1882.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



53 



spur blight, and the quince borer. The best 

 precaution .against blight is annual washing of 

 the tree with a wash of lime and sulphur. It 

 may not be a perfect insurance, but it goes a 

 good way. The quince borer works in near the 

 ground. If a piece of brown paper be tied 

 around the stem, below the ground, and extend- 

 ing several inches above ground, and then well 



greased or tarred, it is a complete protection ; 

 but one must be sure there are no borers in the 

 wood when the paper is put on. It is best to go 

 over the trees the following season and see 

 whether any have been accidentally enclosed. 

 Where a borer has gained an entrance a piece 

 of flexible wire is the best kind of messenger to 

 send in with a notice to quit. 



Forestry, 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Unexplored TERRiTORY.-r-If the enclosed news- 

 paper paragraph correctly represents the case, 

 there ought to be a good field here for the botan- 

 ist as well as the lumberman : 



" Vast pine forests containing upward of 24,000 

 millions of feet of a superior quality of pine 

 lumber, with facilities for getting it to market 

 equal to the best, have been discovered up the 

 Spanish River in Ontario." 



Eedwood Timber, — Some Redwood timber, 

 Sequoia sempervirens, used in the stockade at 

 Fort Ross, in Mendocino Co., California, by the 

 Russian Fur Company, in 1811, was found re- 

 cently to be perfectly sound, though in the 

 ground seventy years. It has the habit of sprout- 

 ing when cut down, as the chestnut does in the 

 East, and this second growth makes equally good 

 timber with the first. 



Timber of British Columbia. — Professor Daw- 

 son estimates two-thirds of this territory to be 

 yet under timber. The Douglas Spruce "West- 

 ern Hemlock," and " Red Cedar," are said to be 

 the chief timber trees. 



Forest Schools in the Old World. — We are 

 often told that our country will never manage 

 forests profitably till we go to the old world and 

 learn how to do it. But there is the celebrated 

 ^' New Forest " of England. It comprises 63,000 

 acres. The timber is saleable, but the sales last 

 year were about $540,000, while the expenses 

 were about $600,000, or $60,000 loss, from even 

 full grown timber. 



Profits of Forestry — It is very difficult to 

 gather from figures in foreign works whether 



the forestry of the old world is profitable or not. 

 For instance, one of the best in England is said 

 to be the 20,000-acr« forest of Dean. It is said 

 to be very profitable. But the only figures we 

 find are those which show the income over ex- 

 penditures in a single year. Last year it is said 

 to have been " very profitable," because the in- 

 come was over $24000, and the expenditures but 

 about $15,000. No reference whatever is made 

 to the capital account, or the years when nothing 

 came in. It will be seen that even this way of 

 counting " profit " only gives 45 cents an acre. 



Rapidity of Growth in American Timber 

 Trees. — In Europe — at least that part of it which 

 influences our literature — forest trees grow 

 slowly and endure long. The " preservation " 

 of old forests, and especial protection to young 

 ones, becomes a question of grave national im- 

 portance. Most of the newspaper talk, if on 

 forestry in our country, is derived from library 

 studies, and not from practical acquaintance 

 with American trees. Noting the opinions of 

 the Gardener's Monthly on this subject, the Lan- 

 caster Farmer well remarks : 



" As a general thing, people greatly exaggerate 

 the length of time required for a forest to grow 

 up, and it is this as much as anything else, that 

 causes the reluctance that exists in regard to 

 planting. Let any man who located in Lan- 

 caster thirty years ago, take a stroll along those 

 places which had not a tree or shrub on them 

 then, and he will be astonished to now find large 

 buildings perfectly embowered in trees. Thirty 

 years more, and many of these trees will become 

 large, unwieldy and perhaps dangerous, and will 

 have to be removed, and younger and smaller 

 ones planted instead. If sixty years develops so 

 much, what may be expected from one hundred 

 and sixty or two hundred in an open country ?" 



