and
there the Cedar, with fine, rich, deep foliage, so different from
{ts relative of the plains.

Go higher up, where the snowflakes fly in summer, and the
sleet comes in August, and you find the Pungens and Engelmant
children of the clouds, whose fleecy whiteness seems to linger
in their foliage, and even in the glare of the sun those branches
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREEN& n

Beem flooded with the softness of the moonlight. These trees
of such attractive and unique coloring, are sports or variations
of their respective species, found only in our Western mountains.

Gathering The Seeds. Well, let us take a trip to the moun-
tains and gather some seeds. One year we followed in the wake
of wa sawmill. The men took the logs and let us have the
tops, sO we could gather rapidly. But generally we let the
squirrels do the work. They can climb so much better than we.
I have been in those high altitudes when the trees would be
burdened with cones, and in three weeks there would not be
one to be seen. It is a busy time both for squirrels and seed
gatherers. It would be crucl to the squirrels were it not for
the fact that they cut off ten times as much as they can possibly
consume. But their idea is to leave nothing. They will take
a large tree, say of the Concolor, the cones of which are as
large as an ear of small sweet corn, and-in a short time the
stems will be gnawed off and the cones come thumping to the
ground. Sometimes the cones are bad; the seeds did not
mature. These the squirrels never touched. We did, but found
them worthless. At first we used to climb and gather at great
expense and trouble, but now our collectors almost entirely de-
pend on the squirrels. If a man wants the hardest scolding
he ever had let him fill a bag with cones while the little fel-
low is at work up a tree. He tells him in plain language he
is a thief and a robber, and if he wasn’t so large he would come
down and give him the biggest thrashing he ever had, and
sometimes he would start to do it anyhow, but the nearer
he got to his enemy the bigger he looked, and then he would go
back and work a while and scold a while.

The most singular thing about the little fellow is the way he
keeps the seeds. They must be kept fresh or he cannot use
them, If they should spoil he would starve. He has places
where he stores them among old well-rotted cones. He stands
them on end in clusters of about a double handful and sprinkles
some old cone dust between them; then covers them lightly
and sometimes under a single tree the men will get two or
three bushels. The cones are put in sacks and bound on burros
or horses and taken to camp, where they are spread out on
large sheets to dry. They are then threshed out and put
through a fanning mill and are ready for market. The industry
has grown immensely. Our collectors in Beulah, Col., gather
nearly a ton a year; many of these go to Europe. One year we
sent a lot to plant Prince Bismarck’s estate, wu few years before
he died.

The Picea Pungens. The Picea Pungens is the king of the
Spruces, clothed in royal robes of silver and sapphire, a very
kohinoor emong the gems of the-Rockies, It is a child of the
storm king, growing at an altitude of from 8,000 to 10,000 feet
y2 RVERGRIERB,

 

 

 

 

Picea Pungens.
(Colorado Blue Spruce.)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS, 73

above the level of the sea. It is generally found even there in
deep gorges or on the north of the ranges. We would naturally
suppose that it could not endure a sudden change, or thrive in
a hot climate. But the fact is, there is no tree which can
endure a greater variety of soil and climate. There are fine
specimens growing in Washington, also in North Carolina.

Until it is twenty-five years of age it will probably be by
far the most attractive Conifer on earth. That marvelous sheen
seems of the deep blue and the fleecy clouds poured out on the
oranches like a flood of beauty.

This tree has been extensively grafted, but as only laterals
could be used, it was hard to make the tree rise in the world.
The upright leader of course could not be used for the scion,
and so the tree, partaking of the nature of the graft, did not
know which way to go, and so would go every way but upward.

The rare color of these trees is somewhat tricky. You
may put the brightest tree you can find on the windswept plains
and it will become green except while growing, when it will
brighten again. You may make the most careful selection and
send Hast, and they will lose their gala dress on the way. The
collector is often severely censured for not sending bright trees,
when the finest have been sent, but sweat out the color on the
way. But it is restored again as soon as the tree begins to
grow. Two Pungens grafted from the same tree will show
different color, according to different situations. For some
cause trees raised from seed in nurseries do not develop as
bright color as those growing in some sections of the moun-
tains. Some of the ranges will show a much larger per cent
of richly colored trees than others. The best way is to take
those with established colors and give them good cultivation.
The brightest tree, if stunted or neglected or placed in an un-
favorable location, will take the sulks and turn green. It al-
s0 changes as old age comes on.

The cone of the Pungens is about one-half the size of the
Norway. The needles are short and sharp—pungent—hence the
name. They are like polished glass. In Denver you will often
see them covered with dust and smoke, but on shaking them
they will be as bright as ever. This peculiarity makes them
especially adapted for city planting, and from its construction
we would judge it was invented for this purpose. Dust is
poison to Conifers of soft foliage. This distinctive feature of
the tree must not be forgotten, for it will doubtless grace a
thousand city homes where there would be no success in
planting any other kind.

These trees vary much in form, Those on the grounds
of Robert Douglas of Waukegan, Ill., are remarkable for their
pyramidal form and symmetry, while others will be pendulous.
The tree has a regal grace, stern and unyielding in outline, like
an oak among the Conifers. It throws out stiff, shelf-like
v4@ EVERGREENS.

branches, each year giving a new shelf. Sometimes the snows
lodge heavily on it, and you would think it would be pendu-
lous Uke the White or Norway spruce, but as soon as the snow
is off it springs back again.

Taken all in all, this is a remarkable tree. There is prob-
ably no state in the Wnion where it will not thrive. It might
be monotonous to have the entire grounds planted with them,
but every lawn or yard should have at least one to give with
its unique coloring such a pleasing contrast to the deep green
of other trees. Hardy, healthy and wonderfully beautiful, it
should ke welcomed to every home.

