; ne AN i eee aR rt % Ae a ances Pale fl UNSER COENEN Ue? as Oe ‘ ee ate Set ee? eaobnaststie Ma Ares S me a is Cesta Asti) Mares Rete - AT ac eos ants Sy ey Bene = ae PA OT ees : UPR ate a ac : ne ee aie eG ASS Me Re o nah es ay eerie ee Wigs fs Aiea LON Ky oy ya i patie THE JOHN - CRAIG LIBRARY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE NEW YORK STATE | COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, Cornell University Library Forest trees, for shelter, ornament and The Hemlock Spruce. FOR SHELTER, ORNAMENT AND PROFIT. A Practical Manual for their Culture and Propagation. By ARTHUR BRYANT, Sz. ILLUSTRATED. NEW YORK: ey HENRY T. WILLIAMS, PUBLISHER. - Office of the Bortienlturist. * 1871. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-one, by ARTHUR BRYANT. Sr. in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. VAN BENTHUYSEN PRINTING HOUSE, Stereotypers and Printers, 4v Albany, N. Y. PREFACE. The present work was undertaken at the solicitation of some friends of the author, who felt the need of a more thorough and practical compend upon Forest Culture than any now before the public. The writer has from boyhood interested himself in the planting of trees, and while he cannot boast of very extensive operations in their culture, he hopes that the results of his own observation and experience, combined with what he has been able to collect from other sources, may constitute a work accept- able to those interested in the subject. Forest culture in America is yet in its infancy. The ener- gies of our rural population have hitherto been largely employed in the extermination of the woods; and it is but recently that the necessity of their partial reproduction has attracted any considerable attention. Time and experience, particularly in the prairie regions, will doubtless develop new facts in regard to the adaptation of the more valuable kinds of timber to the different soils. Species now little known may hereafter be extensively cultivated. This work is designed for the northern portion of the United States, extending westward to the Rocky Mountains and south- 4 PREFACE. ward to include Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas. The vast treeless plains of the West, offer an almost limitless field for forest planting, and the States of Kansas and Nebraska are already taking the lead in the enterprise. All, or nearly all the trees native within the limits assigned to this work are noticed, together with a considerable number of foreign origin, The author acknowledges his indebtedness to the works of G. P. Marsh, Gray, Loudon, Michaux, Meehan, Hoopes, and others, for much valuable information. The botanical descrip- tions have been mostly taken, with slight change, from the works of Gray and Loudon. Acknowledgments are also due for assistance in various ways from personal friends of the author. While it has been thought best to adopt a scientific arrange- ment and description of the trees noticed, no pains have been spared to render the practical part as plain and thorough as possible. Although the leading object of the work is to describe and recommend the culture of valuable timber trees, their orna- mental character has not been neglected, and many are noticed of little worth for any but ornamental purposes. The author has long regarded the reproduction of the more valuable forest trees, by means of artificial plantations, as a matter of great national importance. Should this work in any degree aid in so desirable an object, he will feel that the labor bestowed upon it has not been thrown away. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION, It isadmitted that Trees are essential to civilization, and the fact is acknowledged that man cannot ad- vance in improvement beyond the rudest form of pastoral life, without the use of timber. The question next arises, whether or not our countrymen will go on recklessly destroying an article of absolute neces- sity and immense daily consumption, without regard to a source of future supply? ‘The rapid destruction of our forests within the past few years is really appalling. The-State of New York, which, not many years since, exported great quantities of pine lumber, now obtains a supply for home consumption from abroad. The forests of Maine are said to be so com- pletely stripped, that scarcely a pine tree of old growth is to be seen. At the present rate of consumption, the pine woods of the Northwestern States are likely to be exhausted in less than twenty-five years. It i 6 FOREST TREES. was estimated that the amount of lumber cut in 1869, in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, -was 3,311,372,255 feet. To obtain this quantity, 883,032 acres, or 1,380 square miles, were stripped of their trees. The destruction of hard-wood forests is likewise very rapid. here is a constantly increasing demand for valuable kinds of timber for the manu- facture of machinery, farming implements, furniture, railway cars and wooden work of every description. Millions of ties, and millions of cords of firewood, are annually required by railroads. ‘There can be no doubt that previous to the settlement of Central and Northern Illinois, the quantity of timber was annually diminished by the ravages of fire. When these ravages were