Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1876 [PAGE 200]

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200

When this is determined, something definite, and it may be, very important, will be accomplished • Some attempts at innoculation with the diseased sap and with spores from the bark pustules seem to fail entirely. A slight slit was made in the bark of a healthy tree and the materials introduced after the manner of budding. Ten or twelve trials were made with no observed results. The wounds healed nominally, and the trees continued, to all appearanees, healthy. This was unlooked for, as the statement is often made that the disease is communicated in this way. But more experiments are needed before anything can be predicated as to results. The leaves, though assuming a peculiar blackish tint and often giving the first notice of the disease, do not seem to be the seat of the difficulty, nothing abnormal being found in or on them. The Siberian crabs often blighted nearly as bad as the pear. The " twig blight" of the apple appears identical with the more destructive "fire blight" of the pear. Two years ago the flat-headed wood borer, (Chrysobothris femorata,) was exceedingly destructive upon the apple, elm, sycamore, and hard and soft maple trees, and last year (1875) the adult insects were more numerous than ever before. One man caught over 200 of the winged beetles upon the trees near the University building in one day and nearly as many each succeeding day for a week or more. The trees were also washed with crude potash several times during the summer. Whatever may have been the effect of these measures, the insects did but little damage last year, and during this season scarcely one has been seen in any form. Doubtless the change in the summers from dry to wet had much to do in their disappearance. In general, insect pests have not been very injurious during the year now closing to our horticultural productions.

FOREST-TREE PLANTATION.

The accompanying table shows the average height and size of the trees in this plantation, the growth during the summers of 1875 and 1876, and the cost of cultivation, together with the total cost of each kind and the whole plantation ffom the commencement. With the exception of the chestnut all the kinds planted are now represented by nearly their full numbers except as removed for thinning, and all are in a healthy, vigorous condition. In 1875 a peculiar blight affected the young leaves and shoots of the sugar maple, but its cause was not ascertained. It has not appeared this year and the trees have recovered. A fungus leaf parasite has made its appearance upon the silver-leaf maple, forming black shining patches or scabs sometimes an inch across and often several of them upon a leaf. It does not appear to be very destructive, but evidently reduces the thriftiness of the tree. The disease is by no means new elsewhere, being widely disseminated east and west, preying upon the maples and sycamores, but not found, to my knowledge,, in this vicinity before. No remedy is known to me except the (all but impracticable) one of gathering the fallen leaves and burning. From the nature of the parasite this must be a specific where possible to make use of it. The scientific name of the fungus is . The plantation has been remarkably free from insect depredations. Several leaf-eating caterpillars have worked upon the elms and walnuts, but not so as to do serious damage. The larva of a butterfly (Grapta interrogationis) has defoliated very injuriously the elm trees planted singly, as along streets and on the ornamental grounds, and a sphinx larva in like manner the ash, but upon trees in masses they do not appear to work much. The ground the last two summers has been so wet that the plantation could not be cultivated at the proper times, so that more weeds have been allowed among the smaller trees than otherwise would have been. Visitors not acquainted with the peculiarity of these two seasons would get a wrong impression without these explanations. The only addition made since the last report is a quarter of an acre of apple, planted four by four feet. The tulip trees which we intended to set last spring have been root pruned preparatory to removal next season. We hope to secure a collection of acorns this autumn, to fill up the portion designed for Oaks. I recommend also the addition of Box Elder and Honey Locust, the plants to be grown from seed, which can be obtained at little or no cost. The measurements of a few Box Elder are given in the table for 1875. They were planted by chance with the White Ash and were then of the same age and size as the latter; but at the date given the average height of tke Box Elder was 15 feet 7 inches, against 11 feet 10 inches for the Ash, and the diameter of trunk one foot from the ground, 3% to 1 3-5 inches. By the showing of the table, the Willow is now making the most rapid growth, having gained in average height, six feet in 1876. Next comes in order the Soft Maple {Acer Dasycarprun), four feet six inches; the Catalpa and Osage Orange, each, four feet, and the White Ash and European Larch, each, three feet four inches. The two first do not furnish very valuable timber, while that of the four following are exceedingly useful. From the most reliable information, we know the wood of both the Osage and the Catalpa is almost proof against decay—the dead logs in their native places lie for ages upon the damp ground, hard and sound, while generations of human beings come and go—a log of Catalpa certainly known to have lain upon the earth in the wet woods of Pulaski county, Ills,during the whole century of our republic, was sawed into boards and one of them,perfectly sound and receiving a high polish, helped form the collection sent by this University to Philadelphia ; a piece cut from the plantation, nearly four inches in diameter, also went with the collection. This was from seed sown in 1869. The Osage Orange wood, perhaps, is still more valuable, while that of the Ash and Larch is highly esteemed. Upon very extended inquiry during the last winter, in connection with the centennial wood collection, it was found that the price of wood as fuel had not increased during the last ten years in our State, and that in more than half of the timbered regions the growth was estimated to be fully equal to the destruction. With our immense supplies of coal, it is doubtful if wood can, for many years to come, be profitably grown for fuel; b u t the finer and better varieties of trees, such as are named above, may yield a handsome profit, while natural forests are burned to clear the ground. The coniferse, as indicated by the figures, are growing rapidly—the White Pine being first for the last year; the Scotch and Austrian for the year before. The growth of these trees should not be compared with that of the deciduous leafed ones, because of the natural slowness of t h e i r growth while young. In after years they will overtake their present rivals. The proportionately great expense of the Larch, Walnut and Butternut, for 1876, is due to extra work, pruning and transplanting.