1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



179 



which after the war went into the development of I The success of these experiments in Eastern 



home industry. Here they grew their own cotton, 

 and manufactured it on the spot, finally producing 

 an article as cheaply and as good as that manu- 

 factured in any Northern State. A .visit to these 

 mills, then in their infancy, some years ago, is 

 among the pleasant recollections in our editorial 

 experience. 



A Great Planter of Trees. — The Duke of 

 Athole is one of the most extensive tree-planters in 

 the world. There are already vast woods and 

 plantations in Athole and Dunkeld, and as, cf 

 course, they exist for use as well as ornament, 

 large numbers of trees have to be planted annually 

 to maintain the woods. Indeed, every year the 

 Duke plants from 600,000 to a million trees. 

 During this season a plantation covering 2,000 

 acres has been completed. It may be remem- 

 bered that the Duke of Athole's plantations were 

 thinned of 80,000 trees by the gale which de- 

 stroyed the Tay Bridge. When the planter Duke 

 began operations on a large scale in 1774, the 

 Dunkeld Hills were almost bare. During his life 

 the Duke, who may be described as a true bene- 

 factor to his country, planted 27,000,000 trees, cov- 

 ering I 5,000 acres. 



Tree-planting in Kansas. — A Crawford 

 county correspondent of the Tribune says : " In 

 this neighborhood there are two plantations which 

 seem to prove that under intelligent management 

 success is reasonably certain. The plantations are 

 each of about five hundred acres, and are note- 

 worthy for many reasons. One of them is the 

 property of Mr. H. H. Hunniwell, a Boston capi- 

 talist. The trees have been planted as an invest- 

 ment, and although the forest cannot prove imme- 

 diately remunerative, it bids fair to yield enormous 

 profits in the future. The other enterprise is con- 

 ducted on the same plan by the Fort Scott and 

 Gulf Railroad Company, primarily to furnish ties 

 and timber for its own use. The millions of sleep- 

 ers which are needed every year by the roads 

 crossing the treeless area renders it absolutely ne- 

 cessary to make some such provision for the 

 future. The planting of trees on a large scale by 

 railroad companies, especially by roads which 

 have ample land grants, is so natural and proper 

 that operations of this sort have frequently been 

 undertaken. But owing to carelessness or igno- 

 rance in selecting the ground, or in choosing va- 

 rieties, or to improper methods of planting and 

 management, most of the earlier ventures resulted 

 in loss, discouragement and final abandonment. 



Kansas ought to stimulate other companies and 

 capitalists to new efforts, and landowners of small 

 means by adopting similar methods can soon 

 double the value of their own property, while at 

 the same time they can add materially to the com- 

 fort and prosperity of their neighbors. In both 

 these cases contracts were made with Robert 

 Douglas & Sons, of Waukegan, 111. A block of 

 100,000 seedlings planted in the spring of 1879 on 

 rich soil in the Fort Scott forest already ranges 

 from ten to fifteen ft. in height, while the individual 

 trees vary in circumference from eight to eleven 

 inches. The catalpas in this plantation weathered 

 triumphantly the parching drouth of 1881." 



Responsibility of Railroad Companies for 

 Burning Forests. — At Philadelphia, in the 

 United States Circuit Court, in the case of Robert 

 D. Coxe and wife against the West Jersey Rail- 

 road Company, to recover the value of trees 

 burned on the lines of the road, caused by sparks 

 from locomotives, the jury, on April 13, rendered 

 a verdict for the plaintiff for $586.71. 



Box Forests. — An exchange says: "The best 

 boxwood is brought from the shores of the Black 

 Sea in Turkey, inferior varieties being obtained in 

 Persia, in Spain and Portugal, and in the Balearic 

 Isles. It is said that in 181 5 box-trees to the value 

 of ;^io,ooo ($50,000) were cut down at Box Hill, 

 in Surrey, England ; but the tree is of so very 

 slow growth that it is seldom raised in that coun- 

 try e5ccept for ornament." This date, however, 

 must be an error, for the editor of the Gardeners' 

 Monthly, when on a long botanical tour, made 

 his bed of the branches and slept soundly all 

 night under the trees in this Box forest in 1845. 

 The weird appearance of this forest will ever be 

 remembered. The trees ranged from the thick- 

 ness of one's wrist to that of the leg, and were 

 from ten to twenty 'feet high. There was not a 

 blade of grass, but only some shade-loving orchids 

 to be seen, so dense was the shade. Even at mid- 

 day the close evergreen foliage left only twilight 

 beneath. The poets sometimes sing of the " deep 

 cathedral shade of the forest," but the bare col- 

 umn-like stems of these box-trees with the brown, 

 flowerless ground, illustrated the poet's fancy better 

 than we remember ever seeing anywhere since. 



Pine Lands in North Carolina.— It will not 

 be long before it will be found profitable to plant 

 trees in even the old Pine Tree State. The suc- 

 cessful manufacture in Philadelphia of lubricating 

 oil from rosin, has given a new value to the Caro- 



