1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



305 



Forestry. 



Legislation and Forestry. — It is a com- 

 mon theme with newspapers and public speakers 

 that the forests are decreasing; that the country 

 will materially suffer, and that " something " 



H D I r O R I A I^ MOTES. f'^^' f^t olUces for somebody, and fat salaries for 

 worthless men, with the slightest possible modi- 

 cum of good for the purposes such legislation is 

 ostensibly inaugurated to serve. 



FiiJRE Machinery. — There are an immense 

 'number of plants known to have useful fibre; 

 must be done. The position we have always i^^t the trouble has been to find machinery that 

 taken is, that bad measures or good measures, j ^^\x\ prepare it profitably. The late Professor 

 founded on bad reasoning, are ultimately injuri- \ G^bb told the writer of this that some large 

 ous, and hence we are often found seemingly I landed proprietors in San Domingo were pre- 

 opposed to forestry interests, when really we 1 pared to give a premium of 830,000 to any one 

 fire but opposed to visionary schemes and \ ^yijo ^yould invent a machine that would profit- 

 arrant nonsense. We desire to encourage ] ably clean out the fibre of Agave Americana; 

 forestry ; but we only wish to see it on a basis and it was while experimenting with a machine 

 of business common sense, which shall need no of this class that the distinguished plant col- 



backward step after the advance is once made. 

 How much our advice has been heeded, and how 

 much has been lost by a preference for mere 

 guess work, is continually being seen by the 

 collapse of many pet experiments. The Iowa 

 tree planting law is amongst the latest of these. 

 It has not yet been repealed, but it is on the 

 high road to this ignominious end. It was en- 

 acted that for ever}'^ acre of forest trees planted 



lector, M. Roezl, lost his arm. We thei-efore 

 watch all eftbrts in this direction, and give the 

 following, from the Florida Mirror^ for what it 

 may be worth: " The machinery lately brought 

 by Prof. Loomis for the preparation of palmetto 

 fibre is working satisfactoril}^ and the experi- 

 ment is an assured success. The stalks of the 

 scrub palmetto are used. It is said that the 

 fibre is likely to prove useful for cordage, paper, 



SI 00 should be exempted from the owner's as- | tu^g, pails, flour barrels, boats, powder kegs, and 

 sessment, and for each acre of fruit trees, S500 j no end of other articles of general use." 

 for five 3'ears. There has been spent a nice lit- ! 



tie sum already in the payment of oflicers to 

 take the census, and according to their returns 

 nearly six millions of dollars are to be stricken 

 from the assessed value of property in the State, 

 and to be exempted from tax on account of "tree 

 planting." According to this there should be 

 60,000 acres of forest and fruit trees set out in 

 the State of Iowa the past year; and if so. 



The Profits of Forestry. — Xot ten miles 

 from the centre of the city of Philadelphia, on 

 the York road, is a goodly-sized piece of forest 

 land which was covered with young timber, 

 chiefly of chestnut, and which the owner decided 

 to have grow up as a piece of timber land. This 

 was forty years ago. The land was then sup- 

 posed to be worth about 875 an acre. It is now 



some nurserymen must have made enormous 1 believed to be worth 8150. The timber is now 

 sales, and should not necessitate the frequent being cut and sold for fence posts, which bring 



advertisements of " surplus stock" at nominal 

 rates. But the fact is no one believes there has 



in the rough $18 per 100. There is a very great 

 demand for these posts in the vicinity of this 



been anything like this amount of tree planting city, and it is thought the price for the posts is a 

 in Iowa;* and the plain English is, that somebody very good one. The owner estimates that these 

 is robbing the State under the plea of en- posts bring him in now 8300 per acre. Deducting 

 couraging tree planting. what has been paid for taxes, we find that if the 



It will be found, as a general rule, that what- land had not increased in value there would 

 ever may be the facts in European countries, in i have been a net profit of about ten per cent, per 

 ours very little can be done by legislation to annum at simple interest. Some little benefit 

 help tree culture. Whenever it is urged, we look | has been derived from the wood for personal 