Plcea Engelmanl—EngelImanl Spruce. Named from Dr. Eng-
elman, the Botanist.

About fifty miles west of Boulder, Col., in the centennial
year, a company of travelers were caught in a fearful storm
and probably would have perished had they not found a most
remarkable tree. It was tall and shapely, of beautiful droop-
ing form, the outer branches bending to the ground. There
Was an opening as if some animals had entered. Cutting away
some of the limbs, they found a spacious room reaching out
in every way from the trunk about fifteen feet, giving ample
space for themselves and horses. On their entrance some
bears rushed out to the terror of their horses. Looking about,
they found the great limbs shingled with green foliage, drop-
ping to the ground, shutting out snow and storm, while be-
neath was a floor of cone and leaves. They were nicely fixed
and named their protector the ‘“‘Centennial Tree.’”’” It was often
used by travelers in that far off place—away from human habi-
tation.

Some one put up a match box and under it wrote: “If you
haven’t any take some; if you have a surplus, leave some,”
and the box was kept filled for years. The room was imper-
vious to the storms and the matches kept in good condition.
The bears were loth to give up their comfortable nest, and
coming back one day to see if their room was vacant, they
frightened the horses so badly that they ran away, and it took
days to find them. This famous tree was Picea Engelmani—
the giant of the high altitudes—and this was a weeping form of
the species. They seem at their best at an altitude of 8,000
to 10,000 feet above the sea level. A few miles from Beulah,
Col., in the high altitudes there are magnificent groves of them.

They have a softer and more symmetrical appearance than
the Picea Pungens, which they much resemble, and it takes
an expert to tell the difference. These are sometimes called
the Colorado Blue Spruce, though that name really belongs
to the Picea Pungens. The seed is often gathered and sold
for Pungens.

There is no doubt but what this wowd be one of the very
best trees for Northern Minnesota, North Dakota and Mani-
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS. 75

 

 

 

 

Picea Engelmank
76 EVERGREENS.

toba. It Is among the hardiest. It seeds enormously. A pound
will raise a good many trees. Being from the high altitude, it
will stand any degree of cold, and we wish it might be tried on
a@ large scale.

Juniperus Scopulorum, or Silver Cedar. After twenty years’
acquaintance with this tree, I think it is by all odds the most
beautiful of all our evergreens for the plains. It is fully as hardy
as the famous Platte Cedar in its resistance to heat and drouth
and cold. It does not blight like that in u damp season.

An Error Corrected. Many have supposed, and myself
among them, that the Scopulorum was the mother of the
Platte Cedar—that the seed drifted down our streams and that
the present variation was the result of long years of different
conditions. This is all a mistake. The two kinds are en-
tirely distinct. Their meeting place is some distance to the
west of us. The Platte Cedar came up to us from the East,
while the other came down from the mountains. You find it
in many parts of the Black Hills. How do we know? One kind
has several seeds in a berry, and these seeds have a much
softer shell, The Silver Cedar has but one seed to the berry,
and it has a veryhard and horny shell. Oneripens the seed the same
year, while the Silver Cedar requires two years for maturity.
The birds work on them in the meantime, and it is hard to
get those that are matured. Many bushels have been collected
the first year and planted, and not a seed grew.

They are radiant in their robes of silver and emerald and
most of them have drooping foliage which looks as if they were
shingled by some magical process with the most beautiful
covering that ever adorned a tree. The first few years they
turn brown like the Platte Cedar, but as they grow older they
keep their exquisite coloring in winter, and when the snow is
on the ground, contrasting with its whiteness, you see these
glorious trees, queenly in their beauty, with garments scintillat-
ing like flashing jewels in the sun. I have gathered poor stunt-
ed little trees from stony ledges in the Rockies and planted
them on our rich prairies, and in a year or two, when we!l
reuted, they were like prisoners released from bondage, end
would expand and grow from one to two feet a year.

The Firs of the Rockles. Remember trees with upright
cones are F'rs, and are called Abies. Those with drooping
cores are Spruces and are called Piceas, Even today and
among intelligent wiiters and nursery-men the matter is
badly mixed up, ard some write Abies Picea Pungens. of
course, the Cedar and Pine families go into their respective
families, E

The Sub Alpina, When you go up the Rockies to an ele-

vaticn of about 8,000 feet you find a beautiful tree, very sym-
paetrical in form, trunk straight ar an arrow, the bark nearly
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS. * 77

es white as Canoe Birch, the needles’ streaked
with emerald and silver, and when the winds move the branches
there is a fascination of beauty in these mingled colors. This
tree is called by some Abies Lasiocarpa, sometimes White Fir,
White Balsam and Mountain Balsam. It is a Balsam. In form
it 1s much like the northern species with which we are familiar,
only the needles have a more intense color and the bark is
different. In its own habitat it is a beauty. This is Abies
Subalpina.

It took me some time to get acquainted with its peculiarities,
One day I saw a fine group of beautiful slender trees, very
thrifty and symmetrical, huddled closely together. A few feet
away there was a dead Subalpina and from it a dead limb ex-
tended under the group. Looking closely I saw the limb had
dropped down into the leaf mould and taken root, and these
young and beautiful trees were the result. Looking further,
I found many other trees doing the same thing. I have seen
the Norway Spruce and American Arborvitae do this in the
moist climate of the Bast, though very rarely, but this was
the only tree I have met in the West with this habit. To see
them in their beauty one needs to visit thems where they grow.
In the East, where they want the best of everything regardless
of cost, they are growing in favor. These trees grow in the
Yellowstone National Park where they have the same charac-
teristics of reproducing themselves from the lower limbs which
fall into the leaf mould and take root. Showing this tendency
to fellow passengers awakened much interest.

