TREES, FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL, Essay by Jacob W. Manning, of Reading. Read by Warren H. Manning, Before the Farmers’ Institute at Groton, Dec. 29, 1880. This subject h:is been assigned me to ad- dress you upon at this Fanners’ Institute. Trees, in this section of our country, are never out of sight; if we look about us over tint landscape they are ever in the foreground or background. Every tree, shrub or trail- ing vine is ornamental, or it helps to relieve the tiresome monotony of a barren waste of sand with which some parts of our extended country abound, as I witnessed along my re- cent journey to Colorado. Here even the cactus, sage, or the Mexican soap plant and wild melon, however useless these plants may be as a natural product, are objects of interest to the wayfarer. Our common scrub oak, white birch or a growth of stunted pitch pine affords the traveller a relief rather than would a path over continuous sand. Let him come upon even a shrub bearing the huckle- berry or a trailing blackberry in fruit and he is at once refreshed and sustained in his journey. My fruit trees we mean such as grow upon their branches something eatable, refreshing to the taste, or can be made so by cooking. The list of fruit-bearing trees, shrubs, or vines bearing crops useful to man, is a long one. It includes berries, nuts, grapes wild or cul- tivated, plums, cherries, the luscious peach and pear, each made up of large and ever increasing varieties, giving fruit through a large part of our summer and autumn months, or even into winter; yet we reserve for the apple the first place among our fruit-bearing trees. Its season extends through by com- paratively little care, literally through the whole year, in a fresh condition. The number of varieties of apples that have been named and grown in orchards, ac- cording to the catalogue of the American Pomologtcal society of 1877, is 822. These are all distinct varieties; the season of their ripening is given, and the section of country in which they are a success. No doubt far more equally as good varieties, that had in their day qualities worthy of perpetuation, but like many good men of worthv deeds thev did not become known beyond tfudr im- mediate neighborhood*, nor get Into print, have passed away, and ever will be pass- ing away, for good apples with local names and many with no’names are in all parts of our land w here the apple has long been cul- tivated; we have enough good kinds now; do not burden us with any more new sorts. The new hardy varieties offered us from Russia and Minnesota as “Iron-clad” are all superfluous: wo already have hartly varieties enough; adding more to an already extended list is objectionable. All apples are hardy here; our summer, fall and winter varieties are simply piled one upon another in their season of ripening. We only require some 1 fifteen to twenty of our well-known kinds to extend through the whole season apples are desired. As our early summer fruits come in June, July and August, the apple is not so much a necessity or luxury in those months, for our markets abound with strawberries, raspber- ries, currants, blackberries, peaches, plums and pears; all these centre to our great mar- kets from other parts of the country where they abound and afford a supply to those who do not grow them. Every farmer’s garden (at least for his own family use) can supply these fruits in their season, so that no day need pass without fresh fruit front June 15th, commencing with the strawberry, to the season that fruit appears again, from year to year. 1 I will mention some apples of especial merit that originated in Middlesex county. Here they became popular, and from here they were disseminated, and are known as household words at home and in other lands. The Baldwin apple, the original tree which sto'od in Wilmington near the corner of Wo- burn and Burlington, was tirst brought to public notice bv Col. Loamnd Baldwin of Woburn, who wijs a noted agriculturist and one of the earliest promoters of the Mid- dlesex Agricultural society, and still more noted as the surveyor of the tirst canal in America for navigation, the Middlesex canal, which connected the waters of the Merri- mack river with Boston harbor. He was long before this a surveyor of land, and while engaged in this found a most agreeable apple on the farm of James Butters. He first grafted his trees from this native tree, at least 100 years ago, probably more. He was a generous man, and gave to his friends scions of this apple and also distributed them as he went about the county as high sheriff from 1780 to 1704. It was called the Butters apple, woodpecker, and pecker apple, but before Col. Baldwin’s death in 1807 it was generally called the Baldwin apple in honor of its dis- coverer and most active disseminator. These facts are gathered ill part from the history ol the town of Woburn, written by that emi- nent historian and antiquarian, the late Rev. Samuel Sewell of Burlington, and also the fact that the tree perished by