204 THE PLANT WORI.D 



a period of nearly five years. He concludes that " moisture is the chief 

 factor in determining the longevity of seeds as they are commercially 

 handled, since seeds stored in dry climates retain their vitality much 

 better than when stored in places having a humid atmosphere. Seeds 

 can endure any degree of drying without injury ; that is, by drying in a 

 vacuum over sulphuric acid, and experiments have shown that by the 

 judicious use of bottles and paraffined packages seeds can be preserved 

 practically as well in one climate as in another." 



Niagara and the Forests. — In the opposition to the bill now pend- 

 ing in the New York Senate under the terms of which Niagara Falls would 

 be completely given over to the Ontario lyight and Power Company, there 

 is a pleasant unanimity on the part of the press of the State. It would 

 have been better, however, if that opposition had manifested itself while 

 the bill was pending before the House, through which it was allowed to 

 pass triumphantly, attracting little or no attention. While the bill for 

 the destruction of the falls is pending, the State Commissioner of Forests 

 calls attention to the designs of the lumbermen and the Wood Pulp Trust 

 on the State forest reservation of 20,000 acres in the Adirondacks. The 

 two interests, probably but one, have seriously encroached on the reser- 

 vation, and are claiming its best portions, and the manner in which they 

 propose to clinch their hold is in the nature of a bill which, singularly 

 enough, is receiving the serious consideration of the IvCgislature. It 

 provides that the Attorney-General, the State Forest Superintendent and 

 the Superintendent of Fisheries shall each appoint an employee of his 

 office — not excluding messengers or janitors — to whom the claims of the 

 depredators are to be submitted, and the judgment of the tribunal is to be 

 final. The peculiarity of the bill is that at any time either one, or all, 

 of the three employees may be removed by his superior ofiicer and another 

 substituted in his place. The effect of the bill, judicially, would be to 

 oust the established courts of the State of all jurisdiction, and to confer 

 it on the made-to-order tribunal. The practical effect of the bill need not 

 be diagramed. With the passage of the two bills the falls would be de- 

 stroyed, and the Adirondack reservation of spruce and poplar and pine 

 would be denuded of its magnificent forests. The second bill is worse 

 than the first. With an ousting of the water company the falls would 

 be restored, but with the deforesting of the Adirondacks there would re- 

 main nothing but rocky moimtahis , and the money in the pockets of the 

 wood-pulpers. To both measures not alone the press of New York, but 

 the press of the entire country, ought to enter a most vigorous protest. — 

 The Commercial Tribune. 



