Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1884 — Miniature Trees. [ARTICLE]

Miniature Trees.

The dwarf trees of China are the great curiosities of forestry. Every child knows how the Chinese cramp their women’s feet by bandaging them when they are infants, and thus render it impossible for them to walk. It is, however, wonderful to see miniature oaks, chestnuts, pines, and cedars growing in flower-pots, ZQ years old and yet not a foot high. A friend of mine, who is an invalid and confined to his room, has been, during several years past, amusing himself, among other matters, with the cultivation of dwarf trees, and he has succeeded admirably. Ho takes a young plant, cuts off its tap-root, and places it in a basin in which there is good soil kept well watered. If it grows too rapidly he digs down and shortens in several roots. Every year the leaves grow smaller, and the little dwarf trees make interesting pets, just as some people raise canary birds, and others, squirrels.