the September gale in 1815. The late Mr. John Butters of Wilmington,on whose grandparents’ land the original tree stood, said to me about 1808. that when lie was a lad he “often ate the fruit from under the old tree,” and he alsofurther observed that they were fine eating in autumn and the apples were quite red,the flesh yellowish white, with some reddish veins through it; also that it grows on a rather dry, gravelly soil. Mr. Butters, at the time of the statement, was 83years old. The late Asa G. Sheldon of Wilmington called the Baldwin the “prince of apples” and worthy of a stone monument, and w hen a member of the legislature urged the erection of a monument at the expense of the state 011 the site of the original tree, it was enacted that it he designated 011 the now state map that had l>een ordered, and it may now be seen in the last state atlas at the office of the librarian in the State House. Other localities have been claimed as the origin of this apple, but I, a living man, quote the words of liv- ing men that I have met face to face to sup- port its pedigree. It has not varied in its habit of growth or qualities of fruit mate- rially, yet 1 doubt not some effect is produced on the fruit by the stock they are grafted on. No man need flatter himself that he will live long enough to introduce a new apple of bet- ter quality than the Baldwin in its season, and so far surpass it as to cause it to go out of date as an inferior apple, or he placed on the rejected list. One reason why some farmers complain that apple orchards are not profitable is largely because their orchards are not all Baldwins. It is in demand as a shipping apple and the foreign demand is the bright side of apple culture. By reference to the Boston Shipping List it is seen that be- tween September, 1N78, and September, 1879, 232,291 barrels of apples were shipped from the poit of Boston to a distant or foreign market. In 1880, between Sept. 1st ami Dec, 25th,342,843 barrels were shipped, nearly all to Europe, or at the rate of 25,000 barrels a week; aud it is fail'to presume that the Baldwin apple outnumbered all other varie- ties combined. It is thus of individual, state and national importance. It is adapted to all upland soil. The Porter apple originated in Slierborn in this county on the farm of Rev. S. Porter more than fifty years ago. It has been one of the indispensable varieties for all growers who had a market near at hand. It comes at a season when a great many fine fruits are on the market, and is not so profitable as it was to those who were early in fruiting It,25 to 3D years ago. It Is a superior eating and cooking apple, and bears well 011 a diversity of soils. The Foundling had its origin or at least it became popular aud was disseminated from Groton. I first saw it in Chelmsford on the farm of Mr. Amos Carlton in 1847. His scions came from the Harvard Shakers. It has a long season, from July to November, for it ripens through many weeks. It is con- founded in name with tlie River apple, and is sold at the street corners as the Graven- stein, long before that noted apple is in the market. Its cultivation is extending; it is a prolific bearer and healthy grower. The fruit can be obtained soonest by top grafting 011 well developed trees. The Benn or Eustis apple had its origin in what was then South Reading, now Wake- field. The late James Eustis of Wakefield was active in disseminating this most fruitful and excellent late fall and early winter ap- ple. which is in season from November to February. The Ilubbardston Nonesuch has been more than thirty years before the public. It is in- dispensable in all orchards. It should be one at least in a collection of five kinds. It is quite successful on light or gravelly soils, while to undertake growing tlie fruit of Itox- bury Russet or Rhode Island Greening on such soil would be the height of folly. This apple is fast growing in popularity. It is not n native of this county but is a Massachu- setts apple from the eastern slope of the Con- necticut valley. It is not possible in this es- say to designate all worthy apples, or other species of garden or orchard fruits of the large or small varieties. But the future mar- kets of the old world and a constantly grow- ing home market, admonish the thinking man that to have sound fruit in abundant crops a succession of young healthy orchards are required. Old ones are passing the way of all the living; the new should take the place of the old. It may not be well to plant a new orchard 011 the site of an old one re- cently removed of any species of fruit. It is a settled policy in the middle states to seek a new soil for a peach orchard, no matter how recently it was cleared from a wood lot, if it only can be ploughed. Peach orchards be- gan to decline 30 years ago in this section, but new hopes of success are generally ad- mitted now and orchards are rapidly multi- plying in our county and vicinity. Pears require a stronger soil, or at least much higher cultivation than the peach or apple, to ensure