Arbor Day: Three kinds of planting

What should be taught at Arbor Day?

Kentucky Arbor and Bird Day, 1914-1915 is a curious little book. It is a guide for teaching Arbor Day and Bird Day, published by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

James B. McCreary, Governor of the Commonwealth, proclaimed in the book's foreword that Arbor Day would be observed in Kentucky schools on Friday, November 6, 1914. Later in the book, it is suggested that Bird Day be observed on the same day.

The book, about 125 pages in all, is an assortment of exhortations to the teacher, essays about trees and birds, inspirational poems, plays for the school children to perform, words and music to half a dozen songs, tree and bird facts, and even some colored illustrations (glued into the book, but apparently part of the orgiinal publication).

The following excerpt is taken from an essay titled "Three Kinds of Planting":

Plant Trees; by all means, Plant Trees. That's number one. But don't forget to

Plant also the Love of Trees. That's number two. For this kind of planting, the best soil is the heart of childhood and of youth. And while you are about it

Plant likewise Knowledge concerning Trees. That's number three. Not necessarily the Forester's technical knowledge; just a comfortable "working knowledge," you know. The leading species and how to distinguish them; how and what kind to select for planting -- or to reject; how to set out a Tree; how to care for and protect it; and so on. Not very recondite knowledge this, and easy to impart -- also easy to take in. And useful? Yes, masters, eminently useful; and if Kentucky is to do its best in trees, indispensable.

Now, of the three plantings above recommended, number one would mean in time a Kentucky adorned throughout its length and breadth with stately trees. Number two would mean a Kentucky of tree-loving, tree-fostering, tree-protecting people. And number three, a Kentucky noted for, and profiting by, its sound judgment in tree matters -- its intelligence in the conservation of trees, and in their planting, care, and protection.

Trees, love of trees, knowledge of trees, these three; and the greatest of these (one ventures to think) is Knowledge. For to know trees is to love them; and to love trees is to plant, care for, protect and conserve them. So the last becomes first; heads the shining list; leads unfailingly to the other two. And indeed, without Knowledge, love would be helpless and planting of little avail. "My people perish" twas said of old, "for lack of knowledge." And as with the people, so with the people's trees. Selah!

(Adapted from Eighth Annual Report of the Newark Shade Tree Commission.)

Quoted from Kentucky Arbor and Bird Day 1914-1915 (pages 31-32), compiled by Mrs. V. O. Gilbert. Published in Frankfort, Kentucky by the State Journal Company for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, no publishing or copyright date given.

Related articles (posted on my other blog):
The Country Boy's Creed
The Farmer's Creed -- and Its Author, Frank I. Mann
Planting a Love for Trees

Treeing and being treed

Frontier slang

"The Cow Boy"
Sturgis, Dakota Territory, c. 1888
Photographed by J.C.H. Grabill
Source: Library of Congress

Every occupation has its slang, and the cowboys of the American frontier were no exception to the rule. The Dictionary of the American West by Winfred Blevins (1993, Facts on File Books, New York) lists hundreds  of colorful phrases cowboys used to describe their lives on the open range. The website "Western Slang, Lingo, and Phrases" is another large collection of cowboy talk.

The men of the saddle were, of course, familiar with the idea of "treeing" a wild animal -- that is, pursuing the animal until it ran up a tree to escape . According to Blevins, the cowboys took this term and gave it a Wild West twist -- "treeing a town".

When cowboys "treed" a town, they were on their worst behavior -- drinking, shouting, fighting, shooting their guns, and riding wildly down the streets. The residents, terrified for their safety, took refuge in their homes, refusing to come out until the cowboys left. If the sheriff was too intimidated to interfere, the cowboys said they had "treed the sheriff" too.

They also used the phrase "up a tree" to describe situations where someone was in trouble without a way to escape.

I looked around the internet this evening for a story where a cowboy was up a tree in the literal sense of the words. I thought I might find a story of a cowboy who climbed a tree to escape a herd of stampeding cattle.

Instead I found an 1889 account of a couple who were treed with their minister. A young man and his lady were engaged to be married, but were quarreling badly at a dance. When the dance ended at 4:00 a.m., their preacher decided to walk them home so he could help them work out their problem.

As they walked along, an aggressive Texas steer charged them. The young man went up one tree, and the preacher boosted the lady into a second tree before he scrambled into a third tree.

With the steer menacing them from below, the two young people feared for their lives. They settled their differences quickly and asked to be married.  The preacher agreed, so they joined hands from their respective trees and said their vows. Soon thereafter, a wagon came by and they were rescued.  Source: "Papers Past."

I also read the story of modern-day cowboy David George.  George, a 53-year-old ranch foreman in Australia, fell from his horse and probably suffered a blow to the head. He seems to have wandered for a time, in a semi-conscious state.

