340 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[November, 



Bat if I were to plant two acres— it matters 

 not in what part of the United States — one would 

 be Russian ; and then, if you tire of silk culture, 

 its fine fruit will more than pay for your labor 

 and expense of growing. Never plant the com- 

 mon American, or Morus rubra, near the paper 

 mulberry. And I would not advise planting 

 Morus nigra for silk culture. In Europe and 

 Asia, the mulberry is considered the most valua- 

 ble of all trees, for it produces the most delicious 

 fruit. Its timber is used in the arts and for fuel ; 

 the bark and fibre for paper, and its leaves pro- 

 duce the finest fabrics of silk. At some future 

 time I will send you an article on the different 

 kinds of silk worms. 



[It seems proper to say to our readers that the 

 species or type of all these varieties, the Morus 

 alba is perfectly hardy over the greater part of 

 the United States, if not over every part of it. 

 and nobody who wishes to engage in silk culture 

 will go wrong in planting seed of the Morus 

 alba, or in growing trees of the ordinary Morus 

 alba seed. It is quite likely that in time there 

 will be found certain varieties of the white mul- 

 berry better adapted to some localities than 

 others, just as we find some varieties of apples 

 or grapes are ; but this is only a question of the 

 refinement of culture. People sometimes say 

 of the grape, they had better have Concords or 

 Clintons, than risk the coquettish dispositions of 

 better varieties. And they will find it true of 

 mulberry plants. If people had stuck to the 

 common white mulberry, — seedling mulberries, 

 instead of speculating iu the " multicaulis" va- 

 riety of it, with its large leaves and larger dis- 

 eases, they would not have had to deplore the 

 terrible ravages of disease among the silk worms 

 which stopped the demand and destroyed the 

 old 'Multicaulis mania." If people are wise 

 they will let well enough alone, before getting 

 into speculations about " improved varieties." — 



Ed. G. M.] 



«-•-» 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Arguments for Tree Planting. — It is a great 

 gain to forestry to note that the weak arguments 

 for forestry, which bring the whole subject into 

 disrepute with persons of ordinary understand- 

 ing, and leave the topic to be handled by vision- 

 aries, are being gradually laid aside. There are 

 innumerable solid reasons why old forests should 

 be judiciously cared for, and new ones planted, 

 without resorting to bugaboos to frighten people 



into what cool reason cannot sustain. A very 

 good point is made by Mr. T. T. Lyon, in a note 

 to the Michigan Farmer : 



'* When, in going about our State, we see so 

 many farms stark and treeless, often with a 

 lonesome house, and perchance a barn also, 

 without a single tree or shrub, for either orna- 

 ment or shelter; and so very few that evince 

 thonyht and taste in this respect, it seemed 

 obvious to us that our people need no encour- 

 agement to go forward in the thoughtless work 

 of waste and destruction ; but our earnest efforts, 

 rather, to convince them that there is a possi- 

 bility of carrying this process too far; and even 

 that they may find actual profit, as well as pleas- 

 ure and comfort to themselves, their families 

 and their domestic animals, by sheltering their 

 crops, their gardens and orchards, and their 

 buildings as well, from the excessive force of the 

 winds." 



Forest Fires.— At Montreal, the Committee 

 on Forest Fires presented a report recommend- 

 ing, first, the reservation of all pine and spruce 

 lands unfit for settlement for lumbering pur- 

 poses exclusively; second, the prohibition of the 

 burning of brush by settlers in the vicinity of 

 fir trees during the months of May, June, Sep- 

 tember and October; third, ihe division of the 

 timber country into districts, and the appoint- 

 ment of police, under a superintendent with 

 magisterial powers, whose duty it shall be to 

 detect and punish offenders, and provide for the 

 extinguishment of fires; fourth, the cost of 

 maintenance of this protection against fire might 

 partially be met by the imposition of a moderate 

 tax on those owning or leasing timber lands. 



It must be apparent that when there is abun- 

 dant dry and decaying material underneath 

 large forest trees, there is nothing whatever in 

 these resolutions calculated to prevent forest 

 fires. The only feasible plan seems to be the 

 one we have often suggested, namely, not to 

 permit this material to remain. With this rotten 

 and rotting material gone, we have absolute 

 protection, and it thus becomes an arithmetical 

 question whether it is cheaper to spend a few^ 

 hundred thousand dollars for a certain protec- 

 tion, than lose millions on millions, and this, 

 too, annually, not to say supporting thousands 

 of office holders as police and superintendents, 

 simply in the effort to "punish" those who may 

 be "offenders," whoever that may be, after a 

 year or more of a pending lawsuit has proved 

 them such ; and provided always that such 

 probable "offender" be caught at all. 



Encouragement of Forestry in Canada. — 

 The Quebec Legislature, by an Act of 1882, 