a vigorous growth. The prevalence of the pear blight and low price of the fruit for some years past has had the effect to diminish the planting of pear trees. To obtain fruit, trees must be planted and receive careful cultivation. Plums are a general success in a hen yard, and the sale ol trees is increasing. Quinces, Cherries, Apricots, Nectarines, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Grapes and Cur- rants are Important fruits. The large red currants are the most in demand and pay best in market. Messrs. F. & L. Clapp of Dorchester once grew a crop of 1200 bushels which sold readily in the Boston market. It is a good rule to afford a cultivation for all trees, either of large or small fruits, that would insure a large crop of ludiau corn on a good, deep, mellow soil. Apple and peach orchards may occupy rocky or hillside land, but let the ground be kept mellow and the trees growing every year without becoming I stunted. Plant trees selected by yourself, grown as near you as possible—thrifty trees, I even if small in size and price. There is no objection to planting trees of extra large size If, by frequent transplanting, roots are ob- tained j.n proportion to the tops ol thefctrecs. This ap nlies to either fruit or ornamental trees. ’|\'ie practice of late years of allow- ing others to select the trees and varieties, too, that gi ow 500 miles away, more or less, as Is quite uniformly done when purchases are made *of the middle mau, or his agent,for the so-called large nursery firms wlio have the most agents in the field are nearly all middle men, not nurserymen, is unwise. Most gentlemen and ladies go in person and select their clothing, carpets, furniture, car- riages, horses, oxen, cows, farms, houses,&c., but in the important matter of trees for the family orchard, or the shade and ornamental trees for home grounds, it too often left to entire strangers. It is often the case that the man who takes your order has never seen any nursery in his life, much less the one he proposes to sell trees from. Frequently the tree dealers whom these agents represent do not know where the trees are coming from that their men are selling, hut there are nur- serymen who grow trees, and these growers self largely to tree dealers. In this way the j tree grower and the tree planter are farther apart than they ought to be, for there is a ‘•bummer” between them. I have said trees require generous cultiva-; tion. They also require skilful guarding against insects. The successful fruit grower is always a courageous man; he is used to war with hosts of enemies. If he carries , tine fruit to market he has come off conquer- or, and can show you his conquests. This is the man to take counsel of and his advice is as deserving of a fee as that of a lawyer or physician, yet Ids example and precepts are free to all; he is thus a true benefactor to his race. His success is the result of years of labor, study and vigilance. That farmer who cannot grow good crops of any kind is not very courageous; he will not be In a mood to give good practical advice; he is apt to say, “trees used to grow in grass land, why will they not nnwF 1 ploughed up one of the most forbidding, worn out old rye fields of a light sandy loam, with some gravelly sidehills in it, in Novem- ber, 1855. Holes were dug four to seven feet in diameter and one to three feet deep, and left open all winter; the larger boles were where the poorest sand or gravel was. Most of this was planted with apple trees the spring of J83. Thomas in Read- ing, planted about seventeen years ago; it is one foot in diameter at the base and nearly Ibrty feet high, with an unusually full top for this variety. The purple leaved Birch i> as striking in its foliage as the purple leaved beech; it also has white bark. The upright of Castigate Birch has also white bark and that narrow, symmetrical, upright habit of the Lombardy poplar. The red birch or river birch found along streams is also a striking tree,growing 10 two feet 111 diameter and fifty feet high, with peculiar rough flakes of bark; 011 old trees the bark is black, red and white as it is old or new. All the birches adapt themselves to any soil that our com- mon hoed crops do well upon. They are best, transplanted in spring. A liberal reduc- tion of the branches will aid in their living and starling into growth again. As fuel all the family is excellent if properly dried un- der shelter. The Poplar in its varieties is extensively scattered over most of our country, perhaps more so than any one species ot trees. It ranges from our low moist valleys far up towards timber line 011 our New England mountains, in the Rocky mountains ol Col- orado I saw it at an altitude of more than eleven thousand feet. It forms trees forty to eighty feet high. There is along the mountain streams in Colorado ted in summer largely by melting snow, a type of poplar known as the moun- tain cottonwood; it has a leal resembling the willow. I have never seen it in our state, but I will send for it in the spring to