The Concolor. After 25 years of close observation I am con-
vinced that this is the queen of the Firs for the East. Of course,
we must acknowledge the superiority of the noble Firs of the
Western slope, but as they do not succeed in the East we must
count them out and leave the Concolor supreme. The name
signifies even color, bright both summer and winter. These
have been tested under cultivation for forty years and they are
growing in favor. Riding with a friend in Massachusetts years
ago in a group of evergreens, I detected one which I said was
from the Rockies. We were quite a distance away. There
were several kinds in the group, but I knew my eye could not
deceive me, and there was that lovely tree, thrifty and beauti!-
ful, outvying all the rest.

The Picea Pungens ranks as the most beautiful of all
in its younger years. It is indeed a marvel, but after it is
thirty years old the silver and sapphire gradually turn to green
and in many instances they have been cut away. Not so with
the Concolor. Planted by itself with room to spread it will
grow to be four feet through and seventy-five feet tall and

the lower limbs are retained so as to give a fine pyramidal
form. As with the Pungens and Engelmani there are sports or
KEVERGREENS,

 

Concolor Fir, Growing wild on the Ranch of T, C. Thurlow,
West Newbury, Mass.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS. ‘

striking variaffons. Many have the most exqulsite and fascinat-
ing beauty—ermine and emerald blended.

While visiting the princely estate of H. H. Hunnewell at
Wellesley, Mass., I noticed some of these trees of striking seauty
and symmetry, very rich in their foliage. I looked at the labels
—what ponderous and high sounding names they had—well, pile
them on, they could stand it. They were nothing but our own
glorious Concolor after all, and that was enough. I was glad
to see them. They were old friends doing better in their new
tome than in their mountain fastnesses.

A singular thing about them is, though their native home
fs far inland and they thrive at a high altitude, they make one
of the finest coast trees that can be secured. Many Conifers
cannot endure the salt air, but these seem to thrive on the very
shore, defying old ocean to do his worst. While the sheen of
other trees will fade with passing years, these retain their glory,
keeping their attractiveness us the Christian does his joy, to
the very last. In order to see these trees in all their glory you
need to visit them while bearing their cones. Here is a grove
of them. All have on their gala dress. Some are light green,
some have a darker color. The last year's foliage is of one
tint, and the new growth has a lighter tinge. There are many
different shades and what is strange is, that on one tree there
will be cones of light green, and on the next they will be deep
purple. They grow erect on the top of the tree. They are
about the size of the ears of early sweet corn. As they mature
the color seems to deepen, and from the cones there exudes a
gum as clear as crystal. Now stand back while the gentle
breeze and the sun put all that beauty on exhibition—there the
emerald, the sapphire and the silver, the older and newer
growth with varying tints, the cones in contrast with the
rich colored needles—the sparkling gum flashing like diamonds
Take it all in all, there is loveliness enough in that grove to woo
a man half across the continent. From specimens here and
there in the East one has no conception of the coming glory. T.
Cc. Thurlow of West Newbury, Mass., has some splendid spect-
mens, very rich in color, from collected trees I sent him years
ago. On the Tenney estate of Methuen, Mass., are some grand
types of this variety.

Well, you ask, what is the use of this tree? Can we raise
{t on the plains? ‘Will it grow in our parks and private grounds?
Can we depend upon it? Yes, on a hill in prairie sod, near
the town of Friend, Neb., in the cemetery, I saw some of these
trees growing vigorously after three consecutive years of ter-
rible drouth and heat, in the full blaze of the sun and full sweep
of the hat. winds.

The winter of ’'03 and ’04 played sad havoc with these trees
at the Minnesota experiment grounds. The trouble, doubtless,
was the seeds were from the foothills instead of the high alti-
80 EVERGREENS,

tudes. Trees from the hills will stand better on the plains.
Those from the highest limit best resist the cold.

The Douglas Spruce. The Douglas Spruce (Pseudotsuga
Douglassi)—Tsuga is hemlock. Resembling hemlock is the
signification. This is the tree for the million. It is now planted
largely in Europe. In visiting the nurseries of the interior and
also of the East I found it the most thrifty of all the evergreens,
making by far the most rapid growth. Some complain that it
grows too rapidly for a lawn tree, that it soon obstructs the
view in a yard, but it has its place in a grove. Mr. Pollard
of Nehawka, Neb., has a fine grove of them and they are mak-
ing a rapid growth. The foliage is too soft for a windbreak,
When exposed to the full sweep of the sirocco it sun scalds.
You need to hide it behind other trees or put it in a grove.

In the western part of Nebraska I noticed that if planted on
low grounds, as it starts to grow very early, it is sometimes
nipped by late frosts, which give it a ragged appearance. This
is the most famous tree of the Pacific coast. B. E. Fernow,
former chief of forestry, tells us that nowhere on earth is there
such a burden of lumber to the acre as this tree produces, It
was named from David Douglas, an early explorer of the west-
ern forests. You will find it distributed from the eastern slope
of the Rockies to the Pacific coast.

John Muir says: “It is this grand tree that forms the fame
ous forests of western Oregon, Washington, and the adjacent
coast regions of British Columbia, where it attains ite greatest
size and is most abundant, making almost pure forests over
thousands of square miles, dark, close and almost inaccessible,
many of the trees towering with straight and almost impercep-
tible tapering shafts to a height of 300 feet, their heads together
shutting out the light—one of the largest, most widely distri-
buted and most important of all our western giants.”

