have to use it again. When farmers see that Mr. Stickney is doing so well they will go into it. I think they ought to get a force pump and use the hellebore.

Pres. Smith It is about 12 o'clock and as we have some work to do this afternoon and it is expected that at 3 o'clock we shall go to view the grounds of Mr. Loudon, perhaps it would be just as well to adjourn and get together as promptly as possible and get the work done so as to view the grounds. This matter of currant culture can be taken up again if we wish to. I think that it would be well to take it up when Mr. Stickney is here as he is the most experienced currant grower in the state.

Recess until 1:30 P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16.

President Smith-The first thing on the programme for the afternoon was a discussion on "Ornamental Trees," led by J. C. Plumb.

Mr. Plumb - Is this to be an informal talk?
Mr. Hoxie-Make it formal as you can.

President Smith - We expect it to be a good sensible one. Mr. Plumb- Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:-I don't know that you will hear me back at the windows. The other day I asked a gentleman what he understood by an ornamental tree. He said: A tree that will adorn my yard I consider an ornamental tree. Well, I thought, that was pretty good. I next asked another gentleman. He says: A shade tree is an ornamental tree. A tree that does not shade me is not an ornamental tree. Another gentleman says: I want an ornamental tree that will not only shade but that will hide. Ornamental trees that are used to hide defects. I think I asked seven or eight during the day and got various answers. One gentleman says: An ornamental tree, that is a tree that is imported, it is not a native tree. I said, don't you consider the oak an ornamental tree? He said: I do not. It is only a shade tree. It seems to be a difficult thing to define an ornamental tree. When we

come to define it it means a great deal. It means not only a shade and shelter but it menns something that will fill up vacancies and hide defects. That answer that said an ornamental tree must be imported, I don't accept at all, because my experience has taught me that the best ornamental trees we have in this country are natives. So when we talk about ornamental trees and put them in our catalogues, we mean trees that will shelter and hide defects in outgrounds, so that they will give a background around buildings so that people passing by will see a background of beautiful trees sometimes placed there by nature and sometimes by man. They are all ornamental trees.

The next question that would occur is, What ornamental trees? Now this matter of the choice of ornamental trees has just as many sides to it as there are tastes, and situations and circumstances. One gentleman said to me this morning - I don't see him here present, I am sorry the gentleman is away. He says: "These elms are a failure." I said, Why? "O," he said, "the wind breaks them down." Well, they are in that sense pretty near a failure, for if the land is very rich, and if they have a strong hold, the violent winds are apt to break them down. I might as well answer to that, where the elm is liable to break down from any cause, from rapidity of growth or wrong structure it should be cut back. Well, said I, if the elm is a failure, what next? Why, the sugar maple, the old tree of New England." Really that is my first choice, too. I was brought up in the shade of sugar maple trees that my fathers planted over a hundred years ago. But it is a slow tree. But the gentleman said: "Yes, but it is always pretty." Now I like a sugar maple tree because it is always pretty. It is a slow growing tree, but its leaf, when it falls, is a beautiful leaf, and it leaves a clean, handsome tree, handsome even in winter. The elm comes first, the generally accepted ornamental tree. The maple will come next. In many locations the white ash would be placed first. I know a gentleman in this city who would plant nothing but a white ash because white ash will grow where there is only six or eight inches of soil over sixty feet of gravel; and so where

other trees have failed the white ash has become an accepted tree and they want it. The next tree that I would name in the order would be the basswood, our common American linden. It has been a neglected tree, but it is a tree of great merit. Its foliage is beautiful, its flowers yield the richest of honey and it is a tree which I believe in coming years will be more appreciated than in the past. If you want to see some beautiful lindens, they are scattered in certain parts of this town but do not grow in other parts. Across the river we strike a limestone clay where they do better than on the gravel beds on this side of the river.