keep com- pany with UlOO Rocky mountain spruce trees that arrived Nov. 28«i, with the thermometer at zero. By superior packing they came to hand in good order and will he introduced among our native spruces and foreign varie- ties and submitted to a comparison. These spruces are known as the Douglass and one as Menziesii; also another type Englcmani; these trees are ti to lf> inches high; these all attain to large forest trees in their native hills and valleys. The broad-leaved Cottonwood is long in cultivation and is a native of the Connecticut valley, us well as all out west. It attains large proportions at an early age. From a cutting I grew a tree in eighteen years two feet in diameter and sixty feet high. I am sure 1111 acre of rieli alluvial soil will grow fifty cords of fuel from the seed or cuttings In twenty years. 1 saw trees of it in the streets of that old Mexican town, Pueblo, Colorado, eight feet in diameter with bark six inches thick. It is of all trees the most common along the western rivers. No tree is so sue-eessfully transplanted, even with a mere apology for roots. This certainty of trans- planting successfully applies to all the poplar family. The settler on the treeless prairie, who is miles away from any tree, can grow himself out of sight from small trees or even cuttings in live years, and all the buildings he is likely to make, yes. and all his hay and grain stacks may be hidden from view of the passer-by, for lie will be embowered twenty to thirty feet deep in trees. It is quite re- markable how soon such wind breakers can be grown by this rapid growing tree. The city of Denver, Colorado, is better shaded than almost any city of its size, and I may say also of its age, atul yet twelve years ago it. had scarcely a tree except near the river. It is only the cottonwood that made this possi- ble, aided by artificial irrigation or streams brought in nearly twenty miles from the South Platte and finally along each street gutter, has largely served to make this city shaded as it is. The Silver-leafed poplar is a most rapid grower. Its tendency to generate number- less suckers far out beyond its branches is an objection, yet this is a virtue in some loca- tions to stay drifting sand,or resist the action of water, or to assist in forming a screen and cut off some objectionable view. It is es- pecially adapted to grow near the sea shore, as is also the “Halm of Gilead” poplar. Bal- sauta. There are many more of tue poplar family, some of new introduction. The Willow family,salix, is quite too num- erous to go into many particulars. It is ever present along meandering streams and large rivers. Thus it may be seen for thousands ot miles along the rivers of our eountry, par- ticularly in the great west. As soon as a stream gets out of the mountains or hills and has ceased to be a torrent pouring over the rocks,the willow commences to shelter it, al- lowing it to flow on quietly, its branches and roots protecting the river and its banks, to its destiny. As fuel neither tlie poplar nor willow is superior; they hum fairly if dried under cover, hut soon decay if left on the ground. Chestnut, castinea, is our nut-hearing tree. Aside from its fruit its timber is of the high- est utility in so many ways 1 will not partic- ularize. The nuts planted in good soil will grow one to three feet the tirst season. Then they ought to lie transplanted,and every two years after that they remain in the nursery; then they will bear a final transplanting and nine out of ten be a success if managed rea- sonably. The Oak in large variety, Shollbark, Hicko- ry, Black Walnut and Butternut, are all suc- cessful when taken from a plantation that has been frequently transplanted or root pruned. The best plaee to acquire good ideas of the management ol nut-bearing trees is to visit some successful cultivator. More can Ik* learned by seeing the work done than can be comprehended by hearing it told or in reading I have only begun to touch upon ornament- al trees, naming only a few of the larger elass. There is a labyrinth of others, and multitudes of trees of small habit of growth j aud shrubs by the hundreds, trailing viues that are able to festoon trees of all sizes, some of them enveloping even the largest forest trees. I have seen the American ivy, or Virginia creeper, in the Missouri valley growing over giant trees four feet in diame- ter and eighty feet high,so perfectly covering the whole tree as to leave not a foot of the surface visible, and this without any aid from the hand of man. The Lurch or llackmetuck is a native tree, thriving most naturally In low damp soils, hut it will grow freely on almost any soil or even in a neglected situation. It is one of the coniferous trees, hut not au evergreen, shedding its leaves after hard frosts. It is largely in demand for ship knees. Scotch or European Larch is far better known as an ornamental tree in this section of our land than our native variety. These require very early transplanting in spring or lute in autumn. This tree lias been lauded as few trees have, as possessing great lasting properties for railroad ties and fence posts. Its durability is not claimed to compare with our Chestnut, and it certainly will not out- last the white cedar or arbor vita, as we re- ceive them from tlie eastern or northern cedar swamps, and used so extensively for railroad sleepers and fence posts, but it is so easily grown that its recent quite extensive planting under the stimulus of a state boun- ty, is really an epoch in forest tree planting. The cost of small trees from seedbeds, one to two years’ growth, by the thousand is very low. 