When George regained his senses, he realized that he was in a swamp and the sun was going down. He climbed a tree to spend the night and was treed there by a couple of large crocodiles for six days. He was able to improve his perch slightly by building a little platform with sticks, but he couldn't come down from the tree.

Meanwhile, his horse went home without him, and a search was conducted. He was finally rescued when a helicopter pilot spotted him waving his shirt. (Source: Indopia)

I have been treed in the figurative sense a few times (that is, unable to see a solution), but I truly hope I'm never treed in the literal sense. I'm too old to climb trees!

Small Native Ornamental Trees

Small native trees noted for their flowers

Pink dogwood in Christian County, KY

I don't think any of the trees in this list will grow over 50 feet, and many of them won't grow nearly that high. Their scientific names are listed as they appear in the USDA Plants Database (and the links lead there.)

Amalanchier -- Serviceberries, including Amelanchier canadensis (L.) Medik. (Canadian serviceberry), Amelanchier alnifolia (Nutt.) Nutt. ex M. Roem. (Saskatoon serviceberry), and Amelanchier arborea (Michx. f.) Fernald (common serviceberry).

Cercis canadensis L. -- Redbud (Judas tree)

Cornus florida L.-- Flowering dogwood

Crataegus L. -- Hawthorns of many sorts including Crataegus pedicellata Sarg. (Scarlet hawthorn), Crataegus crus-galli L. (Cockspur hawthorn), and Crataegus punctata Jacq. (Dotted hawthorn)

Hamamelis L. -- Witchhazels

Malus ioensis (Alph. Wood) Britton -- Prairie crabapple (and other American crabapples)

Prunus L. -- Plum and cherry family, many members including Prunus americana Marsh. (Wild plum), Prunus pensylvanica L. f.  (Pin cherry, Fire cherry), and Prunus virginiana L. (Chokecherry)

Sorbus americana Marsh.. -- American mountain ash,

Viburnum L. -- Some of the tree viburnums are Viburnum dentatum L. var. dentatum (Southern arrowwood), Viburnum lentago L. (Nannyberry), and Viburnum prunifolium L.  (Black haw).

Wild redbuds and dogwoods

Cercis canadensis and Cornus florida

The redbuds and dogwoods are blooming right now (mid-April) in south-central Kentucky. At this time of the year, I love driving the rural backroads of Christian County and seeing the wild redbuds and dogwoods blooming in the woods.

I don't see much difference between the wild redbuds in the woods and the redbuds in towns, even though many of the hand-planted redbuds are probably cultivars. However, I do notice that most wild dogwoods have smaller, greener blossoms than the hand-planted dogwoods growing on lawns. The blossom size is bigger and the color is whiter in the cultivars.

Our trees in this part of Kentucky had a very hard winter. Many of them suffered a great deal of damage in the massive ice storm that hit this area. You can see broken limbs and a fallen tree in the foreground of the photo below.

However, the trees are responding to spring. They have wounds to heal and their injuries may shorten their lives, but they are blooming and beginning to leaf. Those are dogwoods blooming, on the opposite side of the pond.

Ads for free firewood

Look before you leap.

Kentucky and several neighboring states have many downed trees at present, due to Hurricane Ike which passed through last fall and the terrible ice storm we suffered last winter. I've noticed ads in the newspaper that say, "Free firewood, you cut and haul." People want some free help with cleaning up fallen trees.

Since firewoods are not equal in fuel value, it would be a good idea to identify the species of the fallen tree before promising to cut it up and haul it away. (And don't be surprised if the property owner doesn't know or is mistaken about the type of tree.)

Remember that firewood should always be burned in the area where it's cut to prevent the spread of diseases and pests. In particular, there are laws and quarantines for ash firewood so be sure you stay within the law.

The very best firewoods

Six excellent woods for heat

Here's a list of six of the best firewoods. (The number in parenthesis is millions of BTUs produced by a cord of this wood under optimal conditions.)

• Sugar maple (25.0)
• Red oak (25.3)
• White oak (27.0)
• Black locust (28.1)
• Shagbark hickory (29.1)
• Osage orange (30.7)

(Source: Wood Fuel for Heating, a University of Missouri extension service publication)

A few years ago, I did a lot of research on wood stoves as we prepared to buy a new one. In one online forum, I read an interchange between a New Englander and a Midwesterner. The Midwesterner wondered whether a certain brand of wood stove would withstand the hot fires he liked to made with hedge (Osage orange) firewood.

The New Englander replied that he made hot white oak fires all the time in his wood stove of that brand. He said with considerable scorn that he doubted if hedge could burn as hot as the fine white oak of the East Coast. He should have done a little research because, according to the University of Missouri publication linked above, he was mistaken.

Carelessness spreads the emerald ash borer

Don't take firewood out of the area where it grew.

