210 



ARBORICULTURE 



Qiarles Scribncr's Sons, New York, 

 have ])ublislK'il ;i vorv chaniiiiig work, 

 "Our Xorthorii Shrubs," by Harriet L. 

 Keeler. The editor of ARnoRicui/n'RK 

 has spent more than fifty years in tlu- 

 study of trees and shrubs, llic school 

 child may take tiiis book to the woods 

 and in an hour, by comparing the nu- 

 merous ])ictorial illustrations and re- 

 markably plain descriptions, be able to 

 distinq^uish any native shrub. It is a 

 durable \\Tork. well ]>rintetl on heavy 

 paper, with tine engravings, while the de- 

 scriptions are remarkably plain. Price. 

 $2 net ; postage, i6 cents. 



Another companion work by Scribner, 

 from Prof. H. E. Parkhurst, "Trees, 

 Shrubs and Vines." Every person, can- 

 not visit Central Park, New York, where 

 these trees grow, but all may see and 

 know them in natural forest everywhere. 

 We commend both books as important in 

 the study of arboriculture. Price, $1.50 

 net; postage, 12 cents. 



A CATALPA GROWER. 



John Blair is an old Scotch gardener, 

 who for several years was in cliargc of 

 Glen Eyrie, General Palmer's home, near 

 Colorado Sj)rings, and now a resident of 

 British Columbia. He writes as follows : 

 "Duncans Station, B. C. 

 "March 30, 1903. 



"I have seen the first Eucalyptus tree 

 planted in California, at Santa Rosa, a 

 fine tree. 



"I was the first to plant catalpas in Il- 

 linois. No person would buy about Chi- 

 cago ; now they are planted by the hun- 

 dred thousands. It was named after I 

 had introduced it, catalpa speciosa, the 

 American species of catalpa. As you 

 are going to improve the looks by plant- 

 ing, plant in groops or clumps, not in 

 straight lines, not even along the roads, 

 not all of one kind. 



"Yours trulv, 

 "John Blair." 



RIVER FLOODS. 



The article in our last number has at- 

 tracted wide attention. It is a good thing 

 to set the people to thinking, even if some 

 do criticise adversely. It is only by a 

 thorough discussion of great problems 



that the nation can be aroused to action. 



The New Orleans Picayune copies the 

 article entire, as docs also several daily 

 papers in Boston, New York and else- 

 where. But the Engineering News has 

 this to say, in opposition : 



"One of the most common fallacies 

 with respect to the iloods of great rivers 

 is that they are chiedy due to the removal 

 of the forests from the lands whence the 

 river's tributaries flow and that the 

 proper remedy for disastrous floods is to 

 again cover these lands with a forest 

 growth. Many have seen the flow of 

 small streams greatly affected by the 

 clearing of their drainage basins, and 

 reasoning from the less to the greater it 

 is natural to conclude that the same 

 causes govern the alternation of floods 

 and low water in large rivers. 



"The current number of 'Arboricul- 

 ture' sets forth anew this old fallacy, and 

 the editor concludes a discussion of sev- 

 eral pages with an appeal for 'a sys- 

 tematic reafforestation of the mountain 

 regions .... in order that these 

 surplus waters may be made to serve our 

 country instead of mastering it.' 



"We heartily favor the extension of for- 

 est culture and forest preservation, but 

 every claim that such work can solve the 

 problem of Hood prevention does harm, 

 since it creates opposition to plans for 

 treating the broad snbject of river regu- 

 lation on sound engineering lines." 



The sound engineering lines, we sup- 

 pose, refers to the scheme for slack 

 water navigation in the Ohio River — by 

 a system of locks and dams. While this 

 will enable steamboats to navigate the 

 river in low water, yet every obstruc- 

 tion, such as dams in the river bed, six 

 to ten feet high, must of necessity raise 

 the flood surface and increase the annual 

 damage from overflow. 



The true system is to remove all ob- 

 structions, lower the river bed, clean out 

 a channel through the many sand bars by 

 dynamite and by dredging, rather lli.in 

 by locks and dams. 



In the Mississippi, unless the system of 

 reafforestration of the mountains can be 

 accomplished, an artificial outlet for the 

 surplus water must be provided to Lake 

 Pontchartrain above New Orleans. 