I call attention to one feature of this tree, and that is Its
almost infinite forms and features. Some are light green and
some a dark blue mingied with silver, some have short needles
and some have longer ones, some have rigid branches and
others those that are gracefully pendulous. Time and again
mountaineers have said: “I will show you an entirely distinct
tree,” when it would prove to be a type of the Douglas.

In eastern Nebraska and Kansas this tree will have a fu-
ture, and in the central portions it will do well if sheltered by
a row of Cedars on the South. As far West as Franklin, Neb.,
there are some fine specimens, but its best field will be to the

East of the 100th meridian. If one is planting a forest by al
means use this tree. It Wis bear close planting. Surround
a piece of land with other evergreens or deciduous trees, and
plant these in the center, and you will soon have a forest of
straight, beautiful trees, which in a few years will make saw-
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS, be

fogs. I think in eastern Nebraska you can raise these trees as
rapidly as they can a forest of Pines in Michigan.

Doubtless in reforesting the waste lands of Minnesota this
tree would be eminently satisfactory. Its hearty, healthy and
rapid growth must make it a favorite. Often in the mountains
you see those of glauca or silver type making them look much
like the Silver Pungens. If you plant a thousand of these trees
yom would be delighted at the various forms and color.

Pinus Ponderosa. The Pinus Ponderosa has _ several
names—Pinus Engelmani, Pinus Parryana, Pinus Jeffreryi.
It is also called Yellow Pine, Bull Pine, Long-Leaved Pine,
Heavy Wooded Pine and Montana Black Pine.

It is one of the most rugged, robust and hardy of all the
Pine family. Under cultivation it is rery thrifty. It will not
do as well in eastern Nebraska as in the western portions and
in the Atlantic states it is q failure.

This tree belongs to Nebraska. Jt grows on the bare hills
in the northwestern parts of the state. You will find it perch-
ed like the cliff dwellers on high, barren bluffs where nothing
else will grow, to get out of the way of the prairie fires. Had
it not been for these fires it would ere this have taken pos-
session of the sand hills. Some years ago the government
did some experimental planting in the hills and got some Pon-
derosa seedlings which I raised in the western part of the state,
and they were found well adapted to the sands. This tree must
be our main reliance for the sand hills and plains. It is a na-
tive. It will resist the extremes of heat and cold.

The last time I went to the Black Hills, out on the plains
in a gorge, on a shelf of disintegrated rock, with no vegetation
around it, I saw a lone Ponderosa. There it stood like an em-
blem of hope on the desolate plains. It had survived because
no grass could grow near it to invite the fires. It plainly said:
“See what can be done. A bird dropped me here and here
I have stood for years with hardly anything to live on. I
have defied drouth, heat and cold, all alone and unprotected.
Now turn up the soil, prepare the ground, give us a chance
end we will show yuu what can be done.”

I have been much impressed with the almost human intel-
figence of these trees. You go into the mountains when the
ground is very dry and you will see a grove of them turning
yellow and you say, ‘I think they have caught it now, and even
these hardy trees must succumb to the drouth.”

But, no! Look a little more closely and they are dropping
half their needles for there is not moisture enough to carry the

whole. Had there been plenty of rain no such economy would
have been nerded. One fall when it had been very dry and
all the groves were turning yellow and adjusting themselves
to the conditions, I noticed somm trees very green and vigorous.
There was no water within 20) feet. Having occasion to dig
EVERGREENS,

 

 

 

 

Pinus Ponderosa,
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS. 83

uvear the ditch, I found the roots of these same trees had gone
down to drink, like a herd of cattle, and there they were pump-
ing moisture into those fresh looking trees 200 feet away.

Owing to the rapid growth the grain is very coarse, so that
it makes fine finishing lumber. Many good houses in Colorado
are finished with this Pine and when nicely dressed with hard
oil it is one of the most attractive woods we have. It has a
tendency to warp and twist if left to itself. So it is necessary
to have it snugly piled. Immense forests of it have been cyt
away in the West and in the Black Hills, but they are in haste
to restore the waste and almost invariably when the old trees
are cut new ones spring up to take their places.

The Pinon Pines. There seem to be two kinds of Pinus
Pinon, pronounced Pinyon or Nut Pine, one growing on the east-
ern slope in Colorado and another in Arizona and New Mexico,
They are remarkable from the fact that they seem able to bear
almost any amount of drouth and heat. You find them grow-
ing well down on the foothills with the Brown Cedar, They are
propagated by a remarkable provision of nature. Birds have
much to do in the distribution of trees. In the winter large
flocks of Cedar pigeons will swoop down on a Platte Cedar and
clean it out, and scatter the seeds all over the country. In the
mountains there is a species of bird called the Pinon blue jay,
whose special business seems to be to take care of the seeds.
Now, these Pines do not seed every year, and the seeds are
large, and the squirrels and birds love them, and yet this blue
jay seems to think he is the warden, and as soon as they
are ripe he digs holes in the ground and deposits them for
his own use. In the meantime he may be shot or his memory
will be poor, so he cannot remember all his hiding places, and
g0 some are overlooked. They are planted rather deep. That
is all right, for it is a dry country, and if too near the surface
they could not germinate.

Now, the rule is the larger the seeds the deeper you plant
them. You can plant a Black Walnut from four to six inches
deep and it will be all right. If you should plant Black Hills
Spruce as deep you would never hear from it. The seed of the
Pinon is about as large as honey locust seed. It is sturdy
and vigorous and will hold its vitality a long time. If it is too
dry to come up one spring it can wait for another and when
the ground does get a soaking it springs up a strong plant. and
forthwith throws down a long tap root to reach any moisture
that may be stored, and thus it hangs on and lives and grows
under most adverse conditions. The wood of this tree is very
heavy and full of resin, making excellent firewood.

