ARBORICULTURE 



199 



Engineering News 



220 Broadway, New York 



PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE— How Forests Influ- 

 ence Climate, Control the Winds, Prevent Floods, 

 Sustain National Prosperity. A Text-Book for Rail- 

 way Engineers, Manufacturers, Lumbermen and 

 Farmers, How, Where and What to Plant for the 

 Rapid Production of Lumber, Cross-Ties, Telesjraph 

 Poles and Other Timbers. By John P. Brown, C. E., 

 Connersville, Ind. : The Author. Cloth ; bja x 10'4 

 ins. ; pp. 454 : many plates and text illustrations. J2.80. 



Mr. Brown is well known to many as an apostle 

 of tree planting in general and of planting the 

 Catalpa Speciosa in particular. He here brings 

 together a large number of articles and addresses, 

 principally articles, on two main classes of sub- 

 jects indicated in his sub-title: forestry in its 

 broader aspects and tree-planting for specific 

 purposes. Interspersed with his essays on these 

 topics are a number of others on particular species 

 of trees and still others on such subjects as a trip 

 to the Yosemite Valley and a trip to Old Mexico, 

 having more or less relation to the main topic of 

 the book. The volume abounds with illustrations, 

 most but not all of which are pertinent to arbori- 

 culture, all of which are interesting and some of 

 which are particularly handsome half-tone plates, 

 reproduced from well chosen photographs. Most 

 if not all of the matter composing the book has 

 appeared in "Arboriculture," but some of it was 

 originally prepared for addresses before public' 

 gatherings. 



The work can in no proper sense be called a 

 text-book, since it is utterly lacking in systematic 

 arrangement, but it will doubtless prove of no 

 little educational value. Its useableness if not its 

 usefulness would have been increased by a proper 

 classification of its contents, but perhaps the 

 present arrangement, or lack of arrangement, will 

 appeal more strongly than any other to the 

 general public, and it is there that its mission 

 chiefly lies. 



As would be expected, the one subject that 

 receives most attention is the Catalpa Speciosa, 

 its merits, uses and propagation. On this subject 

 the author speaks with the authority of great 

 experience. 



It is a pity that the book has no index, what is 

 called such being merely a table of contents. — 

 Nov. 15, 1906. 



California Will Gain Ground 



One million acres! An area larger than the 

 State of Rhode Island — quite a block of land, 

 isn't it? And it means a fortune in valuation of at 

 least $24,000,000. Such is the territory involved 

 and such the estimate of cost to entirely reclaim 

 the lands aujacent to the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin rivers in California, more or less subject 

 to annual overflow. At the same time the work 

 will render the Sacramento navigable to deep 

 water craft. This vast territory includes a great 

 area now useless except during the late summer 

 and fall months for grazing purposes, but which 

 once freed of the menace of overflow will yield 

 abundant and certain crops. Add to this, the land 

 along the river banks, and the river islands, vary- 

 ing in size from 1600 to 43,000 acres, than which 

 there is no more wonderfully productive land in 

 the w»rld, and we have a principality in itself 

 capable of supporting a population scores of times 

 greater than is now scattered over it. The value 

 of this work may be judged from the fact that 

 much of this river bank and island is paying good 

 interest on a valuation of from $300 to $500 per 

 acre, frequently bringing $25 to $30 a year cash 

 rental. — G. K. Swingle, in Sunset Magazine for 

 October. 



Forests Inexhaustible? 



The people of Michigan who thirty years ago 

 thought they had an "inexhaustible" supply of 

 timber, are to-day shingling their houses with 

 shingles from the Pacific coast, finishing the 

 interior of their homes with Georgia pine, and 

 getting their moldings from California. The oak 

 for their chairs and tables comes from Mississippi. 

 Incidently, they are paying $250 a carload for the 

 freight on the lumber they import from other 

 States. — Allen L. Benson, in Appleton's Magazine. 



California Plants 



Vincennes, Indiana 



Our readers who may have occasion to visit 

 Vincennes, Ind.. will find a charming home at the 

 Union Depot Hotel, where all trains of every rail- 

 way entering Vincennes stop. The Hotel is under 

 Management of our friend Edward Watson, who 

 makes all his guests comfortable. The cuisine is 

 excellent and rooms cheery and well furnished. 



A new work on California botany, by Charles 

 Russell Orcutt, editor of the West America 

 Scientist, of San Diego, Cal., is announced. The 

 title is "California Plants," and it is being issued 

 in parts — each containing descriptions of about 

 one hundred species of the ■ native trees and 

 flowers. The price is $3 for 12 numbers. Four 

 parts are now in press and the first volume of 12 

 parts will be completed, it is hoped, during 1907. 