in a measure stopped, a dense growth of young trees sprang up in the scattered woodlands, and twenty years since there was more wood than at the first settlement of the country. With the intro- duction of railroads commenced the destruction of the forests. It may safely be estimated that two- thirds of the full-grown timber in Northern Illinois has been destroyed within eighteen years past. Tracts of thriving young wood, whose annual growth added at least ten per cent to its value, have been cleared for firewood. The destruction still goeson. Such is the instability of our population, that woodlands which have been long preserved by their owners, sooner or later pass into the possession of those who, impatient to enjoy their value, and reckless of other considerations, ruthlessly fell them. Much of the land thus bared is of little value for any other purpose FOREST TREES. % than the growth of wood, and is usually so closely pastured by domestic animals as effectually to prevent a new growth of trees. In many of the older States the scarcity of timber is already severely felt. Hills and mountains which, not many years since, were crowned with wood, now rear their heads in unsightly baldness; and streams once affording permanent water power have become useless for that purpose, or unreliable for a great part of the year. It can hardly be supposed that, with our rapidly increasing population, the consumption , of timber in future years will be greatly diminished, and the supply must ere long be brought from great distances at vastly increased expense. Much will doubtless be done by substituting brick, stone and iron for wood, and by the increased use of coal for fuel; but the demand for timber will always be immense. The necessity for providing for future supplies will soon be felt, and it is to be hoped that the interest which is beginning to manifest itself in some sections of our country will deepen to a general sense of the importance of the subject. In Germany, France, and some other countries of Europe, the forests are the property of the govern- ment. Their management has been reduced to a system, and they are guarded with care from wanton depredation. Our own government, in times past, has had ample opportunity to reserve lands which, although valuable for their timber, were less desirable for settlement. Such tracts might, without great expense, be protected from devastation by agents 8 FOREST TREES. employed for that purpose.* Something of the sort might still be done, but there is little hope of its ac- complishment. Our National Legislature, in this ‘respect at least, wholly destitute of statesmanlike forecast, panders to the rapacity of corporations, and “hastens to squander the public domain. Most of our State legislators ignore the encouragement of tree planting altogether. Our Agricultural Societies, both State and county organizations, with few excep- tions, liberally patronize the horse-jockey, while they wholly neglect the tree planter. The matter seems to depend almost entirely upon the enterprise and patriotism of individuals. Let all, then, who have the opportunity to plant trees, awaken to a sense of the importance of the object. The evils attending a general destruction of * Perhaps a better plan would be to transfer the woodlands to the individual States, whose authorities might be more efficient for their preservation than the U.S. Government. The latter could not—at least did not—protect the live oak woods of Florida, which were intended for the use of the navy. Timber growing on the public lands has everywhere been considered fair game for everybody, and Government is said in some instances ‘to have paid high prices for timber stglen from its own wood- lands. Nearly fifty years since, when the navigation of the secondary rivers of the West was of more importance than since the introduction of railroads, Dr. Drake, of Cincinnati, recom- mended the reservation by government of tracts of woodland around the head waters of the principal streams, as a means of preventing their diminution. Probably the doctor did not anticipate the time when these reserves might become important as a source of supplies of timber. It is scarcely necessary to say that his advice was disregarded. FOREST TREES. 9 the forests, if unchecked, will go on increasing with the lapse of years, until sections of our country become hopelessly sterile. The excuse that posterity has done nothing for us, is the plea of unmitigated selfishness. Americans owe more than any other nation to the toils, sacrifices and forethought of their forefathers, and it is our duty to transmit the inherit- ance we received from them to our descendants unimpaired by waste or neglect. The length of time required for the growth of timber from the seed to maturity shows conclusively that it was never designed in the order of nature for the exclusive use of a single generation. CHAPTER II. EVILS ATTENDING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS. G. P. Marsh, in his great work, entitled “Man and Nature,” says: “There is good reason to believe that the surface of the habitable earth, in all the climates and regions which have been the abodes of dense and civilized populations, was, with few exceptions, already covered with a forest