August 22, 190S 



HORTICULTURE 



247 



Rambles in the Rockies 



"Oh, Beulah Land! Sweet Beulah Land." 



I have seen much of our glorious country, but I think 

 Beula, Colo., is one of the finest spots on earth. For 

 25 years I have had cottages here and I think I have not 

 missed a year in coming to this charming resort. It is 

 a very fertile valley shut in by mountains and furrowed 

 by sparkling streams. It is a restful place and "the 

 wine of the mountain air" sets your blood tingling with 

 a new life. 



Sometimes, as I come, genial Nature seems in a co- 

 quettish mood. As we approach the mountains from 

 the plain the whole mighty range is veiled in cloud, 

 which, like a vast curtain is moved to and fro by un- 

 seen hands. Now the snowy crest of Old Baldy is un- 

 covered, next there is a rent in the veil, and lo! Old 

 Scraggy with turrets and domes of granite — torn from 

 the bosom of the earth and thrown skyward, is uncov- 

 ered; then the curtain is lifted and mountain sides cov- 

 ered with eternal green, jutting crag and glorious for- 

 ests are revealed. Aftei a time of these partial exhibits 

 the whole veil is lifted and floats away and the grand 

 panorama is disclosed. 



We come into the little village tired and worn with 

 hard work and longing for rest, and over the summit 

 of Nebo the clouds come like a flock of sheep; down 

 the mountain side they gather all around us in silent, 

 restful sympathy. 



SEED GATHERING 



This place has long been famous for its trees of mar- 

 velous sheen — concolor, pungens and Englemann. One 

 spring we gathered 85,000 for the United States Gov- 

 ernment plantations. This is headquarters for the seed 

 collectors. Two years ago nearly two tons of choice 

 rocky mountain conifer seeds were shipped from this 

 point. While Prince Bismarck was alive we sent him 

 quite a quantity for his forest plantation. Last year 

 there were no seeds, and in a ride of hundreds of miles 

 among the foothills and in the mountains I have not 

 seen a single cone where we used to gather tons of seed. 

 I have had a conference with our collectors and they 

 inform me that in the high altitudes at an elevation of 

 10,000 feet or more, where the late frosts did not injure 

 the cones there will be a limited amount. They cover 

 a territory about 400 miles in extent and in about two 

 weeks the arduous work will begin. 



HOW THE WORK IS DONE 



A collector will have two or three assistants. They 

 will go prepared to camp. They will have a tent and 

 great bundles of sacks. Light ladders are made on the 

 ground — some of the trees they climb — but their main 

 dependence is on the squirrels. Up in those forests I 

 have seen great trees bending with their weight of 

 cones and in two weeks not one is to be seen. The nim- 

 ble little fellows gnaw them off and let them drop and 

 often the ground is covered. Now is the time for the 

 collector. It does not take him long to fill his bag. 



But what a scolding he gets from the little Eellow. II.' 

 exhausts nil vocabulary of squirrel rage. The little fel- 

 low will scold a while and work awhile, but he drops all 

 the cones just the same. It would be cruel to rob them 

 were it nut for the Eact that he gnaws off twenty times 

 as much as he can use. Sacks are packed on burros 

 and horses which take them down the winding trails 

 to the wagons, perhaps miles away. They are then 

 loaded and brought here where some sunny spot is 

 chosen and they are spread on canvas to dry. They are 

 then threshed out and put through a fanning mill. 

 Some have to be washed and dried immediately. Then 

 they go to different parts of the world. 



STORAGE JIETHODS OF THE SQUIRRELS 



These shrewd little fellows understand the business. 

 They have regular storage beds they have used for years 

 among rotted pine cones. It would not do to pile them 

 up for they would rot, and they cannot very well keep 

 them dry, so they dig a little pocket in the cone dust 

 and set up perhaps a peck of cones on end, careful to 

 pack so they will not heat or rot. These they carefully 

 cover with the dust and they will keep a long time. I 

 have known collectors to go out in winter when the 

 snow was two feet deep and find these deposits and 

 gather cones by the sack full. 



THE SUPPLY OF SEEDS 



There is but little of the ponderosa pine of the foot 

 hills. There is a limited amount at high elevations. 

 Mark one thing, seeds from the foothills are best for 

 the hot plains. Those from the high elevations are best 

 for the North. In fact those from the hot foot hills 

 will winterkill in Manitoba while those from high ele- 

 vations and from the Black Hills will be all right. 



There will be but a limited supply of Douglas spruce. 

 Here let me sound a note of warning. On account of 

 the scarcity of eastern slope seed, some dealers are se- 

 en ring seed from the western slope which is absolutely 

 worthless in all our northern states. The seed may look 

 all right and will germinate well, but every tree raised 

 from them will die unless raised in the South. It is a 

 pity that discrimination is not used. 



Suppose a man in Iowa orders Douglas spruce seed ; 

 one firm offers it high — another at half price. He takes 

 the latter as he doesn't know the difference. He gets a 

 good stand and loses every seedling the next winter 

 and then proclaims far and wide that the Douglas is 

 not hardy in Iowa. 



Pungens, Englemann, Aristata and flexilis pine al- 

 ways grow at a high elevation and are hardy in the 

 extreme North. Concolor from the foot hills is not 

 hardy in Minnesota, while that growing at an elevation 

 of 10,000 feet is all right. The sub-alpina is some- 

 what akin to this, and always plows at a high eleva- 

 tion. Pinus Aristata, one of the most beautiful of all, 

 belongs to the high altitudes. 



There will be plenty of pungens, flexilis, Aristata and 

 Engelmann and very little of the ponderosa, and but a 

 small supply of Douglas. 



d ^^/TH/t^Yi 