'l'liese are best transplanted one year at least on land where corn would grow, be- fore planting as forests. The Catalpa speciosa has recently l>eeu shown to he almost indestructible; instances are indisputable where it lias remained sound alter fifty and even one hundred years and more of exposure. It is hardy in this latitude, as live hundred of the trees amply prove in my soil by two years* growth. It grows to large forest trees in the west. Alaulhus glaiidulosa, a tree from China, is attracting attention as a wood of lasting properties. It has been grown in this coun- try for nearly one hundred years; this with tlie catalpa is now being planted, intermixed, I think, with the Scotch larch, in one place near the Iron Mountain railroad in Missouri in a body to tlie extent of six hundred acres, to grow lumber for railroad construction. This plantation has grown one season. At another point ‘2700 acres are in preparation aud the trees have this year's growlli in the seedbed to plant these large areas. This is tlie most extensive tree plunling ever undertaken in tins country hv any one man, hut it is only un entering wedge to what is to follow, for the near future is ominous ot fate; woodlots are getting thin, wasting winds blow through those that are left. More shel- ter is needed on these western lands as well us in tlie east. It Is well to grow a liberal variety in forest plantations. The trees soon gain size and require thinning out, and just here commences a harvest !hat continues to pav. To make tall trees they must start up- right with the others; this is true of ever- green trees as well as the deciduous. It tree* grows scattering or far apart they grow'bushy and knotty, not upright into straight timber. For timber planting as well as for wind- breaks to shelter orchards, gardens, dwell- ings, and farm buildings where live stock is kept, there is nothing better than our com- mon native White Pine, pinus strobur. I have known a seed of this to germinate in lsgti and grow to two feet diameter of trunk in forty years, and as the tree stood alone it threw out low and long branches, so that it was not much over thirty feet high, yet it made nearly a cord of wood, the trunk being of ample size to make a good hoard log. It is useless to let loose the imagination or allow that each seed of the white pine that perfected in 187!) could by any means be made to do as that seed did between 183W and 187(5. Such a crop of seed as the white pines of our country produced in 187!) I do not think was ever excelled on a similar number of trees; the young seedlings are now growing from them in countless millions, vet how few will grow to a cord of wood in the next forty years! But nature has done her best and is now resting, for I did not observe a white pine bearing seed this year, 1880, in all my journey of nearly 7000 miles to Colorado and back by way of the north shore of Lake Su- perior, through Georgian bay and Lake Huron, down the St. Lawrence to Montreal, near the Adirondack mountains, and down the Hudson river; all this route did not show me one cone of this year’s growth on the countless White Pine trees I saw. FJre, Tlie Axe, and Our Forests. The destruction of tlie Forests of our Country by fire, compared with the wood- man’s axe, is nowhere so visibly exemplified as in the Kocky Mountains. Here, as well as in other parts of the World, it must tie recognized as a national calamity to reduce the Forests beyond cer- tain undcfliiable limits. The destruction of forests, as lias been repeatedly proved in the old world in various places, as well as in our own country, is a calamity. It has been the means that caused immense tracts of drilling sand barrens where once was a fertile soil; sudden and devastating floods where for- merly rivers flowed on more evenly, by the waters passing from wooded hills and moun- tains more slowly than from off the same hills, mountains, and along plains after they were denuded of the forest growth. Fuel for tlie comfort of man, and timber for his building purposes is also unobtainable, or greatly enhanced in cost by forest destruc- tion, depending much on some distant supply and the means of transportation. It was evident in my journey in Colorado in June and July of 1880 that the primeval forests of that great mountain region had been destroyed by fire far more than hv the axe of the lumberman, or the Pioneer who cleared his land of trees to grow crops upon. Where