1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



"3 



Forestry. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Silk Culture in France. — For some reason 

 silk culture has fallen off considerably in France. 

 The most remarkable feature of the decreased pro- 

 duct is that prices have also fallen with decreased 

 production. It would seem to show either, that 

 there is not the same demand for silk as there once 

 was, or else that the competition from other coun- 

 tries has driven the French from the world's 

 market. 



Mahaleb Cherry as a Timber Tree. — The 

 Bullettino della R. Sec. Toscana di Orticultura 

 says this tree grows spontaneously on the calcar- 

 eous hills near Vienna, and is extensively cultiva- 

 ted in Austria, Bohemia and Hungary. It is much 

 valued for its timber, which has not only a pleas- 

 ing tint of color, but gives out a delicate and 

 agreeable odor. 



Canada and the Timber Duties. — A Cana- 

 dian essay on the decrease of the forests of the 

 United States, is fairly blotted with the tears of the 

 author, over the impending ruin to our country 

 when the timber is all cut away. He thinks it 

 would be much more to the interests of the United 

 States to save their own forests, let the timber come 

 freely from Canada, and let that country become 

 the "dieary waste" from which the United States 

 will be happily safe. All this great blessing will 

 follow by the United States taking off the timber 

 duties. He innocently adds, (this part being in- 

 tended probably to bring out the Canadian shekels 

 in favor of free trade documents,) " should the re- 

 duction of duty be made the Canadian government 

 will be a great gainer if an additional tax be plac- 

 ed on the right to cut timber from the Government 

 lands." 



Forestry in the Old World. — We are very 

 apt to wonder why it is that so much is done ignor- 

 antly in our country, when the old world gets the 

 best skill — the right men for the right places. But 

 the truth is they do no better than we. Mr. Grigor, 

 a noted authority on Scotch arboriculture, gives a 

 deplorable account of the losses through ignorance 

 of employees, as well as of owners. It is not long, 

 he says, before the. 49,000 acres, recently planted 

 in the New Forest, will be a worthless barren heath. 



Intending to plant Norway spruce, another large 

 owner found he had the comparatively worthless 

 White spruce ; and another planter, for Scotch pine, 

 set out some hundreds of acres of the Dwarf Moun- 

 tain pine, Pinus pumilio, and no doubt wondered 

 why they did not start and grow. Trees natural 

 to moist soils are set out on dry ones, and dry- 

 ground trees are set in swamps and morasses. It 

 cannot be much worse than this in America. 



Rain-Fall in England. — England is a moist 

 country through the atmosphere carrying so much 

 vapor, but the rain-fall is not remarkable ; it is 

 very irregular but never large. A correspondent 

 of the Gardeners' Magazine, at Reigate, gives the 

 fall in 1883, from January 1st to December ist. 

 30.40 inches; 1884, in same time, 19.49. This is 

 less than Philadelphia, which in an average of ten 

 years is about 41.00. 



Preserving Railroad Ties. — It is at length 

 found that it is profitable to creosote railroad ties 

 in Europe, and large estabhshments for the pur- 

 pose of so preserving them are getting common. 

 In our country where we burn thousands' of acres 

 of timber annually, ties are yet too cheap to lead 

 railroad men to think of it. 



Encouraging Forestry in Pennsylvania. — 

 The Editor of this magazine,. as an honorary mem- 

 ber of the State Board of Agriculture of Pennsyl- 

 vania, has continually pressed on that body the 

 folly of any legislation looking to the " Preserva- 

 tion of the old forests." They are but receptacles 

 of dead brush, and the great cause of our ternfic 

 forest fires. Old trees are not of much use as tim- 

 ber after they are a hundred years old ; in most 

 cases they are on the decline. The sooner the 

 ground is cleared of them and planted with new 

 material the better. The true forestry question 

 lies in the encouragement of new forests. 



At length it seems some one has thought there is 

 something in it, and, to encourage new planting, 

 a bill has been introduced, and at this writing has 

 passed the Senate, establishing two nurseries in 

 the State to raise forest seedlings, and give the ■ 

 plants away to those who will plant them " near 

 streams or the head waters of our rivers." 



It seems mortifying that a good idea should be 

 rendered ridiculous in this way. Any nurseryman 