growth when it first became the home of man.” Countries entirely covered with for- ests are fit only for the abode of savage races. As improvement advances the woods are partially felled, and the land fitted for the regidence of a civilized people. But the arrangements of Nature cannot be entirely reversed with impunity. Either extreme produces the like effect—the total destruction of the forest unfits a country for the occupancy of any but a savage, or at best a nomadic population. The pre- sent condition of some of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, once among the most productive in the world, and sustaining immense population, is FOREST TREES. Il graphically described in the following quotation from the above mentioned author: “If we compare the present physical condition of the countries of which I am speaking (the Roman Empire), with the descriptions that ancient historians and geographers have given of their fertility and gen- eral capability of ministering to human uses, we shall find that more than one-half of their whole extent— including the provinces most celebrated for the pro- fusion and variety of their spontaneous and their cultivated products, and for the wealth and social advancement of their inbabitants—is either deserted by civilized man and surrendered to hopeless desola- tion, or, at least, greatly reduced, both in productive- ness and population. Vast forests have disappeared from mountain spurs and ridges; the vegetable earth accumulated beneath the trees by the decay of leaves and fallen trunks; the soil of the alpine pastures, which skirted and indented the woods, and the mould of the upland fields, are washed away; meadows once fertilized by irrigation are waste and unproductive, beeause the cisterns and reservoirs that supplied the ancient canals are broken, or the springs that fed them dried up; rivers, famous in history and song, / have shrunk to humble brooklets; the willows that ornamented and protected the banks of the lesser water-courses are gone, and the rivulets have ceased to exist as perennial currents, because the little water that finds its way into their old channels is evaporated by the droughts of summer, or absorbed by the parched earth before it reaches the lowlands; the beds of the 12 FOREST TREES. brooks have widened into broad expanses of sand and gravel, over which, though in the hot season passed dry shod, in winter sea-like torrents thunder; the entrances of navigable streams are obstructed by sand-bars; and harbors, once marts of an extensive commerce, are shoaled by the deposits of the rivers at whose mouths they lie.” The desolation of these countries is, undoubtedly, to be attributed mainly to the entire removal of the forests, although other causes have probably assisted in producing it. The forests of Mount Lebanon, once the source of supply for the neighboring coun- tries, have long since disappeared; the mountain ranges of Syria, Cyrenaica, and the once populous and powerful kingdom of Persia, are now dry, barren ridges of naked rock, absolutely incapable of repro- ducing the woods which once covered them. Large tracts in the interior of Asia Minor, and even por- tions of Italy, are now a horrible desert, seamed with ravines and gullies, or piled with ridges of sand and gravel, and utterly irreclaimable to the use of man. Blanque, a French writer quoted by Marsh, speaking of the destruction of the forest in certain mountain- ous parts of France says, that he found not a living soul in districts where he had enjoyed hospitality thirty years before; the last inhabitants having been compelled to retreat when the last tree fell. Is there not great danger that, when the accumulating in- fluence of causes now operating shall have had time to produce their full effect, portions of our own coun- try may become alike uninhabitable? The level sur- FOREST TREES. 13 face and geological formation of large tracts in the Mississippi valley will, doubtless, operate to mitigate or prevent such result; yet, when the slopes of the Rocky Mountains are stripped of their forests, and the sources of the Mississippi, and its tributaries, bared to the influence of sun and wind, who can say how great may be the evils arising from the diminu- tion of the streams and the irregularities of the rain- fall? The prospective scarcity and high price of timber, surely consequent upon the present devasta- tion, is, of itself, a sufficient reason for planting for- ests; but when to this is superadded the probable ruin of habitable districts, and deterioration of climate in the whole country, the demand on patriotism is im- perative for decisive and immediate action. 2 CHAPTER III. FAVORABLE INFLUENCES OF THE FORESTS. Among the advantages of a due proportion of woodland to that which is cleared, may be reckoned the diminution of the extremes of temperature. These extremes are greatest in countries destitute of wood. Land shaded by forests and covered with leaves, and snow undisturbed by winds, does not freeze to a great depth. The roots of trees penetrating to the unfrozen earth, act as conductors, and convey some portion of heat to the surrounding atmosphere. The advent of winds from colder regions is checked, and the still- ness of the air renders the cold more endurable by man and beast; and, doubtless, equally so by vegeta- ble life. The farmer, whose dwelling and outhouses are well sheltered by groves or screens, consumes less fuel in his house, and less forage in his stables and cattle yards, than he would if unprotected. In sum- mer the soil of a wide expanse of open country be- comes heated by the sun, and the temperature is FOREST TREES. 