3o6 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY, 



[October, 



Cuba, growing about half way up the sides of the 

 high mountains. Its botanical name is Sweitenia 

 mahogoni, and its native- name Caobo. It is get- 

 ting scarce in the Antilles, though there are some 

 attempts at forest planting of them. They are set 

 from thirty to forty feet apart. It is much used 

 at home as well as for exportation. Its quality 

 varies greatly with the altitude at which it grows. 



A Large Silver Fir. — The following, says Mr. 

 Robert Coupar in the Journal oj Forestry, are the 

 dimensions of a* gigantic specimen of the Silver 

 Fir which is growing within four hundred yards of 

 Kinnaird Castle, Forfarshire, the seat of the Earl 

 of Southesk. It is about 80 feet in height, and 

 measures 22 feet 6 inches in circumference of stem 

 at one foot from the ground; measuring 14 feet 11 

 inches in girth at three feet from the ground. At 

 five feet from the base a large limb springs from 

 the stem, measuring 9 feet 3 inches in girth at a 

 foot from the point of junction. Excepting this 

 large limb the tree has a clear stem of about 18 

 feet in height to where it divides into several limbs, 

 forming a large branching top. The spread of the 

 branches averages about 56 feet in diameter, hav- 

 ing an entire circumference of 176 feet, and form- 

 ing a fine shapely head. 



One in Germantown, Philadelphia, less than 

 one hundred years old, reached 100 feet high, but 

 is now rapidly on the decline. 



Forestry at St. Paul. — In his address at St. 

 Paul, Dr. Loring observed that in the East the 

 natural condition of neglected farm land was to re- 

 vert to forest growth, and the acreage of woodland 

 increased under these conditions. He praised 

 arbor days and legislative fostering, and believed 

 that under these inducements 38,458 acres had 

 been planted in 1882. The profit of wood growing 

 was no longer a question. One-fourth of the whole 

 area of the United States was yet forest. There 

 was no immediate fear of a dearth of timber, ex- 

 cept in the case of the very valuable White Pine. 

 The points upon which Commissioner Loring en- 

 larged were the necessity for new legislation for 

 the protection of 'orests; the modification or en- 

 tire repeal of the Timber act; legislation providing 

 punishment for the destruction of forests; a sale 

 of public lands to include a valuation of the tim- 

 ber growing upon them; forests and their manage- 

 ment in other countries ; proper age for cutting 

 profitably ; and the influence of forests upon rain- 

 falls. 



So far as the editor of this magazine could judge 

 from a few hours in St. Paul on the day of the 



opening, the meeting of the Forestry Association 

 was not as well attended as the one last year in 

 Montreal, but accomplished good work ; and it was 

 a source of much regret that the arrangements of 

 the editor did not permit him to remain longer. 



Among the useful work were the usual number 

 of impracticable suggestions, of which the follow- 

 ing is a sample, it being a resolution oftered by 

 Mr. Miner, of Illinois: That this Forestry Con- 

 gress earnestly urge as soon as practicable the 

 introduction of both the science and the art of 

 forestry in the public schools. 



In many public schools an average often differ- 

 ent studies a day are taught in the primary depart- 

 ments, and these are about five too many, without 

 adding more. Practical educators are endeavor- 

 ing to cut down instead of adding to public school 

 studies. 



SCRAPS AND. QUERIES. 



Duration of Railroad Ties.— An esteemed 

 Western correspondent says: "I picked up an 

 arrow head in the nursery 'and that reminded me 

 that I sent you one from Kansas that did not reach 

 you, so I send this in place of it. If I recollect 

 right you like living Indians; I like them dead. I 

 attended when the remains of Judge McComas 

 and his wife were brought to Fort Scott a month 

 ago, murdered by Indians from pure cussedness, 

 and I have seen so much of this in the past forty 

 years that I view them much as I do dogs that kill 

 sheep. Probably I am all wrong, but I can't help 

 it. Page 147, May number of Monthly, says 

 when railroad sleepers are properly treated they 

 last a century. This would be rather hard to 

 prove; for I recollect when a small boy going with 

 my father to see the 'iron horse,' the first one Geo. 

 Stephenson put on a colliery railroad. My father 

 was a millwright and worked a number of hands 

 on the machinery of Lord Ravensworth's collieries 

 when George Stephenson attended one of the 

 engines. 



"If I recollect right, railroad sleepers were not 

 used then, and as that was not one hundred years 

 ago there cannot be any specimens to show that 

 they will last one hundred years. It would de- 

 pend in a measure, I should think, on the kind of 

 timber that is prepared, about the time it would 

 last. It does not seem to me that any preparation 

 would give the poplar the strength of the oak. I 

 had a good laugh with the boys on reading your 

 comments on Forestry Associations. These con- 

 vention foresters write us letters telling us how 



