markets it must fall in the rear, much as I prize it for baking and for making cider apple sauce. I will now go back to where I should have commenced, to consider the merits of the Red Astrachan; it being one of the earliest and possessing great beauty, though not of the highest character in quality, meets with a cordial reception both for the dessert and for cooking. With me it has proved equal to the best, as a tree, and good for productiveness and fairness of appearance. Sops of Wine follows close upon the Red Astrachan, and would be a close competitor but lacks its good cooking qualities, being too nearly sweet and inclined to be dry, though excellent for the dessert when in its prime. Duchess comes next in order, and allowing the eye to be judge, without consulting the taste, it would rank superior to all; on account of the excellence of the tree, its productiveness, and the beauty of the fruit it stands high. Lowell has great merit, as it is a good, reliable tree, nearly always bearing a good crop of fruit nice for cooking and fair for the dessert, but coming so near to the Duchess and followed so soon by the St. Lawrence, it more than fills the bill, the latter kind having all the merits of the Lowell, and being superior for the dessert and in color. Crowding right along, comes the Fall Orange, vying with any of its predecessors in size, fairness and quality of fruit, and generally very productive. Now comes the last on my list, though not least in importance, the Fameuse. This has an established reputation as a tree, and an abundant producer of an excellent quality of fruit for the dessert or for cooking. Its size and keeping qualities are not all we could desire, but with good treatment it is bound to go ahead.

It may be said I have traversed over too much ground. Perhaps so; but I find it difficult to satisfy myself which kinds have the greatest merit, there being too many fall varieties, and no winter variety that meets every requirement desired. For thirty years I have been seeking to find the kind that would bear the reputation with us that the Baldwin, Spitzenburg, or Rhode Island Greening have in the eastern states, but have as yet failed to find it. In order to comply with your request, and give a succession of fruits for all seasons, I will mention Red Astrachan, Duchess, St. Lawrence, Fameuse, Golden Russet and Ben Davis, as the six leading kinds, reserving the privilege of making changes hereafter.

On further consideration, I have concluded that for my use I must have the full dozen, and add Rawle's Janet as one of my favorites. This fills a place no other kind does, although it requires a longer season than our summers to bring the fruit to the best perfection; by giving it the full season till frost comes before picking, it will ripen up good in the barrel, and from this onward, for those who like a firm fleshed, rich and juicy apple, it is hard to find any kind to match it. The tree being later in starting than other kinds, gives more certainty for a crop, the failure of

which is very rare. The fruit always clings to the tree till picked off. An objection is raised to the smallness of the fruit; this may be obviated very much in pruning the tree well and thinning the fruit in the early part of summer, so that which is on the tree will be fair and of nearly uniform, medium size, and often above medium, thus securing more bushels after taking off half the number set, and of a much superior quality than when left to itself, and making it a valuable late keeping, market variety.

ARBORVITÆ AND BARBERRY FOR HEDGES.

M. C. BUSHNELL, OMRO.

The hedge or live fence has never come into general use in this country for the protection of crops or other property, or for the safe-keeping of animals, neither for borders and ornament about our lawns and grounds. Our European friends tell of the beauties of the well trimmed hedges in their mother country; how pleasant to the eye and mind; how durable and profitable, etc. The question has often been asked, why can we not, and why do we not have the same in this country? There may be several reasons given in reply: Our climate, with extremes of intense heat and cold, wet and dry; another, the constant anxiety of our people to have everything finished and perfected immediately. With our labor and money we can make a fine fence of wood, stone or iron in a few days, and in turn, its form and finish soon loses its perfectness; decay and failure are written on it. The frosts of winter and heat of summer make it unshapely and unpleasant to the mechanical or cultivated eye. It may be ever so well made, the design, the product of cultivated art, yet in a few years it has lost its charms; unlike the live fence, the change is for the worse, downward. The hedge is each year improving in beauty and usefulness. I have yet to see the person that does not adinire a well grown hedge.

Now, the question: How shall it be obtained? The first step is to secure a plant, shrub, or tree, that can withstand our climate. We have, as in the matter of fruit culture, held that we must use the same plant to make a live fence here as is used in the old country, and the result, as in fruit, has been nearly a failure. Some plants grow too large and others spread from the root, while nearly all are liable to die in part, or altogether, and our labor is lost; the fence is a failure. Being a great admirer of hedges around yards and grounds, I some years ago began to look around for the plant or shrub with which to gratify my taste, and in studying the cause of success and failure, also the nature and hab

its of plants, this conclusion was arrived at: That a plant, a native of a cold climate, one that had withstood drought, and was not of large, rapid growth, and one that did not spread from the roots, would be the kind to cultivate for hedges in this climate and latitude. After considerable study and information, derived from those who had had experience in the matter, the arborvita and barberry were selected. The arborvitæ is at home in this state, grows well in nearly all kinds of soil, and is furnished with a large supply of roots. It is an evergreen, ready to cheer and beautify when all nature besides has put on her dreary dress. Who, that has ever seen grounds surrounded by an evergreen hedge in this latitude, where winter claims at least one-half the year, does not feel that not a small share of the dreariness was thus relieved.

The plants should be cultivated in nursery until they are one foot or more high. The soil where the hedge is to be set should be prepared by cultivation to a good depth, one year previous to the plants being set; or if one wishes to set immedi ately, some old, mellow earth should be put about the roots. The plants should be taken up so as to get all the roots in a perfect condition, and be kept in the shade and wet until again put into the ground. It is very essential that plants having resinous sap should not, in transplanting, have their roots exposed to the sun or air. Set them about eight inches apart in the row. At time of setting, cut off all long, hanging branches. Right here is the key to success in growing a fine hedge: To trim close from the beginning, keep in the line and shape that is desired. An arborvitæ hedge should not be suffered to advance but a little in height or width for the first two or three years; close cutting makes short, compact limbs, and consequently a thick, compact hedge. If once the plants are allowed to grow tall and slim, it never can be made of that fine form as where well cut back at first; when thus treated it becomes a pride and pleasure from the

start.