15 higher and the winds hotter than in wooded regions. The sirocco and simoon, of the Asiatic and African deserts, are possible only in a country destitute of trees. I have been informed by persons who have crossed the plains of our Southwestern territories, that they have been glad to seek shelter from the scorching wind on the lee-side of a wagon, even when that side was most exposed to the rays of the sun. An important application of forest planting in Europe is the covering with trees, and rescuing from otherwise hopeless sterility, tracts of loose, shifting sand. One of the most extensive of these wastes isin the southwest part of France, on the shores of the Gulf of Gascony. The following description of this tract is from Loudon: “The downs there are com- posed of drifting sands covering 300 square miles. Bremontier compares the surface of this immense tract to a sea, which, when agitated to fury by a tempest, had been suddenly fixed and changed to sand, It offered nothing to the eye but a monoto- nous repetition of white wavy mountains perfectly destitute of vegetation. In times of violent storms of wind, the surface of these downs was entirely changed ; what were hills of sand often becoming val- leys, and the contrary. The sand on these occasions was often carried up into the interior of the country, covering cultivated fields, villages, and even entire forests. This takes place so gradually by the sand sweeping along the surface and thus raising it, or fall- ing from the air in a shower of particles so fine as to 16 FOREST TREES. be scarcely preceptible, that nothing is destroyed. The sand gradually rises among crops as if they were inundated with water, and the herbage and the tops of trees appear quite green and healthy, even to the moment of their being overwhelmed with the sand, which is so very fine as to resemble that used in Eng- land in hour glasses.” This wide expanse of sand, roll- ing inland from the ocean, and threatening to bury the whole province, has been rendered stationary and harmless by planting it with the Maritime Pine (Pinus Pinaster). More than. 100,000 acres have been planted; and great quantities of tar, resin, Jamp- black, and timber of inferior quality are produced. In the north of Germany, tracts of loose drifting sand have, in like manner, been covered with forests of pine. The Ailanthus has been successfully em- ployed in fixing the surface of sandy wastes in the south of Russia. In all these instances, lands pre- viously not only worthless, but a positive nuisance, have been made to yield a profitable return. CHAPTER IV. INFLUENCE OF FORESTS, UPON MOISTURE AND RAIN-FALL. Except in cases of most excessive drought, the soil of a forest is always moist, and the trees of wood- lands very rarely suffer from want of rain. The unfrozen earth becomes saturated by melted snow in Spring; the Summer rains are absorbed and retained by the loose soil carpeted with leaves, and the rapid evaporation of moisture is checked by shade. Forests thus become reservoirs of humidity, lessen- ing the dryness of the surrounding atmosphere, and aiding the perennial flow of springs and streams. Instances are on record of the drying up of springs and rivulets when the woods which shaded them were felled, and of their reappearance when the trees were suffered again to grow. The influence of woodlands in this respect must have been observed by every intelligent person who has bestowed any thought upon the subject. O* 18 FOREST TREES. The effect of forests upon the total amount of rain- fall is a question upon which writers are not agreed, some denying their influence altogether. The increased amount of rain in Lower Egypt, since the formation of extensive plantations of trees by the rulers of that country, is often cited as a proof that the presence of forests increases the fall of rain. It is said that during the year 1869, there were fourteen rainy days at the Isthmus of Suez, where the rain had before been rarely, if ever, known. This was ascribed to the influence of recent forest plantations in the vicinity. Both theory and weight of evidence seem strongly to favor the position that more rain falls in wooded than in open countries. Be this as it may, it is certain that a more uniform degree of moisture in the atmosphere exists in and around forests than in cleared lands. Equally certain is it that, by promoting the frequency of showers, they equalize the distribution of the rain-fall through the different seasons, thus rendering the extremes of wet weather and drought of less frequent occurrence. It is asserted by the inhabitants of the eastern parts of Kansas and Nebraska, that the rain-fall is more equally distributed through the seasons, and has increased in quantity since the settlement of the country. A similar change is noticed in the neighbor- hood of Denver, where the flow of small streams is more permanent. The waters of the Great Salt Lake, which twenty years ago appeated to be retroceding, have, it is said, risen seven feet since the Mormons established themselves in the valley. The exclusion FOREST TREES. 