THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



IJuiy. 



themselves are not easily kindled, and the mis- 

 chief is usually done through the ignition of dry 

 leaves, ferns or bushes, which burn long enough 

 to char, and at last to kindle, the branches of the 

 trees above them." 



The only atempt to overrule this point that we 

 have seen is in a learned " Forestry essay." The 

 author says " to ask the Legislature to insist that 

 the owner of a ten or twenty thousand acre timber 

 lot clear out all his dead underbrush would be 

 the height of absurdity." Of course it would, but 

 who asks to have this done ? What we would in- 

 sist on is that the owner of such a tract should be 

 compelled to clear out a quarter of a mile in from 

 the boundary of his neighbor's property. No 

 matter how much might burn, he should be pre- 

 vented from permitting it to spread to his 

 neighbor. 



A One-leaved Yellow Locust. — The Revue 

 Horticole says that a variety has been raised in 

 France, which, instead of being pinnate, and com- 

 posed of numerous leaflets, as in the normal form, 

 has an undivided leaf — all of one single leaf-blade. 

 It must have a very unique appearance. 



Growth of Timber in Rocky Land. — People 

 often have an idea that rocky ground is poor 

 ground. On the contrary, it is very rich from the 

 vegetable accumulations which get between the 

 crevices and cannot be washed away. Prof. 

 Maynard recently told the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, that probably all present could 

 recall instances where the native white pine, the 

 Austrian and Scotch pines, the Norway spruce, 

 the larch, the elm, maple, ash and other trees have 

 been planted in turf and have made a satisfactory, 

 and in some cases a remarkable, growth. One or 

 two examples will suffice to illustrate this point. 

 Upon a poor, gravelly hillside on the college farm 

 at Amherst, where nothing but brambles and 

 white birches would grow, were planted ten years 

 ago a lot of European larches and Scotch pine 

 trees, about two and a half feet high. The trees 

 were taken from a nursery about half a mile dis- 

 tant, one squad of students digging them while 

 another squad were planting. The holes were 

 dug about fifteen inches in depth and eighteen 

 inches in diameter, and after planting the trees the 

 soil on the upper side of the hole was moved to 

 the lower side to form a basin to catch the water 

 as it ran down the slope. Nothing was applied in 

 the way of additional fertilizing material, but the 

 surface soil was used first about the roots, and 

 the subsoil spread upon the top. Excepting about 



a dozen trees, all lived, and after about two years 

 began to grow rapidly. One of the larches was 

 cut from this lot last fall for a flagstaff for the 

 barn at the experimental station, and was thirty 

 feet long, seven inches in diameter at the base, 

 and two and a half inches at the top. Many of 

 the larch trees are larger than this, and will aver- 

 age about thirty-eight feet high, and six inches at 

 the base. The Scotch pines planted at the same 

 time and on the same soil have not reached as 

 great height, but are of greater diameter and 

 have made more branches. Had a mulch been 

 used after planting, or a little bone or some other 

 special fertilizer been added, the growth would 

 have been much more rapid the first two years, 

 and they would now be larger, as is shown by a 

 few trees from the same lot that were planted in 

 equally poor soil, but were mulched and have had 

 a few shovelfuls of compost put around them at 

 different times. One of these larches now meas- 

 ures eleven inches in diameter at the base, and is 

 forty feet high, and there might be cut from it 

 three lengths for posts — one large stick eight feet 

 long, that can be sawn so as to make two posts 

 five and a half inches thick at the base and three 

 and a half inches at the top ; one round post seven 

 inches thick at the base and five inches at the 

 top ; and one good vineyard post, the whole 

 worth at least fifty cents per tree. Reckoning the 

 value of each tree at one-half the above, and 

 estimating a thousand trees to the acre, we have 

 a value of $^y:> per acre. 



Spanish Moss. — This well-known product of 

 the Southern forest is used to stuff mattresses, and 

 is an extensive article of commerce in this trade. 

 The pulp used to be taken off by rotting. Now a 

 process is in use by which it is ready for market in 

 twenty-four hours. It is then jet black, resembling 

 horse hair. Botanically it belongs to the pineapple 

 family, and is Tillandsia usneoides. 



Succession of Forest Growths. — One of the 

 most interesting studies connected with forestry is 

 the succession of forest growths. It is a common 

 observation that when a forest disappears it is 

 generally replaced by one of a different species. 

 Close observers, however, note that there is a great 

 regularity in the sequence — so great, indeed, as to 

 take the events out of the channel of a mere 

 struggle for life, and to place them in the great 

 chain of foreknowledge and design, which is now 

 becoming more and more perceptible to the 

 scientific mind. There is a struggle for life in 

 which the weaker is displaced ; but the conqueror 



