1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



17 



quent to that date or not long after. The 

 measurements were taken three and a half feet 

 from the ground. 



Quercus heterophijUa. Raised from an acorn 

 from Bartram's original plant. A very tall and 

 spreading tree, girted 7 feet i inch. 



Quercus Phellos. 10 feet 7 inches. 



Gymnocladus Canadensis. 8 feet 10 inches. 



Liquidambar styracijlua. 9 feet 5 inches. 



Larix Europte. 5 feet 11 inches. 



Magnolia acuminata. A magnificent symmet- 

 rical specimen, with bark hardly to be distin- 

 guished from that of White Oak, 11 feet 9 inches. 



By the road-side in the Southern part of West 

 Chester County, we measured a venerable chest- 

 nut tree, which showed a trunk twenty-three feet 

 and seven inches in circumference at four feet 

 from the ground. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Forests or Australia. — Baron Von Muel- 

 ler in a treatise on the maintenance and crea- 

 tion of forests, just issued, says that the pre- 

 vailing timber trees of Australia are the Blue 

 Gums, or Eucalyptus, of which 150 species are 

 now known. An Evergreen Beech, Fagus Cun- 

 ninghamii, prevails on some tracts in the Cape 

 Otway district, and in the Baw Baw Mountains. 

 Dr. M., looks to the forests of the older settled 

 portions of the M'orld, and especially to the 

 forests of America, for the necessar}^ variety of 

 species that is to make Australian forest culture 

 ultimately of great value. 



Statistics of Arboriculture. — Prof. C. S. 

 Sargent has been retained to prepare the statis- 

 tics of arboriculture for the next census. Agri- 

 culture, fruit growing as a part of^agriculture, 

 and arboriculture having been provided for, 

 what is to be done for horticulture and the nur- 

 sery trade ? It is to be hoped that we are not 

 to have the Centennial experience over again, 

 when even the important fruit-growing interests 

 of the country were not thought of till after the 

 opening of the exhibition, and pure horticulture 

 scarcely at all. 



The Profits of Forest Planting.— In 

 Europe, forest planting has been on the whole 

 profitable, but chiefly when the forest has 

 been under the special care of an experi- 

 enced forester. In this way they are made to 

 yay from the very start, as various kinds of 

 t.f dergrowth is planted with the trees which are 



to make the permanent timber. Thus, hoop- 

 poles, hop-poles, various barks or dye stuffs, 

 posts, charcoal, and all sorts of things come in 

 regularly, so that men are continually em- 

 ployed on something or another in the forest all 

 the year. It is found by this sort of care, that 

 the whole cost of the forest comes back in 

 about ten years, with good interest, and what is 

 made afterwards is clear profit. The mere 

 planting of trees alone, for future timber, will 

 not yet pay in Europe. In our own country it. 

 is pretty much the same. Notwithstanding the 

 enormous depletion of the forests by fire and the 

 wants of man, there are yet millions of acres of 

 cheap timber land, and every new railroad opens 

 up new forests to the markets. Still there are 

 many places where timber culture would be a 

 great success if it could be judiciously followed 

 as a business. The work on which Prof. Sar- 

 gent is engaged in connection with the next cen- 

 sus, will no doubt show where these opportuni- 

 ties are, so that those who do not wish to- 

 " carry coals to New Castle,'' may profit. 



Varieties of Timber. — Talking with art 

 eminent ship builder, recently, we found him 

 firm in the faith that there were many varieties- 

 of the same species of tree, though the differ- 

 ences could not be detected by the most expert, 

 botanist. He spoke particularly of White Oak 

 and the Tulip tree, the varieties of which he 

 could always detect by the timber, though he- 

 could see no difference in foliage, flower, or 

 fruit. There was not merel}' a difference in ap- 

 pearance, but in some cases one form would 

 yield superior timber, and the other compara- 

 tively worthless. Lumber men speak of the 

 same experience with the Scotch Pine, in Scot- 

 land. 



Fertility of Forest Trees.— In our coun- 

 try, forest trees seed with great irregularity.. 

 There maybe a crop, or there may not be of some 

 seeds, while those which make some show of 

 regularity, as hickories, walnuts, and chestnuts 

 vary much in quantity. It is not the case in 

 Great Britain ; but this season the foresters- 

 complain that there is nothing, and are mysti- 

 fied as to the cause of the scarcity. 



A Large Oak. — What is believed to be the 

 largest oak in England, is at Cawthorpe, im 

 Yorkshire, and is thirty-eight feet four and a^ 

 half inches round, five feet from the ground. It. 

 would be interesting to know how large we caa- 

 find an American oak. We have seen vervr 

 large ones near Cincinnati. 



