50 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[February, 



ceived in the fall a box of pears from Mr. A. 

 Broeck, of Santa Clara, most of them russetty, 

 some very large, and all of them of delicious qual- 

 ity. It is, however, extremely difficult to distinguish 

 the exact diff"erence between pears grown in a dis- 

 tant part from those with which we are familiar on 

 our own grounds. We selected two looking like 

 Sheldon and Clairgeau, and sent them without ex- 



planation to one of the best " pearists " in our 

 country, who pronounced them first-class speci- 

 mens of the two varieties already named. It so 

 happens that the grower has those two kinds on 

 his own grounds, and is therefore fully qualified to 

 judge of their difference. We can only congratu- 

 late California on these first-class accessions, fol- 

 lowing on the heels of Mr. Fox's great successes. 



Forestry . 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Seeds or Plants for Starting Forests. — i 

 Whether it is best to sow seeds in beds, and to 

 transplant for forests, or scatter the seeds on the 

 ground and leave the rest to nature, seems to be I 

 one of the valuable questions to come up in the fu- j 

 ture of American forestry. Though no doubt i 

 there will be cases where either one may be better j 

 than the other, as a rule plants will be better than j 

 seeds. Governor Furnas, of Nebraska, is of this 1 

 opinion. He was among the first to make tree cul- j 

 ture on the prairies a great success. 



Woods and Foretsts of South Australia. — 

 Annual Report of J. Ednie Brown, Conservator of 

 Forests. The expenses during the year, ^5,787, 

 and the receipts ^^5,581, showing that the depart- 

 ment has been nearly self-supporting. 189,710 

 trees were planted, and young saplings in 

 natural growth cared for by clearing brush from 

 around them. At the end of the year, including 

 both classes, 212,560 young trees were living and 

 doing well ; 239,336 acres of land reserved for for- 

 ests, have yet to be planted. The amount of acre- 

 age planted is 4,042. The number of trees doing 

 well from the Board's work is 440,000. 



An experiment was made to sow seeds broadcast 

 instead of setting out young plants. Pinus pinea, 

 Pinus insignis. Eucalyptus globulus, and E. ca- 

 lophylla were employed. The only resultis"a few 

 nice plants of the Eucalyptus and the Pinus pinea," 

 but the failure of the experiment "may have been 

 from unsound seed." It is surprising that such a 

 suggestion should be made, as any one should be 

 able to tell whether the seed was unsound before 

 sowing it. But the "experiment is to be repeated 



with the best seed only." The kinds of trees 

 used in timber-planting are chiefly from the many 

 species of Eucalyptus or Gum trees. Among 

 European trees, Pinus halapensis, Pinea, maritima, 

 Austriaca and laricio, are used to some extent. 

 Pinus insignis of California seems to be very 

 largely grown and other Californians being tried 

 on a limited scale. Of a thousand Catalpas 

 tested last yedr, the report speaks highly of its 

 drouth-resisting qualities. Though the dryest sea- 

 son ever known, the loss among them was only 

 5 per cent. The American ash is also growing in 

 favor. A most remarkable commentary on popu- 

 lar names is that white cedar in this report is 

 Melia Azederach — the China tree of our Southern 

 States. 



Forestry Laws. — We have a circular protest- 

 ing against a duty on foreign lumber from Mr. M. 

 C. Read, of Hudson, Ohio. In it he says : 



" In the Dominion of Canada are millions of 

 acres of land which, from the nature of the soil, 

 must be perpetually devoted to forest growth. 

 They constitute the natural sources of a supply of 

 lumber for the productive arable and pasture lands 

 to the south of them, in the United States as well 

 as in Canada. 



" The time is at hand when we shall be wholly 

 dependent upon this source of supply, or upon the 

 artificial growth of timber in our own country, if 

 the present rate of destruction of our forests is con- 

 tinued. 



"The increased price of lumber, caused by a tariff 

 upon importations, benefits only the lumloermen. 

 It tends to the development of no other industry. 

 It does not increase by a single foot the amount of 

 lumber we are capable of producing, but, on the 

 contrary, diininishes the amount by tempting the 

 lumbermen to now cut trees which, if spared, 

 would rapidly increase in value, while it imposes a 

 needless burden upon every man in the country 