lumber is wanted by the miner or herdsman he usually selects specimen trees suited to his necessities, leaving others to grow; but when fire Is once kindled it de- stroys all before it, of large and small growth, even to tlie seed that is ready to ger- minate and perpetuate its kind. Fire sweeping these mountain forests works its most complete destruction along the dry hills and mountain sides, leaving scarcely a live tree alter it; in the damp valleys"or ravines some timber will escape this element ol destruction. In my walk of one hundred miles from Georgetown, (this town is 8000 feet above tide water), over the highest wagon road pass in the whole moun- tain system, at an altitude of thirteen thous- and and six feet, and down into the Pacific slope and along deeply wooded valleys, then over the range again into the slope of the Atlantic, it was a noticeable feature what a perspective view was seen here ami there of spectral looking forests on the hillsides, snowing tall trunks of trees, barkless and bleached, killed by fire five years ago; and again the blackened trunks and branches of large tracts of trees killed by recent fires was suggestive as to what it would have to feed upon soon; then again we were in deep forests where none of its ravages were to be seen; but we were not long out of sight of smoke by day and billows of fire by night. Its ravages were seen over all landscapes that took in any distant views; in many places nothing was left hut certain trees that iiad escaped by some fortunate position. It was plain to any observer that this frequent spreading through the forests by tire did not allow a new crop of trees to make much progress before they would he again de- stroyed. It is said that prospecters and miners who had not taken up land accord- ing to law, could not cut green trees on gov- ernment land without being amenable to officers of the government, who may be on the alert and show their vigilance by prose- cuting them as trespassers; hut it is lawful to cut dead trees. Enterprising men had a way to command dead trees to stand in their way. By accident or otherwise, the forests would he filled with smoke, and tires run to and fro along the valleys and up the steep slopes, climbing the evergreen trees, and thus dead trees come to their order. It is lawful to cut them for local or commercial purposes. Thus a sort of vandalism was going on that was doing much to diminish tbrest growth. Even wild beasts aud most game would desert such land for years to come; with the timber killed, and uninhabi- ted, wide sections are the very picture of desolation. (This feature was very promi- nent in my ascent of Pike’s Peak late in June, some seventy-five miles away to the southeast, where I was some two weeks previous to the scene of these impressions. There aKo such desolation extended as far as the eye could distinguish trees, say twen- ty miles away; the trail passed over aud among miles of dead standing and fallen timber, from six inches to three feet in diameter. These trees were mostly Pine and Spruce.) 'The Kocky Mountains are properly named, for rocks do abound there; fires have done much to show the rocks more clearly; it destroys soil and vegetable matter, leavingit less anil loss possible for a new crop of trees to germinate among the rocks. For- ests help to create a soil; they deposit vegeta- ble matter bv dropping their leaves and mak- ing it possible tor moss to accumulate. These help to disintegrate the rocks and thus to make a soil for trees to grow again, if it were not for the fact that those finer decom- posed rocks are washed away by violent showers from most exposed points,"or blown away by violent winds, so tlie fact still re- mains that fire is the great timber destroyer, whether by accident or design. The lum- berman seeking a supply for local consump- tion is quite an innocent instrument of de- struction compared with tire. The Indian is not noted as a provident man- ager in far-reaching business affairs or mak- ing a good living. I was told how they help to destroy large tracts of timber. 'Phis was mentioned of those located on reservations; they enjoy a good hunt; it is common for them to ask permission of the Indian agent in charge to go off of their reservation for a time, to kill game; this is generally in autumn when dry weather prevails. They go out in large numbers and select a favorable lay of laud, where forests and an abundance of game are known to exist, and prepare for a grand bunt on the most killing scale; forming themselves around or in a large tract ot woodland often many miles square, equal to townships in extent, perhaps, ui the form of the letter V. kindle fires on the two sides to the point, aided by favoring winds the flames, advancing, drive the game before them; the cunning hunters are along the front and at exposed places; there the game is met with sure death; it is in front, as well as rear; thus the reservation Indian bags his game and returns home; lie preserves the forests of bis own reservation to afford