180 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[June, 



" There is no branch of agriculture at once so 

 pleasant and so productive of possible gains as 

 farming on paper. It is a dangerous pastime 

 however, and often leads into grave errors and 

 great dangers, as the agricultural population has 

 learned to its cost." 



Ratio of Tree Growth in Iowa. — The West- 

 em Farm Journal furnishes the following figures : 



"Mr. H. H. McAfee, of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College, and also now Secretary of the American 

 forestry association, gives the following as results 

 obtained in twenty years with the trees named 

 below : 



Diam. of Hight in Cord ft. 



trunk, in. ft. in fuel. 



Cottonwood (monilifera) 24 50 5% 



Cotionyrood (anguiata) 28 50 6 



Lombardy Poplar 23 60 4% 



Elm (Jmericana) 17 44 3^ 



mm (fulvia) 18 39 3 



Mnple (dajycarywm) 18 39. i% 



'Maple (nigra) 11 37 1 



Walnut (cinerea) 20 38 8% 



Walnut (mi?ro) 14 37 2^ 



Honey Locust 14 40 S 



German Pine 14 33 2 



Thus, actual tests show that cottonwood will 

 make three-fourths of a cord; that even the 

 slow growing black maple will make one-eighth 

 of a cord ; while the ash leaved maple {negundo) 

 will make five-eighths of a cord to the tree in 

 twenty years' growth. 



The same trees if grown in groves thickly, 

 would probably not make more than half the 

 quantities named, which would, in time come 

 nearer to the figures as given above. 



The following will, we think, be a safe estimate 

 for groves or broad belts, in twenty years, 

 planted, say four by four feet, and thinned out 

 as their good deserves, to a maximum distance 

 of sixteen by sixteen feet for the fast growing 

 varieties, and eight by sixteen feet for the slower 

 ones : 



Cottonwood ....70 cords. 



Ash-leaved Maple 60 " 



White Walnut (Butternut) 50 " 



White Maple 44 " 



Elm 43 " 



Honey Locust (GladiUehia) 35 " 



White Pine ,32 " 



Black Walnut 30 " 



Black Sugar Maple (nigra) 20 " 



Natural Mistory and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLORA OF 

 HOKKAIDO. 



BY M. LOUIS BiiHMER, 



Horticulturist to the Kaitakuska, Yedo, Japan. 



On my arrival at Hakodate, in the end of May, 

 I at once proceeded to investigate the neighbor- 

 ing districts. The weather, however, proved so 

 unfavorable that I was for some time unable to 

 collect specimens. 



The first plants that struck me as most remark- 

 able were the Azaleas and Diervillas, which were 

 growing on Hakodate Head in great profiigfion, 

 and with their pink and scarlet flowers produced 

 a magnificent efl'ect. Amongst other flowering 

 trees and shrubs I observed more particularlj' 

 the common Pear (Pyrus communis), the dou- 

 ble flowering wild Cherry (Prunus pseudo cera- 

 sus), a wild Plum (Prunus), and a shrub looking 



like a wild Apple (Japanese "sansashi,") which I 

 afterwards found to produce clusters of small 

 red fruit, very likely a Pyrus toringo. Of the 

 latter a great number were collected at the time 

 (although I recommended that this operation 

 should be deferred until the proper season for 

 removal had arrived), and in consequence nearly 

 the whole of them perished. 



Another most remarkable climbing shrub, the 

 " Kokuwa," a species of Actinidia, I found in 

 flower on an excursion to Hakodate Head, the 

 only time I saw it in that condition ; unfortu- 

 nately the specimens which I then collected 

 were lost through the inclemency of the weather. 

 I was fortunate enough to secure afterwards 

 specimens in fruit which I preserved carefully. 

 In the Appendix 3, I refer more fully to this 

 valuable fruit. 



The only large timber trees I saw were Cryp- 

 tomeria japonica, evidently planted there, and 

 the absence of all native timber trees, \\ith the 