19 of fires favors an increased growth of wood; orchards and shade trees are planted, and it seems probable that the substitution of the compact turf of cultivated grasses for the scattered bunch grass of the plains, is not without influence upon the atmosphere. CHAPTER V. CHANGE OF CLIMATE IN THE PRAIRIE REGIONS, Since the advent of civilized man, and the general cultivation of the soil, considerable climatic changes have taken place in those parts of the Prairie countries which have been long settled. The most apparent of these changes are: First, greater aridity of the atmosphere. Second, more rapid evaporation. Third, greater irregularity of rain-fall. Fourth, diminished force of the prevailing winds. This statement is based on the observation and experience of a residence of forty years in Central and Northern Illinois. Although these changes are, with the cxception of the last-mentioned, analogous to the effects produced in wooded countries by the removal of the forests, they cannot, in this instance, be ascribed to the same cause. As has before been said, the amount of timber was greater twenty years ago than at the first settle- ment of the country; and though the destruction has lately been rapid, the entire amount of woodland was originally so much less than that of prairie, that FOREST TREES. 21 the diminution can as yet have had but little influ- ence upon the climate. The early settlers on the Illinois prairies found the dry uplands covered with a thick growth of native grass, of no great height except when seed stalks were thrown up, an occurrence which took place only once in two or three years. The scattered woodlands in Illinois, called barrens, produced a tall, thin growth of grass. On the low, flat prairie lands, the grass, mingled with sunflowers and other tall plants, mostly with composite flowers, was often from six to ten feet high, while the marshes and inundated bottom lands produced a coarse, reedy grass of great height. I remember riding near the Illinois river where, sitting on a horse sixteen hands high, I took the grass from each side and tied it together over the top of my hat. In a great degree this rank vegetation, covering the whole country, compensated in its climatic in- fluences for the paucity of forests. The rain falling on the surface of the earth, was retarded in passing off by the thick grass, and readily absorbed by the spongy soil. The rivulets with few exceptions spread out in wide beds called sloughs, having no well- defined channel, and, clothed with tall grass, slowly delivered their waters to the larger streams. The porous earth, unshorn of its vegetable growth throughout the growing season, yielded its moisture more gradually by evaporation than cultivated or pastured lands. In dry seasons, the deficiency of rain was in some measure supplied by copious dews. Rain almost uniformly fell in considerable quantity 22 FOREST TREES. in the months of May and June, insuring a crop of grass and grain, even if the remainder of the season was dry. Since the general appropriation of the soil to the use of civilized man, ponds and marshes, where the early settlers were wont to shoot waterfowl, have become dry land. The earth, rendered compact by cultivation and the tread of domestic animals, shorn of its vegetable covering, and nearly or quite bare for the whole or part of the Summer, absorbs less of the rain-fall, and parts with its moisture by evaporation ‘more rapidly. Water from rain or melted snow is soon gathered into the channels washed out by the small streams, and speedily disappears from the face of the country. Extremes of wet and dry weather are more frequent, and the dews, condensed in dry seasons, are scanty. Instead of abundant rains in May and June, dry weather at that season is more common. A period of drought at the present day, commonly works far greater injury to crops than did a more protracted one in the early settlement of the country. These evils appear to be cumulative—to increase with the lapse of years. They may undoubt- edly be mitigated, perhaps wholly removed, by planting a due proportion of the country with forest trees. That the average force of the prevailing winds has diminished, or, as it is commonly expressed, the country is less windy than formerly, is a fact that must be recognized by all who have lived on the Illinois prairies thirty or forty years. The cause can only be found in the obstruction offered to the free FOREST TREES. 