1882.1 



A Nl) HOR riCUL TURJST. 



season. Mr. Dewey has had colored lithographs 

 taken of it. 



A Fine Peach.— Mr. T. V. Munson, Denison, 

 Texas, under date of November 10th, 1881, writes : 

 To-day I mail you a specimen (medium or under) 

 of a new Peach originating in this Grayson Co., 

 several years ago, and which has fruited several 

 times. It is not yet ripe. For fear of losing the 

 remaining fruit on the tree, by theft or otherwise, 

 they were taken off to be sent to a few competent 

 judges for opinions of its merits. When fully ripe 

 it has a bright carmine cheek where exposed. It 

 matures here (N. Lat. 34°) from November 1st to 

 15th, and exceeds in size and quality any other 

 cling Peach of its season I know of in the South. 

 It first appeared in a large orchard in eastern 

 part of the County, belonging to A. H. Shirley, 

 but was brought to the notice of our North Texas 

 Horticultural Society by Mr. Z. P. Stoneman. 



The society wished me to send samples to a few 

 parties for a critical opinion as to its quality, &c. 

 Downing has been requested to name it and give 

 classical description if worthy. The tree ia 

 vigorous and like the Heath to which it seema 

 aUied, sufficiently productive. This is its north- 

 ern limit of ripening, but through the Gulf States 

 and especially in Southern California, it ought to 

 do well. It is so firm, even when fully ripe, it 

 can be shipped almost any distance. It shows 

 no signs of rot. It often reaches ten inches and 

 over in circumference. The fall here has been 

 too cloudy and wet for it to acquire high color 

 or its usual sweetness. 



[This fine Peach weighed six ounces. If Mr. 

 Downing thinks it sufficiently distinct from the 

 late white Peaches already in existence, to 

 describe it, we should be glad to have the name. 

 —Ed. G. M.l 



Forestry. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



School of Forestry. — There is a school of 

 Forestry at Nancy, in France, and the Forestry 

 Department of India, is having young men 

 educated there for service in the East Indies. 

 There is no school of forestry in England, and 

 hence advantage has to be taken of the French 

 establishment. It is unfortunately getting to be 

 too much in England as here, that a diligent 

 student of forestry would stand little more chance 

 of an appointment with his graduation papers 

 than without ; and hence there is little encour- 

 agement to sustain these schools. In the matter 

 of appointments, they serve usually to illustrate 

 that " kissing goes by favor." But there will be 

 a reaction, and those who know something have 

 alwaj's the best chance. 



Cottonwood in Kansas. — Some cottonwoods 

 set out near Salina, as cuttings eight years ago, 

 are now twenty to thirty feet high, and Salina 

 is by no means one of the most favorable spots 

 in Kansas for tree culture. 



Joaquin Miller on Forestry. — We are not 

 of those who admire Joaquin Miller's poetry, but 

 his prose on forestry in the recent number of the 

 Independent, is j ust of the right stripe. He thinks 



as we do, that the owner of a forest who leaves 

 dead tree trimmings and dry underbrush loose 

 in the forest, to make fuel for tremendous forest 

 fires, ought to be held responsible for all the 

 damage which ensues to others. 



In almost all our conventions we have talk 

 about rewards for those who inform on the hun- 

 ters whose wads start a fire, the railroads whose 

 sparks ignite dead grass, or the poor wanderer 

 whose camp fire makes a new start after- he has 

 departed, as the cause of a forest fire. 



But if the undergrowth is kept down and dead 

 matter not allowed to accumulate, there will be 

 no fire to hurt the living trees. We know of a 

 piece of wood that is burned under every year 

 by sparks from the Reading Railroad company's 

 locomotives, but the standing timber has never 

 been injured. 



It will not cost a thousandth part as much to 

 clear out all the brushwood in the United States 

 as we lose in one year by forest fires, and the 

 true way to preserve our forests must start from 

 just here. 



At any rate this idea removes the great objec- 

 tion to forest planting, that it may get burned. If 

 rank vegetation is kept down for a few years 

 during the growth of the forest, it will by its own 

 shade keep down the growth thereafter. 



