u^o The Journal of Forestry. 



can ameliorate the climate, and in'^a measure prevent such disastrous 

 calamities as have been recently experienced in India. Such facts 

 strengthen our assertion that the education for Indian forest appoint- 

 ments, as at present carried out, is simply a gigantic failure, which can 

 and ouo'ht to be immediately corrected by the establishment of Forest 

 Schools, and the thorough teaching of sound practical British forestry. 



Trees IN Towns.— At a meeting of the Manchester Field Naturalists and 

 Archasologists' Society, at Handforth, a paper was read by Mr. R. H. Alcock 

 F.L.S., on trees in towns. Mr. Alcock, who has paid special attention to the 

 subject for a number of years past, and made many experiments in planting 

 trees in close proximity to his mill, situated in the outskirts of the town of 

 Bury, said that the tendency to attribute every failure in plant cultivation in 

 towns to smoke involves a fallacy that wants guarding against. The rhodo- 

 dendron, for instance, grows very well in his neighbourhood, even in the most 

 smoky situations, and without any particular care being taken about the soil 

 that it is planted in, though, no doubt, care in this respect repays the 

 cultivator. On the other hand, the rhododendron will not grow at Evesham, 

 in Worcestershire, where the atmosphere is so pure and the climate so genial 

 that the place has been called the garden of England. Again, the plane tree 

 (Platanus Orientalis), has been represented as a good tree for towns, because 

 it flourishes in Paris and London. But the latitude, rainfall, soil, and sub- 

 soil of Manchester are different from those of Paris and London, while the 

 smoke and noxious vapours in London are as nothing compared with what 

 they are in Manchester. Mr. Alcock has planted six trees o? Platanus Orientalis 

 and they will not grow at all. The different sorts of poplar have also been 

 recommended. Experience at Bm-y has shown that they make very rapid 

 growth at first, and then die. Mr. Alcock stated that he had at present a 

 couple of black Italians, a balsam, and four or five abeles, which have all been 

 planted within the last six years, and look healthy enough; but he knows 

 from experience that they will shortly die, as he has already eradicated about 

 two score of them. At Gatley, which is about the same distance from Man- 

 chester on one side that Bury is on the other, the poplar in all its sorts grows 

 well ; but the climate is quite different, and the flora on the Gatley side of the 

 city altogether more rich. The state of Mr. Alcock's limes indicates perfect 

 health, notwithstanding the unfortunate circumstances in which they are 

 placed. On the Rhine this tree is cut, twisted, trained, and tortured in every 

 possible manner to form the covered ways for the xveingartens, and yet it lives 

 and flourishes, and is the favourite tree ; although the plane grows magni- 

 ficently, as at Coblentz, as well as the walnut and many other trees. The 

 lime is a beautiful and hardy tree, and it will stand smoke and grow well in 

 Manchester if it is properly planted. The author of the paper also spoke with 

 confidence of the wych elm, sycamore, birch, horse-chestnut, and Turkey oak. 

 He has grown three or four plants of the ash for about four years, and they 

 seem to do well. The beech grows well, he has not lost a single tree during 

 the last twenty-five years. There are many shrubby plants which will also 

 grow well ; Mr. Alcock said he had not seen the holly or the hawthorn mentioned 

 in the newspapers, though they will grow anywhere. His experience of the 

 laural ia adverse. The laburnum grows well. — Gardeners' Magazine. 