The next tree that I would name would be the catalpa. Speaking about the linden, another advantage it has is its being a broad leafed tree. But there is a clipping from the catalpa, what is called the hard catalpa. There is some talk of their being two varieties. There are no doubt two varieties. There are trees in this state that have never killed back a particle. This is a clipping taken from a tree, a seedling, two years ago. When it killed back last fall when frost came, the top of that tree was just as green as that you see there. [Pointing to the clipping.] The frost killed the top and these broad leaves, and before the winter set in, the wood had gradually ripened, but that stem was green half of its length, but it had ripened its wood until it had wintered without any protection, killing back that much. [Using the clipping.] The hard catalpa is going to come in and help us out on broad leafed trees. When we come to study this question, we find a need of broad leaf trees. I hope the time will come when we shall have sycamore trees that will endure this climate. Those that are familiar with the climate of the city of St. Louis, will know that the best known trees they have in that city are the buttonwood or sycamore trees. I have a tree of this catalpa that has been out for some ten or twelve years. It has a very conspicuous flower. [The flower of the catalpa was shown to the audience.] The flower is very fragrant. I want to say further, I am going on and extend the list. The native hackberry is a better tree than the elm. With very little cutting it is a perfect tree. The only trouble with the hackberry is that

we cannot get it. In the city of LaCrosse and Sparta the hackberry vies with the elm in beauty.

Mr. Palmer - What about the hickory?

Mr. Plumb-I will speak about that in a moment, I want to make a special point of that. The butternut, mountain ash and walnut are all beautiful trees, but have defects. Poplars and willows are beautiful, but have defects also. We have no native willows that will succeed this far north except the weeping willows. All of the imported willows, such as you see coming from eastern nurseries, are a failure. I do not know of one in the state of Wisconsin that has survived over four or five years. Not because the top is not hardy, but because the stem which is used for the top is tender. The American mountain ash and the European ash is a hardy tree, but both have defects. You will ask why I have not spoken about the soft maple. There is one tree I want to speak about, and that is the birch. It is a very pretty tree, but the European white birch is a very much better tree. That variety stands at the head of all ornamental trees at the north. I am informed that from Boston to St. Paul, there is no tree that is as widely set as that tree. I cannot point to any in the city, although I think there are two or three in the city. It is a tree you will all want if you can get it. Of the European varieties there are none of them but what are a little delicate.

It

Now for the hickories and live oaks. I have spoken of trees that can be grown in nurseries and sold. There are trees that cannot be grown in that manner, these are the hickory and the live oak. The burr oak as some of you heard me say years ago, is the finest tree in America. has peculiar qualities. It is a rustic tree, you can't take a little twig off from a burr oak tree but it is a curiosity. It is a tree that should be saved by all means. It is difficult to transplant. There is only one way to transplant a hickory when it is four or five years old and when taken out has just as much growth below ground as above ground, I found that when the trees were two years old we could dig down 1 or 2 feet and cut the top root and the second year

after transplant it. It will form a few side roots. This is the best way to transplant forest trees, dig down and cut off the main roots, and in that way you will get side roots. I will not take up any more time.

Mr. Phillipps-I was going to say that if it is the programme of this meeting to go to Mr. Loudon's at three it only leaves ten minutes for both Tuttle and myself, and I think I had better give way to him. Well, in reference to this ornamental tree planting I don't exactly know why I was placed here. I never talked on this subject in my life and never thought on it but a little. The only reason I can give that Mr. Adams put me on this discussion is that he knows I like to be in good company; and being with Plumb and Tuttle I find I am there. It is a little different subject from what I expected. I hardly knew what an ornamental tree was. I started out to find a man that knew more about it than I did. I asked a man that had planted many ornamental trees, what he considered an ornamental tree. He said: A tree good for nothing but to look at. I made up my mind that about nine-tenths of the tree planting done in Wisconsin for the last ten years was of the ornamental kind. Our orchards are all ornamental plantations. I wondered what I would say here; I thought he would not take up birches, live oaks, hickories, etc., but he has given you a discussion of the whole subject; I want something that is ornamental and useful both, I find I have many ornamental apple trees and now I am taking a little different view.

As stated here this morning, we don't want to go contrary to nature in planting trees. If I can get a tree that will live five or six years, I will call it an ornamental tree. I heard a definition in Minnesota of an ornamental tree that I thought much of. Mr. Hedges, called the tree planter of the west, was there. His hobby was planting ornamental trees and forest trees to furnish shade. Having to read a paper at the Minnesota Society his main point was this, to examine the native forest and see what was doing well there and it was safe to set such trees out in that latitude. That was the point he tried to make in a whole hour.