its usual supply of amusement in hunting and variety of game, but Uncle Sam’s woodlot has been damaged. This thing is repeated from yearto year by permission of government agents, who thus gratify the Indians under their charge; it is clear that such destruction of timber can be largely prevented by the gov- ernment. Doubtless hunters, white men. and camp- ing parties occasion many tires. All large tracts of woodland are exposed; there is no easy method to wholly prevent forest fires. Bui the government can aid to save its own domain by persistent orders to its Indian agents. The native Evergreen trees of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado are, many of them, quite distinct in various distinct features from those growing In the northern ami east- ern forests. There were no White Pine* (Pinus 81 rob us), Pitch Pine (Pinus Rlgodn), Norway or Red Pine (Pinus liesinosa), no Hemlock (Abies Canadensis Pendula), nor White Cedar (Cupressus Tlvoidcs), nor Arbor Vita* (Thuja Occidental!*). But the common Creeping Juniper (Junipcrus Com- minis) was frequently met. Also the Red Cedar (Junipcrus Vagiucaiia) was met in many places, mostly in dry situations,among the debris of decomposing granite rocks. Some of the most conspicuous ones, of a pyramidal habit and more or less variable in tints of foliage, were seen along South Platte river canyon, near Cathedral rocks. In some localities the trees were of really gigantic proportions, bearing evidence of very great age; some stood alone on some soilless crag of rock, hundreds of feet from the river. Others seemed overturned, with tops nearly downward, with most of the trunks dead, and yet growing with vigor from other parts of tlie same trunks. Some of these distorted specimens, i\ ith roots attached, would be a curiosity to work into rustic, ornamonts. It would certainly damage some to try,to im- prove on their present deformity*' This dwarfing struggle for life extended to, every species of trees—that struggle for life at high altitudes. Think of the Fugleman Spruce, at over 12,000 feet near the last tree gftiwth, 4 to 5 feet high, 18 inches in diameter $,jpi*c. with short, gnarled branches on the amd side, not more than I to 2 feet long, wlple on the leeward side the same trunks supported branches, 15 to 20 feet long, inclining down bill as tlx* mountain sloped; the new growth July 10th was just, burst ing its buds, while some varieties of evergreens, in low sunny aspects at the base of the mountains, TOtK) feet lower, had made a growth of 12 inches or more. * Six varieties of Pine were seen, tmet. from the eastern type of Pines. ,,e are very persistent in their struggle foi • life where apparently little or no soil was visible. The Yellow Pine (Pinus Ponderosa) was the most common. It is found scattered al- most everywhere among the foothills. It did not grow in thick masses, but stood at a good distance one from another. Usually the tops were formed rather low, one or two short board logs to a tree. Once in a while some quite large trees of this pine were seen, 3 to 4 feet and even 5 feet in diameter. They average 30 to 50 feet high. The lumber is heavy, and more than any other tree is the lumber tree of the Rocky Mountains. It is used for railroad ties, bridges, etc. Three varieties of the Spruce family were prominent, each with a very different cone. The Douglass Spruce (Abies Douglassi) was a very constant attendant along my walk. It is at home on dry. rocky soils, growing from the river far up towards the tops of the hills, but not so high on the ranges or backbones of the mountains as the En- gleinan and one or two types of Spruce [lines. It seemed like a cross or hy- irid between the Hemlock and Fir Bal- sam of the northern forests. It is quite up- right, with evenly spreading branches in- clining upwards towards the ton, bending gracefully before the wind; the bark feels soil and corky, is 2 to 4 Inches thick, and broken into deep furrows. It grows 2 to uni 3 feet diameter, and 50 to 7 5 feet high. The cones are distinct from any other tree, and the buds are of a reddish color and quite long, tapering to a point. It is not lacking in hardihood in New England. I had it growing vigorously eight years ago. 1 do not know of any large specimen growing inMassachusetts, but thrifty specimens are now growing in the grounds of Prof. C. S. Sargent in Brookline, Mass. It is so valua- ble a tree that planters will soon call for it. The Spruce most desirable for ornamental purposes was the Monziesii Spruce (Abies Pungens), also known as Blue Spruce. I saw this tree in its various tints of foliage, from green to the richest silvery, misty blue, on different trees, under the most favorable circumstances, just as the sun was setting, in a green grassy vallev, a few hundred feet wide, a little above‘-Bailey’s,” on the South Platte river, with a background of pines on a steep hillside, with more or less rocky crags pro- jecting. Here were noble specimens, 20 to 100 feet high, and these had pushed out the new growth to its full