1871] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



53 



longer tap root than any other tree, and hence 

 its perfect adaptability to our dry plains. The 

 walnut should be planted first where it is in- 

 tended to grow, as any transplanting is apt to 

 interfere with the proper growth of the tap root. 

 A large number of these trees have been planted 

 around Dixon, and from a conversation about it 

 with a gentleman fully posted, we concluded 

 that it was the very best thing our farmers could 

 do. The cost of the trees is almost nothing." 



. Foreign Trees. — Mr. Sargent writes to the 

 Massachusetts Ploughman, that after an experi- 

 ence in the foreign larches and American raised, 

 he finds that the home nurseries can supply 

 them 60 per cent, cheaper. If only our people 

 would show a disposition to encourage home 

 nurseries, this experience would be much more 

 common. 



PREMiUArs FOR FoRESTS. — A correspondent of 

 the Massachusetts Ploughman recommends that 

 premiums should be given for the " best forests 

 on the poorest lands, within a specified time from 

 planting," as a means of finding out the best 

 trees for such situations. 



Wild Cherry Timber. — A Massachusetts cor- 

 respondent of the P^ow^Aman, referring to Cera- 

 sus serotina, says : -" You cannot have for many 

 purposes a better tree than the wild cherry, and 

 it is a rapid grower. It is found in all our for- 

 ests. And what is better or handsomer for the 

 interior work of houses and for cabinet work 

 than the wood of the butternut tree, and this, a 

 rapid grower on rocky soil as well as good, in 

 any part of our State ? " 



Native Trees for Timber. — A correspondent 

 of the Massachusetts Ploughman, writing from 

 Wood's Hole, Mass., says: — "Now while there is 

 a great value in the Scotch larch, and it is a very 

 desirable tree to introduce, yet we have many 

 native trees that for all or most purposes, are 

 quite as valuable, and some more so. I have 

 planted some chestnuts (seedlings) and have 

 been astonished at their rapid growth. Yet this 

 tree is probably as good for railway cross-ties as 

 the larch, and for cabinet and some other pur- 

 poses better. Why not then encourage its re- 

 production ?" 



Sweet Gum as Tan Bark. — One of the most 

 useless trees of the South, and yet one of the 

 most abundant, is the beautiful Sweet Gum, 

 Liquidambar styraciflua. In the last number of 

 the Monthly, reports of the Department of Agri- 



culture, Mr. McMurtrie, the chemist of the de- 

 partment, says that the bark contains 8.36 per 

 cent, of tannic acid, which is more than any of 

 the oaks give, as per the same table which we 

 give below. The "Quercitron" we suppose is 

 Quercus tinctona, and not "nigra," as therein 

 stated : 



Per cent. 



Ground sumac, (mixtd,) Winchester, Va 24.18 



Sumac. (Rhus cotinus,) Hallsborough, Va 24.08 



-uiuac, [Rhus glabra,) Georgetown, J). C 26.1 



Leaves of sweet fern, ( Comptonia aspleni folia,) near Boston, 



Mass 9.42 



Leaves of Polygonum amphihium, Nebraska 11.6 



Ephedra antUyphilitica. table-lands of Arizona and Utah.... 11.9 

 Bark of sweet gum, {Liquidamhar styraciflua,) District of 



Columbia 8.36 



Bark of red oak, (Quercus rubra.) Canton, 111 5..5.5 



Bark of white oak, (Quercus alba,) Canton, III 7.85 



Crushed quercitron bark, (Qitercus nigra,) Winchester, Va. 6.47 



Bark ot Quercus coccinea, Canton, III 7.78 



Bark of Quercns marcrocarjM, Canton, 111 ... 7.85 



Bark of hemlock, (Abies canadensis,) Van Ettenville, N. Y 9.5 



QUERIES. 



Range of the Tulip Tree. — An Ohio corres- 

 pondent inquires how far north this tree is found. 

 We believe that both it and its neighbor, the 

 Magnolia acuminata cross the lakes, and are 

 found sparingly in Southern Canada. 



Eucalyptus in Ohio. — We have now an in- 

 quiry from a correspondent about making a 

 plantation of this in Ohio. Is it possible that 

 after all we have said about this in the Garden- 

 er's Monthly, there should be any reader of our 

 magazine who does not know that this tree will 

 endure no frost ? 



Forests and Eain-fall. — " Bois," Wolmrn, 

 Mass., writes : — " I do not want to meddle much 

 with the controversy on this subject, but every 

 feather has its weight, and I will throw mine in. 

 I think there is no doubt that there are many 

 instances where streams have become dry of late 

 years — and there seems no reason to doubt that 

 the seasons are drier — that the rain is not so well 

 distributed, and that there is less snow. But I 

 regard it as due to an increase of forests instead 

 of a clearing ofi" of land. In our State large 

 tracts have been left to grow up to timber that 

 was under culture 50 years ago. I am sure from 

 my own observations that while the forest area 

 of the State has increased at least twenty per 

 cent, in a half century, the rain-fall has gradually 

 diminished — or at least the rain does not fall as 

 regularly through the season as it used to do." 



[Is this a fact that the forest area of Massachu- 

 setts is greater than it was? What says Prof. 

 Sargent?— Ed. G. M.] 