It not only grows low down on the foot hills, but also up
near timber line. Years ago, in attempting to climb Pike’s
Peak, I was seized with the rheumatism up in those high alti-
tudes so I could go no further. Off in the distance, I saw @
84 EVERGUVENS.

wood chopper’s tent, and stayed with the men all night. They
were taking Pinon wood to the Pike’s Peak station. The tim-
ber had been killed by fires. The wood was carried on burros.
The grove had fair trees growing at an elevation of 11,000 or 12,-
000 feet, where it is always very cold nights. I remember I had
had a severe chill, while covered with six army blankets in Au-
gust, and I wondered how any tree could possibly grow at that
altitude and in such extreme cold. So you see from the hot
foothills up to timber line, there is a marvelous reach of adape-
tation. But here we must note one thing. If you want to get
Pinon seed for Manitoba, better get from the highest altitude,
and if you want trees for the plains, better get them from the
foothills.

Under the head of Evergreens of the Pacific slope you will
note other varieties of this nut-bearing Pine.

Pinus Flexilis. Sometimes called—Timber Twig Pine, and
also Rocky Mountain White Pine.

This tree is found growing at an altitude of from 6,000 te
12,000 feet. In form and general appearance it much resembles
the Cembra Pine, so popular in the Hast. Growing in the
mountains, it is a fine symmetrical tree. It bears a large cone
and has large seeds. I have raised a good many from seed and
also transplanted many from’ the mountains. They always do
well and transplant as easily as any. They often assume a
glauca or silver coloring like many other mountain trees. I
am well pleased with them. They are especially adapted to
Kansas and Nebraska and they may take the place of the East-
ern White Pine, though I think they will not grow quite as
large. <A grove of these hardy and beautiful trees would be very
attractive.

Of the twelve kinds of evergreens of the Eastern slope all
can be made to live. The Engelmani and Sub Alpina need to
be planted so the sun cannot strike them in full force. By a
judicious arrangement so that the Pines and Cedars can be
placed on the south side to bear the full brunt of the hot winds
and scorching suns, and the tender ones on the north side,
there would be no trouble. We must study how to plant
trees and plants to meet their requirements,

The York park is putting in a Rocky mountain section
on the north side of a steep hill, It is now partly planted and
additions will be made year after year, so that the people can
have the Rockies in miniature without the journey. Besides
the twelve evergreens, there is a large family of shrubs and
flowers.

Pinus Arlstata. Pinus Aristata is sometimes called Bristle

Cone Pine, Hickory Pine and also Foxtail Pine, because the
branches have needles going all around them and they much re-
semble the tail of a fox in form,
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS. 85

The tree Is very unique in appearance, and on account of its
oddity should be in every collection.

They are found at an altitude of about 8,000 or 9,000
feet above sea level. Sometimes they grow to a fair size.
Though they belong naturally to high elevations, I think there
will be no trouble in raising them in Nebraska. I have tested
a few and they seem to do well.

Mr. Pollard of Nehawka, has a fine specimen growing on
his grounds. I saw it a very hot and dry summer, and it seem-
ed to resist the heat and drouth like most of the Rocky moun-
tain Conifers.

I have not had much experience with the timber, but judge
from the name Hickory Pine that it must be the toughest
of all the Pines. At least, it will give us variety, and I think
it will reinforce the number of our useful and hardy evergreens.
These trees grow on the Pacific slope. Mr. Muir has found
them 90 feet tall and five feet in diameter. He says “The
needles have a glossy polish and the sunshine sifting through
them makes them burn with silvery luster. Whether old or
young, sheltered or exposed to the wildest gales this tree is
found irrepressively and extravagantly picturesque, and offers
a richer and more varied series of forms to the artist than any
other Conifer I know of.”

I cannot forget the first one I saw. I had been climbing
a high mountain in a locality I had never visited before, and
was lying down in utter exhaustion when my friend asked
“What kind of a tree igs that?’ I was rested in a moment and
went down to examine it. I thought I knew evergreens but
surely that was a stranger. The tree was a pyramid in form,
and all the way from thelimbs trailing on the ground to the top-
most branches, it was completely covered with fox tails thathad
allturned green, and were turned outward as though hundreds
of foxes were all rushing to some common center, and had each
gotten so far, and could go no further. We had to lie down
and laugh at that tree. It just seemed alive. ‘What is it’
asked my friend, “Didn’t you ever hear of the Fox Tail Ping?
We never saw it before, but that is it, you can’t mistake it
Further up we found quite a grove with different forms, but “the,
same fashion. Some little, some big—grandmothers, children
and grandchildren, all adorned alike with those green Foxtails.
For variety « man should have one of those trees in his col-,
lection. It would enhance the effect of the winter foliage gar-~
@en of which we have spoken. oj Le

Pinus Contorta, This is sometimes called Twisted Pie
and Tamarack Pine, because in a forest it much resembles the
closely packed Tamarack swamps of the North. It is called
Lodge Pole Pine, for the Indians will go long distances to ae-'
cure the long, light, straight poles for their tepees.
86 EVERGREENS.

The body and the branches of this tree seem to belong te
two entirely distinct systems. The trunk is straight as an ar-
row, and the limbs are the crookedest things that grow on @&
tree. The first time I saw a grove of them I stopped and
studied thent a long time. The foliage is of yel-
lowish green, in fine contrast to the neighboring Concolor. No
straighter tree grows in any forest, but as the lower limbs die
and are dried up, they turn and knot and twist like so many
writhing serpents, forming one of the most striking contrasts
in tree life.

