THE GARDENERS MONTHLY 



[January, 



readers want, that paper is just what you need ; 

 but, even then, you must be sure that the adver- 

 tisements are read by the "readers," or your 

 money will be thrown away. It may be that 

 what you have to sell will not be needed by one 

 in a thousand, in that case a paper of ten thou- 

 sand readers will be just as well as one of a hun- 

 dred thousand, and perhaps better. These, and 

 points "too numerous to mention," as the hand- 

 bills say, enter into the success of advertising. 



It seems to us that the great merit of this An- 

 nual is, that it gives attention to these matters, 

 more than similar works have done in the past. 

 It gives some account of the business and sur- 

 roundings of the leading towns in the country, 

 among the people of which the papers circulate, 

 and this is a great help to the advertiser, in de- 

 ciding whether such " readers " are likely to be 

 any use to him. Probably too much importance 

 is still given to mere " circulation ;" a set of figures 

 supposed to represent this standing after each 

 paper's name. Of course, some idea of circula- 

 tion must enter into an idea of advertising, but 

 the great trouble is to get at the accurate figures 

 and the character of that circulation. We know, 

 for instance, of a paper which has less than two 

 thousand which is given here as eight thousand ; 

 such errors are very annoying to other papers 

 which tell the truth, and exasperate them 

 against " Annuals " of this kind. But, granting 

 that some idea is necessary, it is difficult to see 

 how the editors of these books are to do any 

 better, where they have so many to guess at ; 

 and all we can say is that it only illustrates an 

 every-day fact, that the innocent must continue 

 to suffer for the guilty. We cannot, on account 

 of this difficulty, avoid the conclusion that, for 

 all, advertisers cannot afford to do without a 

 work like this. 



A Practical Treatise, on Tree Culture in 

 South Australia. — By J. G. Brown. Published 

 by the Forest Board of South Australia. 



South Australia sees, as other portions of the 

 earth see, the absolute necessity of looking for- 

 ward to its forest interest. It has not yet been 

 shown that a forest planted to-day will prove 

 profitable to the owner within a reasonable 

 time, neither is it always made manifest that 

 one who plants a forest is investing safely for his 

 children. Yet it is a national interest that there 

 should be forests. Thousands of interests de- 

 pend on timber, and it therefore becomes the 

 duty of governments to encourage that planting 



which it will not pay an individual to do for 

 himself. Our American State governments have 

 recognized this principle in various ways, 

 though their manner of doing it has often been 

 puerile and sometimes ridiculous. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, for instance, one dollar is deducted from 

 the road tax of the person who plants four trees 

 along the road-side ! In other words the whole 

 community is to wallow in slush, and wade 

 through a quagmire to pay a dollar for every 

 four trees, which, after all the planter may cut 

 down for bean poles a few years afterwards, for 

 all the law, as it is written, prevents him. The 

 only good of such a simple law as this is that it 

 virtually acknowledges the duty of a State to 

 enact protective laws in the fostering of forestry. 



South Australia, as we find by Mr. Brown's 

 work, acknowledges its duty in a more sensible 

 manner. It first looks about to see where for- 

 ests may be needed. It does not like the Penn- 

 sylvania law, pay a man twenty-five dollars for 

 a hundred trees planted in front, perhaps, of a 

 huge forest which is so inaccessible that it would 

 not pay for firewood ; but it decides first on what 

 part of the colony shall be a " Forest district." 

 In such district, and on his own actually-occu- 

 pied land he must plant five acres, the kinds 

 prescribed by the government forester as fit for 

 that district. The tract must be securely fenced 

 from cattle. The trees are to be set in accord- 

 ance with good rules provided, and at the end 

 of five years, " if the trees are in a vigorous, 

 healthy condition," and " at least ten feet high," 

 he is entitled to two pounds sterling ($10.00) for 

 every acre so planted. There are some other 

 minor details, but this is the main feature of this 

 intelligently practical law. 



This work of Mr. Brown is intended to teach 

 farmers how to plant and care for the forests, 

 and all they are likely to want to know in order 

 to make their plantings successful. It seems an 

 admirable plan all through. 



Plants of Indiana. — Catalogue by the editors 

 of the Botanical Gazette and Charles Barnes, 

 Lafayette, Indiana. Local catalogues are of 

 great value. They not only aid the collector, 

 but they serve very materially those who are 

 studying the geography of plants ; for we are 

 not only able to judge of distributions as they are 

 now, but by comparing them with lists that have 

 been made in the past, we get an idea of the 

 changes of location that are continually going 

 on. It is chiefly through local lists like these 