23 passage of the wind by the orchards, shade trees, fences and buildings in the open country. If so few obstacles have a perceptible influence in this respect, there is good reason to suppose that a general planting of groves and belts of timber would essentially modify the climate. CHAPTER VI. ———_+¢—_— PRACTICABILITY OF RAISING TIMBER. The idea once common in the West, that as no trees were found upon the prairies, some natural incapacity for their production existed in the soil, has long since been exploded. Whatever may have been the origin of the prairies, experience has demonstrated that wherever the ravages of fire and pasturage by animals are prevented, young trees speedily spring up. Cornel and Sumach bushes, the Wild Crab and Wild Plum are usually the first to appear. These are followed by the Elm, Wild Cherry, and other trees with light seeds, which may be carried by the wind or transported by birds. Mr. Marsh expresses the decided opinion that many parts even of the deserts of Asia and Africa would soon be covered with trees, if it were possible to prevent their destruction while small by the camels and goats of the wandering tribes. Where Nature, left undisturbed to her own operations, produces trees with facility, their cultivation by man cannot be difficult. Except in parts of the country which are FOREST TREES. 25 still or have recently been covered with woods, the feeling once so common, that a forest tree was an object to be destroyed rather than cherished, has ceased to exist. The States of the Union most destitute of timber are taking the lead in forest culture, and it may well happen that fifty years hence these States will be better supplied with timber than those in which it originally most abounded. Although the growth of forest trees has never been attempted by the great majority of the owners of the soil, it is neither difficult nor very expensive. Some kinds, the Black Walnut for example, may be planted and cultivated with as little trouble as the same number of acres of corn. Others must be sown in the seed-bed and transplanted. One objection made to planting trees for timber is the remoteness of the benefit to be derived from it—the long time it takes the trees to grow. It is true that he who plants forest trees can hardly expect to see them attain full maturity, yet he may in many ways derive from them great advantage, if not actual profit. Time plods on whether the trees grow or not. Groves and belts of woodland willin twenty years from planting—perhaps in less time—afford shade, protection, fencing, fuel and material for many other purposes. The man who cannot wait for the trees to grow, will perhaps see twenty years or more pass away, and at the last be destitute of the woods which might have been growing while he was sleeping. : i. There are in many parts of the country tracts of uneven land, generally near streams; which are 3 26 FOREST TREES. partially or wholly covered with young trees. These tracts are usually among the least valuable for tillage, and should therefore be protected from devastation. Rivers, bluffs, ravines and steep slopes liable to wash under cultivation, are better suited to the growth of wood than to any other purpose. Any farmer, although of small means, can plant at least an acre of trees in a year. When the ground for a grove or timber belt is selected, the outer rows may be first planted, and others added from year to year, as may be convenient. After the first three or four yeai's, the trees will need little or no cultivation, and will require only pruning, thinning, and the exclusion of stock. Every farm of forty acres or more should have a proportion approximating to a fixed ratio of wood and tillage land. This ratio may be fixed at thirty acres of wood in a quarter section of one hundred and sixty acres, which is somewhat less than one-fifth. The proprietor whose farm consists wholly of arable land, may think this too much; yet a careful consideration of the subject must convince any intelligent person that the land cannot be put to a better use. If the plan were generally adopted of planting timber belts on the north and west sides of farms on open plains, pro- tection would be afforded on the other two sides by neighboring plantations. two-valved. FOREST TREES. 143 1. Robinia Pseudacacia—Common Locust. Branches, naked; racemes, slender, loose; flowers, white, fragrant; pod, smooth. The Locust is commonly a middle-sized tree, but, according to Michaux, it grows in Kentucky and West Tennessee to the height of seventy or eighty feet, with a diameter of four feet. It has been widely disseminated for ornament, and occasionally planted for the sake of its very valuable timber. As an ornamental tree, it is very handsome while young, but becomes ugly as it increases in age. The wood is hard, compact, and strong, and resists decay longer than almost any other kind of timber. It is employed in ship-building whenever it can be obtained, and is highly valued for that purpose. It is also used for posts, which are more lasting than any others, excepting those of the Red Mulberry. In a stick of Locust timber, the proportion of sap-wood is very small. There are varieties of the Locust, named White, Yellow, and Black Locust, differing principally in the durability of the wood. Some have supposed this difference to be caused by the different soils in which they grow, but this does not appear to be the case. The Yellow Locust grown on Long Island was intro- duced from North Carolina about one hundred years since, and is most esteemed. This variety produces seed very sparingly. The White Locust, so called from the color of the heart, grows in similar soils, and is not very durable. It is sometimes called Seed Locust, from the abundance of seed which it pro- 144 FOREST TREES. duces. The Black Locust grows in the Western States, and is esteemed for its durability. Between 1855 