1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



273 



Forestry. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Black Birch. — The Toronto Globe says : 

 " Black birch, which is rapidly coming in favor, 

 is a close-grained and very handsome wood, and 

 can be easily stained to resemble walnut exactly. 

 It is just as easy to work, and is suitable fornearly, 

 if not all, the purposes to which black walnut is 

 at present applied. Birch is much the same color 

 as cherry, but the latter wood is now very scarce, 

 and consequently dear. It is difficult to obtain 

 cherry at fifty dollars a thousand feet, while birch 

 wood can be had at any saw-mill at one dollar per 

 thousand feet. When properly stained, it is al- 

 most impossible to distinguish the difference be- 

 tween it and walnut, as it is susceptible of a beauti- 

 ful polish equal to any wood now used in the 

 manufacture of furniture. In the forests through- 

 out Ontario birch grows in abundance, especially 

 if the land is not too boggy. There is a great 

 difference in the wood of different sections. 

 Where the land is high and dry the wood is firm 

 and clear ; but if the land is low and wet the 

 wood has a tendency to be soft and of a bluish 

 color. In all the northern regions it can be found 

 in great abundance, and, as the tree grows to such 

 a great size, little trouble is experienced in procu- 

 ring it in large quantities." 



[The Birch referred to is probably the Betula 



lenta, which in Pennsylvania is known as the 



sweet or cherry birch. The black birch of Penn- 



•sylvania is Betula nigra, although quite as often 



known as red birch. — Ed. G. M.] 



Fire Proof Paint. — This is said to be pre- 

 pared as follows : Twenty parts of finely pulver- 

 ized glass, twenty parts of finely pulverized porce- 

 lain, twenty parts of any sort of stone in powder, 

 ten parts of calcined lime, and thirty parts of 

 water-glass (silicate of soda), such as usually 

 found in commerce. The solid elements having 

 been powdered as finely as possible and sifted, are 

 moistened, and then intimately mixed with the 

 water-glass. This yields a mass of syrupy consis- 

 tence that may be employed for painting, either 

 alone or mixed with color. 



The White Pine. — Respecting the white pine, 

 Professor Sargent says : " The entire supply grow- 



ing in the United States and ready for the axe, 

 does not today greatly, if at all, exceed 80,000,- 

 000,000 feet, and this estimate includes the small 

 and inferior trees, which a few years ago would 

 not have been considered worth counting. The 

 annual production of this lumber is not far from 

 10,000,000,000 feet, and the demand is constantly 

 and rapidly increasing." 



As the white pine is one of the most rapid grow- 

 ing of all the coniferae, it should not be lost sight 

 of by those who are considering profitable forest 

 planting. 



The Larch in Europe. — The young wood of 

 the larch is not durable. The wood of the ma- 

 turer tree is that which gave the larch its good 

 reputation. It is very subject to a disease which 

 browns the tips of the leaves while the tree is 

 growing. When it once gets this disease it seems 

 to hold on to the tree through life, and the timber 

 is much affected in durability. There is some 

 talk in Europe of trying the Japan larch, Larix 

 leptolepis. 



Timber Under British Control. — Britain 

 is not yet suffering from a dearth of timber. Ac- 

 cording to recent figures the total extent of the 

 forests in the British possessions is 340,000,000 

 acres of timbered land. 



Value of the Mesquite — The mesquite, so 

 prevalent in west Texas, a species of locust, fur- 

 nishes good fuel and contains a larger quantity of 

 tannin in its wood than oak in its bark. It, how- 

 ever, is of low stature, hardly reaching more than 

 twenty feet in height, and ordinarily not more than 

 one foot in diameter. 



The Value of Timber The Florida A^ews 



pertinently asks and answers: "What is timber 

 worth ? Nothing, unless your are near a saw-mill. 

 The timber here is very fine, but thousands of acres 

 are being cut down to rot for the want of facilities 

 to work it up and transport it. A saw-mill is next 

 to a full bearing orange grove." 



Value of Crooked Timber. — When it is con- 

 venient to convey timber to places where ships 

 are built, crooked timber is even more valuable 

 than any other. But there are many uses for 

 " natural crooks " on the farm. A bent timber as 