development. The effec’ was charming amid the surrounding cotif asts. My travelling companion ex- cla' ed: “This will pay for our expedition; wh . cannot this be photographed?” I re- plied that it could in a general way, but who car. pul on the true colors? The cones of this Menziesii Spruce are verv distinct from all others of the Spruce family, being from 2 1-2 to four inches long. Lower down the river a noble specimen of this spruce was seen the next day. It was 100 feet or more in height and spread its L,inches 45 feet. These remained on the tree . thin 3 feet of the ground. By actual i uremeht it was 5 feet in diameter at 2 feet trotn the ground, over 4 feet at 10 feet, 3‘j feet at 20 feet, and over 2 feet at 50 feet, for my friend Newcomb climbed the tree and took the dimensions, which I carefully noted. All travellers by the railroad from Denver to Leadville can see this tree. It was the most noted tree that we saw in out- four days’ walk of from 20 to 30 miles a day, over a wonderful diversity of mountain, hill ami valley. (It will always be a wonder how the river worked its way through these canyons. It is also a wonder how the railroad was built here when apparently there was not room enough for the river.) The Engleinann Spruce (Pinus Commuta- ta). I)r. Englemann has taken an active part in making known this spruce. It seemed the most common of the spruces that grow into proportions for the lumberman, often attaining a height of nearly 100 feet. The foliage was more or less of a yellowish green, judging from that of last year’s growth in exposed places, but the new growth showed varying tints of green run- ning somewhat into a bluish shade. The cones were not often three inches in length. If I was able to distinguish it correctly, it was the most audacious of all the ever- greens, to struggle through a lifetime on the extreme outposts, nearest the region of per- petual snow. On some high points I noticed a Willow, and the wild Red ltose growing at a higher range than any evergreen—not less than 12,500 feet. This’was near the summit of Argentine Pass. The Kocky Mountain Spruces of Colorado and the whole eastern slope north of that state eannot fail to endure in a high northern latitude. The Englemann Spruce (Abies Eugleinanni) flourishes up to more than 12,000 feet ( where it was but just bursting its buds July 10th, 1880). It is a well known and very welcome fact that this Spruce was grown from Colorado seed in this country, and the trees sent to St. Petersburg, Russia, where it had proved it- self able to endure the rigor of that climate and high latitude, 60 degrees north, with cold reaching 61 degrees below zero. That this Spruce is proved iron-clad, and that its charming blue-colored denizen of the same region, Menzies Spruce (Abies Pungens) may bear it company, is also a compliment to the’eastern Rocky Mountains, when it is re- membered that trees from California, or seedling trees grown from seed produced on the Pacific coast, are not hardy in the East- ern States; as has been found by the sorry experience of more than one enthusiastic cultivator of these and other Evergreens that are natives along the Pacific Ocean and ad- jacent mountains. Some most beautiful trees of the Balsam Fir family were seen near Englemann Canyon at 6<>00 or 7000 feet altitude, very straight, with branches striking out at a right angle, with a silvery green foliage. They had made a growth, June 29th, of one foot or more. The cones were standing upright, only partially grown. This tree is known as Picea Concolor. It has grown in my soil, a gravelly loam, since 1872. The leaves are long, disposed so as to appear flat on the branches. The base of the trunk is very thick, tapering rapidly upwards. It is suf- ficiently distinct to be worthy of a place in all collections of coniferous trees. Pine trees of various distinct kinds were seen. In the “Garden of the Gods” the finest specimen of Pinus Edulis was noticed. It was nearly a foot in diameter, branching out very low, forming a rounded top some 12 feet high, and nearly as much diameter. This is the Mexican Pinyon Pine. It grew in apparently a mass of broken sandstone rock. A deposit of fallen leaves, cones and seeds lay under it 6 inches di-ep, showing how trees help to create a soil that other trees can grow in. Other trees of the same variety were about it, of every possible shape. It was not seen to be distinguished again in my walk northwest of the garden. The seed of this tree is highly prized for food, a barrel of them commanding a price equal to that of the best wheat flour. From time immemorial it lias been a staple food for the Indians of all tribes where this tree grows. Pinus Flexctis was a very constant com- panion. It grows 30 to 40 feet high. It bears more resemblance to the White Pine of New England, in the appearance of the bark and leaf, than any other Pines seen in the mountains. The leaves were short and crowded into club-like shoots at the ends of the branches. It gJMKs to an altitude of at least 11.000 feet, ai