1883. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



51 



who is not directly interested in the profits of kim- 

 bering. 



" It imposes a burden upon the people now, and 

 promises a greater burden in the future, when they 

 become wholly dependent upon the foreign supply. 



" If the tariff upon lumber is continued, the 

 work of our Forestry Associations will be vain 

 and fruitless ; for pecuniary considerations and the 

 immediate money results will control those who 

 own forests which can be converted into salable 

 lumber." 



We are not disposed to say much about tariffs in 

 the Gardeners' Monthly, because we wish to es- 

 chew everything that bears on partisan politics. 

 People can get all they want of this elsewhere. 



But we may say without prejudice to this unpar- 

 tisan attitude, that we mistake the American For- 

 estry Association, if its work is simply the preser- 

 vation of old forests. At one hundred years old a 

 forest is ready for the axe. The lumber decreases 

 in value every year the tree stands after that. It 

 is far better for the country that where there is no 

 chance to get a two hundred-year-old forest to 

 market, the wood should be girdled or burnt off, 

 and the land put to agricultural uses. Forestry 

 associations should bend their efforts towards 

 planting new forests instead of merely protecting 

 old ones ; and if in this view a duty on lumber 

 should encourage forest planting among us, it may 

 be well worth even a Forestry Association consid- 

 ering how far it would be judicious in the nation 

 to go. 



It is now generally conceded that it would be 

 quite proper to "protect" forestry planting, but just 

 what that protection should be, we must leave to 

 the politicians. 



Duties on M.\hogany .\nd Rosewood. — A 

 Canadian correspondent sends the following : "Can 

 anything be less in accord with the spirit of the 

 age, which is supposed to favor the reduction of 

 taxes as much as possible on articles affecting the 

 poorer classes, while collecting duties on more ex- 

 pensive articles of luxury ? On examining the 

 lumber tariff I find that exactly the contrary rule 

 obtains, for the same duty is imposed upon spruce 

 and the inferior qualities of pine, costing at the 

 mills from six to eight dollars, as upon the clear 

 and finer qualities, costing five times as much, 

 while mahogany, rosewood and satinwood, costing 

 hundreds of dollars per thousand, are admitted 

 duty free. This is the country for the poor man ; 

 for the lumber to provide shelter for his family he 

 must pay from twenty-five to thirty per cent, duty, 

 while the rich man can finish off his mansion or 

 palace in mahogany or rosewood duty free ! " 



As far as the mere politics involved in " duties 

 on lumber" are concerned, we must leave that to 

 other papers. We will only say that iYi this part of 

 the world the poorest people buy articles made 

 of mahogany and rosewood — as much, perhaps, 

 in proportion to their incomes as rich people do, 

 and the rich man buys as largely of pine and 

 spruce, in proportion, as the poor man does. We 

 fancy the duty has no reference to the wants of 

 rich or poor, but has reference to the encourage- 

 ment of the home production of timber. The rea- 

 son why mahogany and rosewood are duty free, is 

 probably that no amount of " protection " would 

 lead to their culture in the United States. 



Perhaps a duty on foreign lumber leads to a 

 more rapid consumption of native trees than is 

 immediately desirable, but if it lead to planting of 

 new forests, it will do no harm in the end. 



Sp.\rk Arrestors. — The intimate connection 

 which sparks from locomotives have with forest 

 fires renders every attempt at improvement of in- 

 terest to the forester. We recently noted the 

 praiseworthy efforts of a Boston railroad in this 

 direction. We now have to record that at a recent 

 meeting of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, 

 a paper was read, describing Rufus Hill's spark 

 arrestor for locomotives, which has been put upon 

 213 locomotives built at the Baldwin locomotive 

 shops, and has been found to work well. Mr. Hill 

 is master mechanic of the Camden and Atlantic 

 Railroad, a road always foremost in endeavoring 

 to meet popular demands for railroad comfort and 

 convenience. 



H.\BITS OF THE AsPEN. — Mr. Douglas notes the 

 curious and very interesting fact that in the Rocky 

 Mountains the aspen only seems to make one in 

 forest succession after the forest fire has been over 

 the ground. The following from the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle also has a similar bearing on this point : 



"The aspen trembles all through Europe. It 

 may have commenced its curious habit in the Cau- 

 casian range, where it is still a prominent tree, but 

 historically it has always been dispersed over Tur- 

 key and Russia as far as the Frozen Ocean, and 

 there is nowhere such a trembling of aspen leaves 

 as in the woods around Moscow, where innumer- 

 able seedlings sprang up after the conflagration of 

 1 813. The aspen is found in the bogs of Denmark 

 at all depths, while the alder, birch and hazel do 

 not occur below the oak level. Like the Scotch 

 fir, therefore, it is one of the primaeval trees of 

 Europe. It is also a native of the woods of Inver- 

 cauld, near Braemar, where it ascends to a height 

 of 1,600 feet. It travels into Sutherlandshire, loves 

 moist situations and woods, overhanging the High- 

 land lochs. The margin of Loch Katrine and the 