 

Native Forest of Pinus Contorta Growing in Idaho.

By permission of Forestry Department. From Gifford Pinchots, Primer of Forestry

The cones of this tree are very remarkable in that they
hold the seeds in a vise-like grip instead of opening them to the
sun and letting the seeds fall like other Conifers, and herein is
a most remarkable provision or compensation of mature. The
trees are full of pitch and the dry limbs easily catch fire and
the whole tree is wrapped in flame, and the entire grove is a
charred and ruined mass. But the fires open the cones and
the seeds spill out into the ashes. They sprout and take root
and come up by the million. They spread out further and
further. Thus by their destruction they push their conquests.

In this respect the tree much resembles the Pinus Tubercu-
lata of the Pacific slope. In a visit to the Yellowstone Nation-
ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS, 87

al Park. I was much impressed with these trees, for they pack
an immense amount of lumber on an acre. It is fascinating to
read the history of a forest. It is all plainly written. About
150 years ago there was a beautiful grove packed thick with
the straightest trees. The lightning struck one of them. Some-
way, the flames crept up a tree and the resinous foliage was set
on fire, and great billows of flame went roaring over the tree
tops, and lo, the whole mass was charred, blackened and Kkill-
ed. But the intense heat had opened the cones, and out popped
the seeds into the leaf mould below. The parent trees were
standing, but a forest of young trees immediately sprang up so
dense and vigorous you could hardly go through them. Then
commenced the struggle for existence. Of course, there was
not room for all. Nine-tenths of them must die. But the ef-
fort to live seems almost human. Finally a chosen few have
the advantage. Perhaps the leaf mould where they fell was
deeper. Perhaps a rotten log was feeding them. Little by lit-
tle a few overtop the rest. And now begins a race for life.
The over-shadowed trees cannot carry bulk, but they must
get up into the air and light. They drop all needless baggage for
the race, no matter about the size. Up must go the slender
stem holding the tuft of green, or the tree must die. The
struggle goes on for years, and then.that tree with 90 others
must succumb to the more vigorous 10 who assert their su-
premacy, and reach out their roots and consume the food
which belongs to the weaker. They have formed a trust, and
power and vigor prevail. And there are those dead trees,
sacrificed to the greed of their fellows. How much human na-
ture there is in trees anyway. Seventy-five years pass by and
one of those same arrogant trees is struck by lightning, and
the same process is repeated, and now you see a forest of fall-
en timber so thick you can walk over the ground on the trees.
There is another forest standing upright, and dead, and there
{gs another of thrifty young trees, all on the same piece of
ground,

It makes the heart of a dweller of the prairie ache to see
such a waste of timber. There is enough to fence all the
prairie farms, te build all the railroads and furnish telegraph
posts for a great prairie state, and there they must lie and rot
for it will not pay to move them. These trees have a wide
range. Our picture of them represents a forest in Idaho. They
grow in Montana, and all through the Sierras. They are trees
that will not be downed. They are not large. Three feet
through and 90 feet tall is a good size, but there are so many of
them, and they grow with such vigor and fight death so valiant-
ly, we can but admire them. They grow on good land or poor,
among stones or in the sand, on mountain crests or so near the
geysers their limbs are coated with the spray. Defiant, heroic,
and victorious, We would recommend them for our Northern
states. The seed is somewhat difficult to gather, but there
88 EVERGREENS.

are little ones growing by the million which might be collected
and planted. They grow rapidly. The National Park is well
to the North, with an altitude of 8,000 feet and there is not
a month entirely free from frosty nights, and yet those trees,
under those uncongenial conditions, will often grow two feet
a year. At a lower altitude, and under good conditions I am
sure they would be a success. I would earnestly urge the Ex-
periment Stations of all our northern states to give them a fair
trial; for I believe they will have a future in Minnesota and the
Dakotas. It would be an easy matter to try them in some
of our northern forests.
CHAPTER XI

FOREIGN EVERGREENS,

Of course we cannot give the names of all the earth’s Ever-
greens. This is not necessary. We mention those that have
been widely introduced and that succeed in many localities.
The Japanese Retinispora are beautiful dwarfs. You see large
quautities of them in New England. These are very effective
in lawns and parks, where you do not wish for large trees. But
from all that I have seen of them they are worthless in the
West.

The Irish JunIper.

This is a fine compact tree, the branches growing close to
he main stem giving the tree a conical symmetrical form. This
foes well in the East and has been planted by the thousand in
the West. But I do not know of one that has succeeded. They
sannot endure our dry winters.

The Swedish Juniper.

This has much the same form and is a very fine tree. I
have had them several years. Some winters the tops of some of
hem will be a little injured but they soon recover. In the same
ow you will note that some are hardy and others tender. It is
an easy matter to multiply those of known hardiness. The
tree throws out numerous branches at the base and these seer
inclined to take root. Dig up « good hardy tree with the dirt
attached; plant it six inches deeper than it was before and in
@ year or so you will have half a dozen well rooted branches
which can be separated and planted and they will all make
nice trees. I think in the northern states these would succeed
well, for it is not the cold but the dry air of winter that kills
many trees.

In planting we need variety in form and this is a variation
from the usual types of Evergreens and is right for the lawn
where you do not want the view obstructed.

Siberian Arborvitae.

This succeeds much better in the West than the Amerl-
can. There are fine large specimens in many places and they
will help to give diversity to our plantations.
EVERGREENS,

 

ene

 

 

Chinese Arborvitae.

 
FOREIGN EVERGREENS, 9g:

Chinese Arborvitae,

Some twenty years ago Robert Douglas advised me to
raise these trees for Southern Nebraska, Kansas and the
Southern states for they endured the hot, dry weather remark-
ably well.