and 1865, a species of borer (Arhopa- lus robiniz) peculiar to the Locust, spread over the State of Illinois, destroying nearly every tree of the kind in the country. Not only were trees planted for shade attacked, but groves grown for timber were completely ruined. With the disappearance of the trees the insect disappeared also, and for several years the few trees which survived, as well as those which have since sprung up from seed, or from the roots of the old trees, have been untouched by it. The rapid growth of the Locust, and the invaluable qualities of its wood, recommend it strongly to the attention of cultivators. For ornamental purposes, there are many trees better deserving culture; the suckers it throws up from its roots, and its thin, scraggy appearance when it has attained a consider- able size, constitute strong objections to it. The Locust may be- propagated by suckers, but is best grown from seed sown in thespring. Itis usually prepared for sowing by pouring boiling water upon it, and allowing it to stand till cool. It should then be sown immediately. 2. Robinia viscosa —Clammy Locust. Branchlets and leaf-stalks clammy ; flowers crowded with oblong racemes, tinged with rose color. This is a smaller tree than the preceding, growing to the height of thirty or forty feet. The properties of its wood are nearly the same as in the preceding FOREST TREES. 145 species, but its inferior size renders it less desirable for forest culture. Its foliage is thick, its flowers are numerous, of a beautiful rose-color, and are some- times produced twice in the season. They are not fragrant. Like the Common Locust, it is of rapid growth, produces numerous suckers from its roots, and is liable to the attacks of the same insect. It is * propagated like the preceding. Robinia hispida, the Rose Acacia, is a shrub com- monly cultivated for the beauty of its flowers. It is said to be increased in size by grafting on the other species. SALIX—WILLOW. Natural Order, Salicacee. Catkins, with the scales entire; sterile flowers of three to six stamens, with one or two small glands; pistillate flowers, with a small, flat gland at the base of the ovary on the inner side. There are many species of the Willow, and a con- siderable number are natives of the United States; but most of these are mere shrubs, and not one of them is applied to any useful purpose. A few foreign species have been introduced, possessing qualities which render them worthy of cultivation. All the Willows grow readily from cuttings, and are seldom propagated in any other way. 1. Salix alba — White Willow. Leaves, lanceolate, pointed, toothed, covered with white, silky hairs, especially beneath; stipules, lance- olate; stigmas, nearly sessile, thick and recurved. 13 146 FOREST TREES. The White Willow is a handsome tree, which in moist situations grows to the height of seventy or eighty feet, with a proportionate diameter. It will thrive in dry soils, but does not become so large. It is a very rapid grower, and its culture has been strongly recommended for screens to break the force “of the wind on the prairies of the West. Several years since, some itinerant speculators succeeded in “raising the wind,” and producing quite an excite- ment in regard to its merits as a hedge plant. Stories of its excellence for this and other purposes were cir- culated, so extravagant as to show that their authors counted largely upon the gullibility of the commu- nity. Great quantities of cuttings were sold at high prices in Illinois and Iowa, and unless some of the sharpers were much belied, native Willows were cut from the swamps, and sold as the White Willow. As a matter of course, a reaction soon took place, and the White Willow is now wholly neglected. An impenetrable fence may undoubtedly be soon formed by planting it closely, but its permanence is quite another matter. When trees of so large size are crowded thickly together, a part necessarily soon perish. The wood of the White Willow is light and soft, and speedily decays when exposed to alternations of dryness and moisture, or when placed in contact with the earth. When grown thickly in plantations, it produces long straight poles, which, cut to the proper length, and nailed upon posts, make a good fence, and will last a considerable time. It is not needful, FOREST TREES. 147 as in the case of the poplar, to remove the bark. The wood may be applied to other uses, and the tree is unquestionably desirable for planting on farms in the open prairies, wherever it is an object to produce trees for shelter, and wood for use in the shortest possible time. In Maryland and Delaware it is grown for making charcoal, which is employed in the manu- facture of gunpowder. In Europe ‘the bark is used for tanning. Salix vitellina, the Golden Willow, is a variety of this species, and differs principally in the color of the bark, and somewhat more spreading growth. 2. Salix fragilis—Britile Willow. Leaves, lanceolate, taper-pointed, smooth, glaucous beneath, slightly silky when young, serrate, with inflexed teeth; stipules, half-heart shaped; stamens, commonly two. This species, which is said to grow to the height of ninety feet, is less widely distributed in the United States than the White Willow. It is cultivated for basket work.