Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-29
The AiIanthus the Hest of Frees to
 PlaRt.


 From the Garden and Forestl
 A writer in recent issue of the Rural New Yorker calls attention to the beauty and val planting in city streets. It is indeed one of the best trees that has ever been tried for this purpose, either in this country or in Europe, and no exotic tree, with the exception, per haps, of the white willow, has yet shown such capacity for adapting itself to the pec- uliarities of the American climate. The only possible objection to the allan thus is that the flowers of the male plants have m exceedingly disagrssable odor to some people. and that the pollen is supposed to produce catarrhal troubles. But as the writer in the Rural New Yorker points out this objection can bevery readily obviated by raising plants from root cutting taken from the female plants only, and by avoiding the use of seedlings, among which there might be expected to be as many males as females.
 As the ailanthas grows rapidly from out tiDgs, 6 supply of plants can be secured quickly in this way. A moderately severe pruning of the male trees made in the spring every second year will generally have the eff feet of stimulating growth to such extent that the trees will not flower.
 Our contemporary hardly does justice, how ever, to the great economic value of this tree, which is surpassed in the value of the mater ial which it yields by few North American trees; and certainly there is no tres which can be made to grow in the Unitsd States which can produce so much valuable wood in such a short time. The wood of the ailanthuR must be compared in heat producing proper ties with white oak, black walnut, and birch. It is less valuable than hickory, but hickory the best fuel, all things considered, our ( e. although somewhat hotter fire, than ailan- thus, which burns steadily and slowly with out snapping, giving out a clear, bright flame and leaving a good bed of coals The amount of ash left after the combustion of the wood is remarkably small. The great value of the ailanthus, however, as souce of fuel supply lies in the fact that it makes wood, even in poor soil, more than twice as rapidly as any of our trees which produce fuel of anything like the same value. The fact has not been demonstrated by experiment but it is safe to say that an acre of ground planted with ail- anthus would yield at the end of thirty years more than twice as much fuel, in bulk and in actual heat product, as the same piece of ground planted with hickory or oak.
 Alianthus wood, in spite of the rapid growth which this tree makes, is both heavy and very strong. It neither shrinks nor warps in seasoning, and as material for the cabinet maker it has few superiors among woods grown without the tropics. In color it is 8 a clear, bright yellow, and although coarse grained, it can be made to take fine polish
 Take it all in all, for hardness and rapidity of growth, for the power to adapt itself to the dirt and smoke, the dust and drought of cities, for the ability to thrive in the poorest soil, for beauty and for usefulness, this tree which the Abbe d' Ineaville brought back with him from China more than century ago. is one of the most useful which can be grown in this climate.