Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 278]

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270 idly. As they became large enough for the purpose, the most of those to be removed for thinning were dug for transplanting. Gradually the distance apart became four by eight. The trees now measure, fifteen years after planting, a little over twenty-eight feet in height and fifteen inches in circumference of trunk. This is far less than the same trees planted along streets fifty feet distant from each other measure. Even some of those transplanted from these very rows eight or ten years ago are now twice the average size of their thickly set companions. This seems to show that the Elm does not bear crowding well, at least by its own kindred. As a timber tree little can be said in its favor, however much we may admire it for ornamental purposes. There are special uses for its fine-grained, interlocked, fibrous wood, but the demand is limited and precarious. (Carya alba and C. sulcata.) Nuts were collected of these two kinds, known as the small-fruited and the large-fruited Shellbarks, in the autumn of 1879, and at once planted in the forest-tree rows. Borne of the nuts were destroyed by vermin, but the most of them germinated and grew the following spring, making, however, small progress during the summer. During the first winter, and to some extent afterward, many of the young trees were cut off by rabbits. These, however, usually sprouted out again from the stump. The land is high and dry and the soil poor. There is one reason for the slow growth. The Ailanthus and Hardy Catalpa, on the same soil, have shown remarkable vigor. As between the two Hickories, the large-fruited one has surpassed the other, though it is more often found on lower land. The trees are no.w from four to eight feet high.

HICKOEIES,

(Gleditschia triacanthos.) Two-year-old seedlings were planted, four by eight feet apart, in the spring of 1882. The average height is now about eighteen feet, and the average circumference of stem six and a half inches. This tree attains lofty dimensions in native woodland, but is not highly esteemed. The wood is coarse-grained, not tough, but exceedingly hard. It is said that it shrinks less in drying than any other native wood. It is not very durable when subject to moisture. There may be special uses for which the hard and conspicuously grained wood would be highly esteemed. It is susceptible of a fine polish, and probably could be advantageously used in furniture making and in joinery. EUROPEAN LARCH.—Two acres were planted; rows four, and trees in rows two feet apart. The land varies much in fertility and in subterranean drainage. Two-thirds of the area is relatively high, and in the soil no water stands within several feet of the surface at any time of the year, at least for many days at a time. This soil is too poor to grow a fair crop of corn, but would answer satisfactorily for oats. The subsoil is yellow clay, with enough admixture of sand to make drainage fairly good. The northern end of the area reaches down into lower land, where water in a tile drain would run during a large part of the spring and early summer, though it does not stand upon the surface. Sometimes in the spring the wettest portion is so

HONEY LOCUST,