We know a fellow who should be well-informed about agricultural matters, from his education, from his affiliations, from on-going training, and from his own professional reading. I believe he knows that firewood should not be taken away from the area where it grew.

I was aghast and outraged when this man mentioned that he had brought a truckload of ash firewood back to Kentucky from a relative's farm in Indiana, over 200 miles away.

Why was I horrified? The firewood could be infected with emerald ash borer (EAB), a killer insect that is destroying the ash trees of North America. In this man's truck, any emerald ash borers present in the firewood made a trip that would have taken them hundreds of years to accomplish on their own weak wings.

At present, Kentucky is believed to be free of the EAB. However, with confirmed infestations in the border states of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia, we are at considerable risk. We don't need anyone to take chances by sneaking in firewood from those states.

"Weren't you worried about spreading the emerald ash borer?" I asked.

"Nope," he replied with the dismissive decisiveness of someone accustomed to being the expert in charge. "I checked it and it was clean."

Let us hope he was right.

Perhaps he didn't know that Indiana is under a federal quarantine that prohibits transporting firewood out of the state. I have to wonder why no law enforcement officials questioned where this man got his firewood and where he was going with it. State quarantines also govern the movement of firewood between counties in Indiana.

Related links:
Emerald Ash Borer in Indiana
USDA Forest Service EAB site
Map of EAB infection in the US (pdf)
UKy Entymology Dept. EAB page
Images of the emerald ash borer
USDA info sheet about the federal quarantine on Indiana firewood (pdf)

Afterthought:
The word "Carelesness" in this post's title should have been "Willful disregard".

Sycamore bark

A good example of "peeling" bark

 

I saw these two young sycamores today, 

growing in the woods along the road.

Isn't their peeling bark interesting?

These two trees are growing so close

to each other that I wonder if their

trunks might eventually grow together.

The image above shows the same two trees,

higher up on their trunks, and the image

below shows some of their crowns.

At the top, their bark is quite white.

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

Hedges in Nebraska, 1870

Honey locust as a hedging plant

In my post yesterday, I wrote about Osage orange hedges planted in the mid-19th century on the American prairies. Barbed wire hadn't been invented and there weren't enough trees to make rail fences, so hedges were used to create pastures where livestock could be kept.

In east central Nebraska, J.P. Dunlap experimented with Osage orange hedges, but found honey locust to be more hardy. Cold winter temperatures, drought, and grasshoppers were some of the challenges that hedges faced on the prairies.

"In the spring of 1870 I began planting trees. Osage orange seed was planted. Plants grew well, those not needed for myself were sold to neighbors. People twenty miles away were called neighbors in those days. Fence rows of osage died in places. Honey locust for fence proved hardy, but when barb wire came into use, demand for hedge plants ceased."

J.P. Dunlap of Dwight, Nebraska, in Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days, published by the Nebr. State Historical Society. Vol. 5, No. 4 (October-December, 1922), p. 53.

Related post: Jonathan Baldwin Turner and Osage orange hedges

Jonathan Baldwin Turner and Osage orange hedges

An alternative to wooden fences on the treeless plains

Jonathan Baldwin Turner (1805-1899) is credited with popularizing Osage orange hedges on America's prairies in the mid-1800s. Turner came to Illinois in 1833 and taught at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, until 1847.

Turner was interested in the industrial development of Illinois. While he was a professor, he traveled around the state, talking about the need for industrial education (education related to work).

Everywhere Turner went, he saw that the lack of fencing material on the open prairies was holding back progress. Trees were unavailable to provide logs for split-rail fences. Farmers were limited in their ability to keep livestock or even to mark the boundaries of their land.

Turner was certain that hedges were the solution. He experimented with various native and foreign hedging plants, before settling on Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) as the best plant for the job. In four years time, a hedge of seedlings, planted 12 inches apart, was big enough and thorny enough to contain horses and cows, (though not always hogs).

After Turner left his job as a professor, he started a Osage orange nursery from which he sold seedlings. He made an intensive effort to popularize the Osage orange hedge, and by the time of the Civil War, seed was in high demand. Thousands of miles of Osage orange hedge were planted in Illinois, Iowa, and other prairie states by the 1870s.

The nursery was just one of Turner's projects when he left teaching. He became an activist for industrial education He was instrumental in getting the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act passed in 1862, under which many of America's state universities were created. He was also an active abolitionist and a member of the Underground Railroad. He is most famous for his work in these areas.

Barbed wire became widely available in the 1880s, and most of the Osage orange hedges were eventually grubbed out, but we still remember the hedges in one of the common names of Maclura pomifera -- "hedge apple tree". It is interesting that the Wikipedia entry about Jonathan Baldwin Turner doesn't even mention the words, "Osage orange."

More:
The Men Who Led: Jonathan Baldwin Turner
The Osage Orange for Hedges

Credit: Image from Wikipedia.