The Barberry is also a native of a cold climate and sterile soil but thrives in most kinds of soils; the branches are well covered with small thorns; the leaf has an acid taste. In habit of growth it is not unlike the currant bushes, continually thickening from the crown of the root, but never sprouting or spreading from them. It is remarkable for its abundant fibrous roots; when one or two years old, the plant is at least two-thirds in the ground, the small, fine rootlets fill the ground to a great depth, but not so much in width, so that drought affects it but little; and never have I seen, in the past six years, with our most severe winters, a plant winter-killed; when once well started it seems almost proof against failure. They should be well set in the ground, the dirt firmly pressed about the roots and well mulched. The growth is slow for the first two or three years; then, if it has been well cared for,

7-HOR. Soc.

the growth is quite rapid, new shoots growing six feet high in one year. It will make a good hedge without trimming, as six to nine feet is its usual height, but by careful trimming it can be made into the finest of shapes. It will be seen from the above that it is one of the best of shrubs for hedges in villages and cities, for division of lots, on sides of streets, around lawns and yards, as it does not grow to a very great height and becomes so thick and compact that boys and hens cannot well pass through. Whether it would become substantial enough to turn animals of all kinds on the farm, I cannot say; but it is thought by some that it would. The only objection or difficulty would be, want of strength; yet with its acid leaf and thorns it would not be desirable to eat or play with.

The Arborvitae will not make a fence for protection against animals, but will add beauty and culture to our village and city homes. What would be more pleasant to the eye, or add more to the appearance of a town than to have its streets bordered with fine evergreen or barberry hedges? and still more to see each lot surrounded with the same.. The shade tree has added untold pleasantness and beauties, and, perhaps it might be said health, to our homes. Could not the ever-living fence, in place of the ever-decaying and dying fence, be made to far surpass the shade tree in all these good qualities? I can hardly close this paper without referring to the common but yet mistaken idea, that these hedges are expensive, and require skilled labor to grow them; any one that can work the soil and set plants in-line, can do it. The cost of good plants does not exceed fifty to seventy-five cents per rod, and the art of training will be acquired with the growth, if one has a heart in it.

ORNAMENTAL TREES.

ARTHUR BRYANT, PRINCETON, ILL.

The planting of trees for shade and ornament is a matter in which most persons living in the country take more or less inter

There has been quite a change in this respect in the seventy years which my memory runs back. Formerly, in New England, where I was brought up, a tree planted for shade or ornament was rarely seen except in the towns and villages. Almost the only exception was here and there a Lombardy Poplar. More than sixty years since, when I was twelve years old, I planted the first Sugar Maple trees by the roadside that had ever been set in that part of the country. They are still in existence. I well remember that a neighbor ridiculed the idea of planting forest trees near a house, and said that if he wanted to live in the woods he

would put his house there. The want of taste in this respect need not surprise us, when we consider how much labor it cost early settlers to destroy the forests which originally covered the country. The time has been, too, when a tree near a dwelling might become a convenient stalking horse for an Indian sharpshooter.

In the selection of trees for ornamental planting, the extent of the grounds on which they are to be set should be taken into account. Large trees should not be planted in small yards. A tree to show its best, needs room for full development. Yet how often do we see first-class trees growing in a front yard a few feet wide, or too thickly crowded in large ones. I have seen four Norway Spruces planted in the corners of a cemetery lot twenty feet square. On grounds of sufficient extent, trees may be planted in clumps with good effect.

The list of ornamental trees cultivated in the northern Atlantic states is a large one; but it unfortunately happens that a tree hardy at Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, cannot in all cases be depended on as such in the same latitude west. This may be partly owing to the want of shelter. Even the Hemlock Spruce, a native of the most northern parts of the Union, is sometimes winter killed in exposed situations on the Illinois prairies. The Tulip tree and the Chestnut are barely hardy in northern Illinois; the latter is generally a failure on the prairies, probably owing to the want of a congenial soil. The Irish and Swedish Junipers, as far as I have observed them, although quite pretty while small, become in a few years ragged and unsightly. It is impossible in a short essay to give more than a cursory notice of a limited list of ornamental trees. The White Elm, unrivalled as a street tree, the Sugar Maple, Red Maple and Silver Maple are well known. The Box Elder or Ash-leaved Maple is less common in cultivation; it grows rapidly while young, and becomes a handsome, round-headed, small tree. It grows on the Red River of the north, yet there is a variety in cultivation which does not endure the winters of Long Island. The Norway Maple is, I think, little known in the west. It resembles the Sugar Maple, but is in some respects superior. Its foliage is more dense; the leaves appear earlier in spring and continue later in autumn. The White, Blue and Green Ash are fine trees; and some species of oak, common in the west, merit more attention than they have yet received. The Black Walnut makes a grand tree, but fruit trees cannot live near it. Our native White or Canoe Birch is a very handsome tree; and the cut-leaved variety of the European Birch is beautiful. Among small trees, the white flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) is desirable both for its flowers and scarlet berries; also the Redbud or Indus tree, which is covered with pink flowers before the leaves appear. The Silver Bell (Halesia) is hardy in northern Illinois, and probably would be in southern Wisconsin. This is a small tree, producing a profusion of white flowers about