114 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



could raise forest tree seedlings ninety per cent, 

 cheaper than any government can do it by nur- 

 series. Contracts would be gladly entered into 

 that would furnish the State with all they wanted 

 to distribute for but a tithe of what this State nur- 

 sery plan will cost, with its chief, its assistant 

 chiefs, clerks, superintendents, packers, and so 

 forth. It might be said that the Editor of this be- 

 ing a nurseryman will naturally be opposed to 

 this free gift scheme. Nothing of this sort. No 

 such scheme ever hurt a nurseryman, for the man 

 who looks to get things for nothing would never 

 buy. On the contrary, it will rather help the nur- 

 seryman's business, as the intelligent nurseryman 

 would beat the ignorance of the State officials 

 every time, and the better class of free recipients 

 would be the nurseryman's friend at last. 



Not then from any trade prejudice, but from 

 utter disgust at these scandalous wastes of public 

 money, we enter our protests against them. We 

 shall get no more forestry planting under this free 

 gift plan, than we got tea orchards from the thou- 

 sands distributed by the United States government 

 a quarter of a century ago. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Rare Rocky Mountain Firs and Pines. — 

 An Illinois correspondent says : " How few peo- 

 ple know when they are well off. • A rare lover 

 o< coniferae ' on page 4, January number of the I 

 Monthly, says, ' If I were a nurseryman and I 



twenty years younger, I would get up a good 

 stock of these two species of pine (P. flexilis and 

 P. Murryana), because 1 believe they will become 

 very popular when known.' 



"It may be he would, but if he lives to be twenty 

 years older than he is now, his views would change 

 again. I invested in the first collections and was 

 doubly happy one day by the news of the capture 

 of Jefferson Davis and the first sight of my seed" 

 lings. Then I invested S60 more on the Rocky 

 Mountain seeds. It is now twenty years ago, and 

 I have not yet sold one tree of these species ; but 

 one of Pinus flexilis. Picea pungens, and P. Dou- 

 glassii are growing in public estimation." 



CONIFER/E OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS " G.J. 



B." writes : " I saw in the Monthly for January, 

 page 4, a few remarks in regard to the indigenous 

 evergreens of the Rocky Mountains. Being a 

 resident of Denver and greatly interested in the 

 cultivation of our Rocky Mountain coniferse, and 

 having fair success in transplanting them from 

 the mountains into the hot and dry atmosphere of 

 Denver, would feel obliged to ascertain from your 

 correspondent in what part of the Rockies he saw 

 those attractive pines." 



[The coniferae within reach of our Denver cor- 

 respondent would be Pinus ponderosa, P. flexilis, 

 P. aristata, P. Banksiana, P. edulis, Abies Doug- 

 lasii, A. pungens, A. concolor, and the eastern 

 and western Red Cedars. Those named by our 

 correspondent had reference to the " Rocky Moun- 

 tains " several hundred miles south of Denver, 

 and would be best obtained through seeds from the 

 collectors. — Ed. G. M.] 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



SOIL ANALYSIS. 

 BY RUSTICUS. 



I desire in this article to mention various exam- 

 ples of successful soil analyses, for the purpose of 

 showing their utihty. The logic of facts is irre- 

 futable. Very many samples of soils are forwarded 

 to the Department of Agriculture for analysis. 

 Among others one from Saint Mary's county, 



Maryland. A water extract from this soil had acid 

 reaction ; it also gave decided reactions for sul- 

 phates and chlorides of iron, lime, magnesia, pot- 

 ash, soda. The extract amounted to 11.84 per 

 cent, of the original soil. The soil showed a large 

 amount of soluble iron salts. Even in small quan- 

 tities they are injurious to vegetation. In this soil 

 a free access of air was necessary, so that the 

 soluble salts of iron should become insoluble and 

 harmless. An analysis of peat muck from Louisi- 

 ana gave 38 per cent, organic matter, principally 



