244 



ARBORICULTURE. 



These views are by no means the spas- 

 modic effects attending the excitement 

 from one high-water stage of the river, 

 but were formed by a mature study of the 

 subject during many years. 



The writer as a boy waded, swam and 

 rowed about the several sand-bars which 

 obstruct the flow of the current of the 

 Ohio River at Rising Sun. Ind., and has 

 seen numerous steamboats fast aground 

 upon these bars, and held there for a week 

 or longer, and was familiar with the reefs 

 and shallows and the changing, tortuous 

 channel. In after years as a steamboat 

 officer he plied the western rivers for sev- 

 eral years. 



In a communication printed in the 

 Cincinnati Gazette as long ago as 1880 

 he briefly presented the same arguments, 

 that deep dredging was the true method 

 of securing a proper depth of water. 



MR. WILSON'S TRIP TO CHINA. 



Mr. E. H. Wilson, who will spend the next 

 two years on a botanical exploration tour in 

 China in the interests of the Arnold Arboretum, 

 sailed from San Francisco for Shanghai on 

 January S. He will proceed at once to Ichang, 

 at the base of the gorges of the Yangtsc. where 

 he w ill establish his permanent base for the 

 first year. This will be devoted to the ex- 

 ploration of the Tapashan, the great moun- 

 tain range of Hupeh, that separates the waters 

 of the Yangtse from those of the Han. fn 

 February or iNIarch of 1908 Mr. Wilson intends 

 to ascend the Yangtse and Min Rivers to Kia- 

 Ting-Fu, in Ssu-chuan^ which will be his base 

 for the second year. From Kia-Ting-Fu he 

 will travel overland, by the way of Mounts 

 Omei and Wa, to Ta-Chein-lu, the Chinese 

 frontier town on the highway from Central 

 China into Thibet. After exploring the great 

 forests of conifers and rhododendrons in this 

 mountainous region, he will travel north from 

 Ta-Chein-lu in an attempt to penetrate a part 

 of Northwestern Ssu-chuau not before visited 

 by Europeans, then descending the Min River 

 valley he hopes to reach Ichang in February, 



1909, and return to Boston the following April 

 or May. 



By an agreement with the Department of 

 Agriculture of the United States, Mr. F. N. 

 Meyer, who has been in China during the last 

 two years as an agent of the Department, is to 

 collect for the Arboretum during the spring 

 and autumn of 1907, under the direction of Mr. 

 Wilson, on Mt. Wuti, in Sansi. This is one of 

 tlic five sacred mountains of China, and, owitig 

 to its holy character, it is believed to he still 

 covered ivith the original forest growth. Al- 

 though ]]'uti has been visited by Potanin, and 

 later by H. Mayr, little is knozcn of the moun- 

 tain Aora of this part of Northern China. 



China has long been a treeless nation. 

 All nations which have destroyed their 

 foresits are laboring at a great disad- 

 vantage in the battles of life as com- 

 pared with more advanced countries 

 which protect and perpetuate a goodly 

 proportion of timber. While China 

 maintains an immensely greater popula- 

 tion than many other nations, her soils 

 are more difficult to cultivate, requiring 

 the strictest economy of all fertilizing 

 material, every particle of human and 

 animal excrement being carried to the 

 farms and gardens to maintain their fer- 

 tility, while erosion is very great when 

 rains occur, and frequent floods sweep 

 the valleys of the larger rivers, causing 

 immense loss of life at brief intervals. 



The rehgious belief of the people 

 causes great superstition as regards 

 Inirial places of their ancestors, and as 

 in Korea as well, these sacred burial 

 places are the only spots in which have 

 lieen ])reserve(l the native trees of 

 their ancient forests. 



A thousand reasons may be given for 

 the benefits of ample forests, and the in- 

 jurious effects of their annihilation, as 

 ha? been the case in China. 



Shall America follow their example? 

 Tlie lumber operators and paper manu- 

 facturers sav ves. 