I found them very easy to grow from seed. It did not
seem to make any difference how old they were. I have plant-
ed seed obtained from many different sources and never knew
them to fail. And they do not damp off like other Evergreens.
So you can raise them: véry easily. I had been growing them
with success for twenty years and wrote quite a commendatory
article for one of our leading papers. But the ink was scarce
ly dry when there came one of those mysterious Northwest
death waves which took the foliage off the Scotch Pines, killed
some of the Red Cedars and demoralized the nursery general-
ly and they hit the Chinese Arborvitaes hard and killed the
tips. They sprang up again and with fresh branches covered
up the dead ones, but after all they got a staggering blow. 1
had one that was a record breaker. I left it where it grew in
the seed bed. Only six years from seed it was over nine feet
tall and shapely as a Juniper. A cold snap of 35 below injured
it.

These death waves are mysterious things. One winter such
a wave four or five ralles wide swept through the Rockies
like a fire and turned the evergreens brown. Many were kill-
ed. Even the Ponderosas, the hardiest of all were badly scorch-
ed. One wing of the blast hit our nursery there. It scraped the
sheen from the Pungens and browned some of them badly so
it took years for them to recover. These things show that
the unexpected and the uncertain are always hovering over us.

The Norway Spruce—Plcea Excelsa.

These have been planted on w Jarger scale than any of
our foreign trees. I think they were introduced about sixty
years ago. They are somewhat of the form of our native White
Spruce but more rapid growers. They succeed fairly well
East of the Mississippi river, and in favored localities beyond.
There are hardy ones among them. That is you may plant one
hundred under the one hundreth meridian and perhaps one
ymong them will survive. In the counties bordering on the
Missouri river they often succeed, but you cannot safely move
them out on to the open of unsheltered prairies. We often
plant them in nurseries at York and they may do well for a
year or two, then they will be nearly all wiped out in some
unfavorable winter. In Illinois at one time 1 saw a cattle
yard surrounded by these trees. It was one of the finest arti-
ficial plantations I ever saw. The trees were uniform in size
and of drooping habit. They certainly added much to the

charm of a prairie landscape.
92 EVERGREENS,

There is a weeping form of this tree much used in the
East. It is w sad looking tree and gives its whole strength
to mourning. It would be a failure in most parts of the West.

Alcock’s Spruce.

This is a beautiful, symmetrical tree and quite hardy. One
sent out by accident grew well for years on the grounds of E.
F, Stephens of Crete, Nebraska. It was sold by mistake with
other evergreens and we lost sight of it. I think it is well
worth trial and I am sure it would succeed.

Nordmann’s Fir.

Is a success in Pennsylvania and in the Southern portions of
New York state, but fs not regarded hardy in Massachusetts
and would be of no use in the West.

Scotch PIne—Pinus Sylvestrls.

When first introduced this Pine was very popular and was
planted on a large scale. The seeds are cheap and they do
not damp off as readily as other Conifers, so that at little ex-
pense they can be produced in immense quantities. They grow
rapidly while young but soon mature. I think both East and
West they are being discarded. They haveafair appearance at
first. They cannot endurethe heat of the semi-arid regions and are
utterly useless West of the one-hundreth meridian. I do not
know why they are called Scotch Pine. I suppose they were
planted on a large scale on the mountains and were introduced
from there. Their real home is in Northern Europe and Asia.
They are found in immense forests in Russia. On account of
their Northern birth and soft foliage they cannot endure the
climate of Western Kansas and Nebraska. While they are
a success in the Morthern states, yet even there it is probable
other Conifers will do as well.

Austrlan Pine—Black Pine.

This tree is largely used in Europe, especially in Germany.
The foliage is deep green and seen at a distance In masses It
appears very dark. And so plantations of this tree are called
the Black Forests.

Of the imported trees, this is by all odds the best all
around evergreen for the middle West. It much resembles *he
Pinus Ponderosa only the needles are not as long. It endures
the heat remarkably well. I have seen it thriving on the hot
plains of Oklahoma and it is a success beyond the one hundreth
meridian. It is a compact,, symmetrical and sturdy tree. 1
see one from my window which was planted in poor soil twenty-
five years ago. It is a beautiful pyramid about thirty feet tall.
The lower branches almost touch the ground. It fs about five
times as large as the famous Platte Cedars planted near it,
Some Scotch Pines in the neighborhood grew faster and for
93

FOREIGN EVERGREENS,

 

 

 

 

Austrian Pine,
94 EVERGREENS.

a time seemed to Jook down on the slower rival but gradually
they grew more and more feeble and when a series of dry years
came on they went out altogether while the sturdy Austrians
grew more vigorous. This makes a fine tree for forest plant-
ing. Scme which I planted in York twenty-six years age
would now raoake considerable lumber. While not quite as
strong a grower as the Ponderosa ‘t should be planted on a
large scale. But you cannot move it as far north as you can
the Scotch. One serious trouble with it is the seedlings are in-
clined to damp off badly, and they never can be raised as
cheaply as either the Scotch or the S’onderosa.

European Larch.

This is a deciduous Conifer from the mountains of Tyrol.
It was planted largely in the Highlands of Scotland where it
wacceeded admirably. About sixty years ago there was much
taterest taken in this tree in our Northern states. In Illinois
there were beautiful plantations forty years ago. Standing by
itself it is a charming tree. The main stem is straight as an
arrow and it will often have graceful pendulous branches which
droop symmetrically on every side like green fountain sprays.
ig a forest it allows close planting and bears a great burden of

 
 

 

 

   

Py 9 by
EuropeanLarch tn Western Minnesota,
(By Permission of Forestry Departmont)
FOREIGN EVERGREENS. 95

poles to the acre. They make a rapid growth and the timber
is quite durable, being excellent for posts, railway ties and tele-
graph poles. The vitality of the seed is short lived. It is
only good for a year. Incidentally a good many years ago I
heard seedsmen tell how they fixed it. They did not wish to
lose all the two year old seed so they mixed it with some that
was fresh and sold it all as good seed.

