1882.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



Forestry. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



UNITED STATES TIMBER LAWS. 



BY F. W. WOODWARD, EAU CLAIRE, WIS. 



The quotation of the law in your April number 

 is incorrect. As the amended law now stands, 

 it requires btit ten acres to be planted on each 

 quarter section of one hundred and sixty acres, 

 and in like proportion on eighty and forty acres. 



Five acres on each quarter section to be broken 

 up the first year, cropped the second, and the 

 additional five acres broken. The third year 

 five acres to be planted with trees 4.x4 or 2,700 

 to the acre. The fourth year the remaining five 

 acres which were cropped the third year, to be 

 planted in the same manner. Trees to be culti- 

 vated for eight years when there must be 675 

 growing trees to the acre, in order to obtain a 

 patent for the land. 



AILANTHUS IN SOUTH JERSEY. 



The reference of Mr. Douglas, in the April 

 number of the Monthly, to the Ailanthus as a 

 suitable tree for our Jersey shore, suggests some 

 farther observations upon this tree and its adap- 

 tation to the more sandy tracts in the southern 

 part of our State. 



First. In regard to the durability of Ailanthus 

 timber, there is much uncertainty. I have been 

 collecting observations upon its use for several 

 years past, and while my own experience and 

 that of friends who have used it, is not in its 

 favor, reliable persons have told me that it was 

 equally enduring as chestnut. Its value as fire- 

 wood is also disputed. For cabinet work its 

 grain and color favor it, and it is liked by those 

 who have used it. 



Second. The great destruction of our pine tim- 

 ber by fires, makes the cultivation or growth of 

 our pitch pine (P. rigida) too hazardous for 

 profit, unless in small, isolated tracts. The 

 necessity of a substitute — of a tree not so exposed 

 to fires as pine — suggested the Ailanthus. I have 

 made several small attempts at sowing seed, but 

 every year they failed to germinate. A very 

 small experiment in planting a few trees was 

 tried in Burlington County two years, but the 

 locality is too sandy and barren to produce trees 

 of any kind. 



As regards observations, the Ailanthus has been 

 found growing thriftily at many localities in our 

 southern counties and upon very sandy soils. 

 From what I have seen I feel confident that this 

 tree can be grown profitably upon our poorer, 



pine-barren lands, and that its more rapid growth 

 and its greater immunity from fires adapt it not 

 only to the very sandy lands of New Jersey, but 

 to some of those of Delaware and Maryland also. 

 The wood is worth quite as much per acre, for 

 fuel, as very much of that now cut from our pine 

 lands. And as a forest covering for lands which 

 are too poor for profitable farming, this tree 

 seems worthy of planting. 



[We are very glad to have this suggestive 

 paper, especially because a recent note on the 

 Ailanthus seems to have been misunderstood in 

 some quarters. We give all the information we 

 can get on all subjects, and it makes no difference 

 to us whether that information be in favor of or 

 against any pet notion of our own or of anyone else. 

 It was in this spirit that we gave the paragraph 

 that some one in New York had found Ailanthus 

 posts good for nothing. It does not follow that 

 other people may have as bad experience, neither 

 is timber culture to be viewed wholly from the 

 standpoint of fence posts alone. As for the 

 Ailanthus, we may say that our impression is 

 that it will prove to be one of the most valuable 

 forest trees we have. But an editor must not be 

 satisfied with impressions. He must have the 

 facts, just as thev are, and just what thev are. — 

 Ed. G M.] ' 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Forestry Nonsense. — The good cause of for- 

 estry would prosper much faster if it could be 

 relieved of the load of humbug and nonsense 

 which it has had to carry — a load packed on its 

 shoulders by sensationalists, who seem to think 

 that anything which will alarm people is good 

 for the cause whether the thing be true or not. 

 So widespread is this nonsense that the Garden- 

 er's Monthly has had to stand almost alone in 

 opposing it. This it does on the principle 

 that nothing but the truth can help any good 

 cause permanently. Here before us is an essay 

 by one whom the people look up to as an " au- 

 thority" on forestry matters. We read in it that 

 " in the early history of the Eastern and Middle 

 States, a farm was regarded as lacking in an 

 essential feature if there were no spring upon 

 it, and the farmer's wife would as much expect 

 to do without milk pans as to do without a 

 spring house. But now a spring-house is a rare 