Along in the seventies I secured the visit of three prominent
Horticulturists to Nebraska. They were passed. by the Rail-
road company to Kearney and back. They noticed quite a
stretch of sandy land and thought it would be just the place for
Larch. But they did not know the country and could not bring
the climate of Nlinois to Nebraska. I had seen so much of it
in Illinois I was determined to show the people what could be done
in the West. So in the spring of ’73 I planted half a mile on
the North side of my farm. They did look beautiful. But the
hot winds seemed to cook the turpentine in them and they
were all burned up. It would have been much worse at Kear-
ney. However, there are now fine groves in the Eastern part
of the state, where they can have the shelter of other trees
and we present here through the kindness of the Forestry De-
partment a picture of a thrifty grove in Western Minnesota.
Keep out of the belt of our Western Siroccos and there are
many places where these beautiful and valuable trees will suc-
ceed.

Japanese Evergreens, Retinisporas.

These are charming little dwarfs very pretty Indeed where
you do not wish large trees. They are hardy in many portions
of the East, but they cannot endure the trying climate of the
West.

CONCLUSION.

We have thus described the silent partners the farmer may
have in securing comfort and building up prosperity. You can
see them patiently waiting all around the horizon—these sturdy
sentinels from our own and other lands are ready to stand
guard around your home, sheltering you from summer’s heat
and the cruel blasts of winter. They have been waiting long
and are ready to come to you arrayed in their charming robes,
bringing the freshness and greenness of summer into the deso-
lations of winter. Contrast a home defended by these guardians,
cosily sheltered by their protecting branches, with one storm-
swept, defenseless, and desolate, and then see how soon a
change can be wrought. To work such changes, to give beauty
and charm to the homes of the great West, this book is writ-
ten, may it not fail of its mission,
96 EVERGREENS.

ADDENDA,

The proprietor of the nursery at Devils Lake, North Da-
kota, gives this account. He wanted to start a nursery on the
bleak wind-swept prairies of North Dakota. He bought a lot
of seeds and hired a German expert; but he did not like his
work and let him go. Then said he, ‘I followed the book” and
as the result he raised millions of evergreens, and now this
nursery in the bleak Northwest has forged to the front, show-
ing what can be done under adverse circumstances. He is
proclaiming the gospel of hope to those vast treeless regions
and showing how those fertile lands can be adorned and
embellished by sheltering forests.

Following the directions of the book, scores of farmers in
the sand hills in Minnesota, Dakota and Manitoba, are raising
their own evergreens.

The tree planting at Halsey yet goes on. Many experi-
ments have been tried to prevent damping off, and this formula
is given. Directly after planting the seeds dilute 3-16 of an
ounce of fluid sulphuric acid with a pint of water for every
square foot, and sprinkle your beds. Then water your beds
every day till the plants come up.

Send to U. S. Department of Agriculture for Bulletin No.
453 regarding damping off of evergreens.

Since the first edition was written I became connected with
a nursery in central Minnesota. I had the men go into a patch
of hazel brush, cut off and burn the brush, dig up the ground,
rake out the roots, level down and rake the earth fine, then sow,
and spread half an inch well rotted leaf mould, and when
directions were followed we got a splendid stand without water-
ing and had no damping off.

I wish to recommend the cultivation of the Bull Pine.

I recently visited a plantation which I put out some 25
years ago in Franklin in thee Republican Valley in Nebraska.
It had been a fearful summer and while other evergreens
showed the effects of the terrible drouth the Bull Pine never
winched. They were brilliant green. Those out in the open
had developed symmetrical heads and from what experience
I have had with these trees I am confident that with the right
treatment they could be made to grow anywhere between the
Missouri rfver and the Rockies. Once established I never knew
one to fail.
       
 

EGG MONEY ais n

A book of new, reliable information on the profitable
production of eges on the city lot, the village acre and the
‘arm, it can be made in eggs with less capital, less
equipment and less labor than in any other poultry product,
Present methods have practically revolutionized this basiness
and made bigger profits possible. This book contains come
plete descriptions of these new meth :

Any one of the chapters is worth more than the price of
the book to any poultryman who wants to increase hie
profits. If you are interested in this business why not
make use of the best information, to save money and make
money. This book contains 128 pages, in an illustrated
cover and is fully and handsomely illustrated. Price 50
cents, postpaid. Address

WEBB PUBLISHING CO., ST. PAUL, MINN.
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ATCHING AND :

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REARING:

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A Manual of Dependable Instruction in Incubating, ,

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This is a new book, up-to-date throughout and will ,
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cover, completely illustrated. Price 50 cents, postpaid. ,

WEBB PUBLISHING CO., ST. PAUL, MINN. ‘

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TURKEYS, DUCKS a GEESE

How to Hatch, Rear, etc., Successfully

By H. A. Nourse, Geo. H. Pollard and Other Well-
Known . Experts Es
who have made the breeding of Turkeys, Ducks and Geese
2 complete, money-making success. It tella plainly an
‘fully how to do every detail of the work of breeding, hatch-
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- mation will enable anyone to succeed in this work and save
disappointment and needless loss: of money. 128 pages
finely illustrated. Price 50 cents, postpaid. !

WEBB. PUBLISHING CO., St. Paul, Minn.

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