544 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



POSSIBILITIES IN LANDSCAPE FORESTRY. 



JjY Arthur Smith, Pennsylvania, 

 (Continued from Noi'ember.) 



Stress has been laid upon the use of native plants 

 for woodland gardening, which, being so numerous 

 and beautiful, renders exotics vninecessary, and the 

 latter as a rule do not fit in with wild surroundings. 

 Of course, there are some exceptions to this, two of 

 which we cannot forbear mentioning; the Water 

 Forget-me-not, Myosotis palustris, and the Foxglove, 

 Digitalis purpurea. The former soon makes itself at 

 home by the side of water, spreading over shallow 

 spots ; a position where it has a few hours sun is pre- 

 ferable ; and the native habitat of the latter is on the 

 borders of, and open spots in, woods. Both are easily 

 started by seed and rapidly spread. 



For the restoration of the native woodland flora, 

 sowing seed is an easy and effective method. The 

 mere scattering of all kinds of seed in an haphazard 

 manner, upon rough grotmd more or less covered 

 with grass and weeds is, however, of little use. Little 

 patches of ground sh<iuld be cleared of stones, etc., at 

 intervals, and the seeds systematically sown and cov- 

 ered. Until established, the encroachment of briars 

 or anything undesirable should be guarded against. 

 This way is very convenient when one comes across 

 a plant in some other locality that is not native on 

 his own place, as seed is easier to transport than a 

 plant ; this of course presupposes the plant to be bear- 

 ing seed at the time. It is not at all a bad idea to 

 start a seed bed in the garden for the purpose of 

 growing wild plants that cannot be collected in suf- 

 ficient quantity. .Seedlings treated in the orthodox 

 manner should result in a stock of thrifty plants which 

 would easily transplant into their permanent quarters. 

 In a wild garden once established in the woods and 

 which has had some care, natural reproduction would 

 go on as a matter of course, always provided the selec- 

 tion of plants suit the soil. In the case of a choice or 

 rare species, it is little trouble to make up a small 

 area of ground into a condition to suit the plants. 



There is an important point in connection with our 

 subject, which is the putting the woods into a sani- 

 tary condition. Necessary drainage, as before men- 

 tioned, is one item to be attended to. In woods that 

 have been uncared for, dead trees and limbs will in- 

 variably be more or less numerous, harboring insects 

 and fungous pests : therefore from this, as well as the 

 aesthetic, standpoints, they should be removed or 

 burned. Dead branches of small dimensions may be 

 broken up and spread about in the interior, where they 

 will soon decay away and increase the covering of 

 humus. 



In woods to which the general public have no access. 

 fires started from the inside are not likely to occur, 

 but if there is any ]iossibility of a fire coming in from 

 outside, provision should be made to guard against 

 it. When woods adjoin those owned by others, a lane 

 should be kept clean between them, which should be 

 either plowed once a year if possible, or the weeds 

 and leaves kept cut and burned. Of course comnKui 

 sense judgment should be exercised in connection w'nh 

 this and other burnings. The estate should be guarded 

 by a stout, tall, woven wire fence, surmounted by one 

 or two strands of barbed wire. Property which i- 

 worth going to any expense over is certainl\- wiirth 

 proper protection. 



The treatment of damaged trees, whether caused 1)\ 

 disease, storms, or old age, and which are worth pre- 

 serving, comes under the head of landscape forestry. 



The work in connection with this has recently caused 

 a new profession to spring up under the term Tree 

 Surgery. Like many other new things with money 

 possibilities in them, this profession contains an in- 

 finite number of charlatans. I do not say that there 

 are not some expert tree surgeons who thoroughly 

 understand the work of treating the wounds of trees 

 and pruning them from A to Z, but the fact that hun- 

 dreds of tree owners have been badly bitten and that 

 ninety-five per cent, of those claiming to belong to 

 that profession can only be classed as tree butchers 

 is well known. 



There is no secret process connected with tree sur- 

 gery, and any estate manager worthy of the name 

 should be competent to carry out operations connected 

 with it, without the owner calling in an expert ; espe- 

 cially when the majority of the so-called experts know 

 less about it than the estate manager, who admits he 

 knows nothing. 



While this article has reached to a greater length 

 than was originalh' intended, w-e have merely touched 

 upon the leading principles connected with the sub- 

 ject. The carrying out of details will call for diflferent 

 methods, according to local conditions. The work 

 involved in landscape forestry does not call for any 

 great expenditure of money, and it may be spread over 

 a more or less extended period. In any case, it is 

 better to make haste slowly; taking time to thor- 

 oughly study the topography of the woods to be dealt 

 with, so as to open up and make the most of the 

 natural beauties which exist, resting on the assurance 

 that work along the above lines will be permanent 

 not evanescent. 



IS "LANDSCAPE FORESTRY" A MISNOMER? 



December 4, 191.^. 

 Editor. G.'\RDEXERs' Chronicle: 



Will you pardon me if I make a comment concerning 

 an article zvhich I sazc in your magasine, November, 

 19 LS, entitled "Possibilities in Landscape Forestry" f 

 During the eight or ten years of my experience in connec- 

 tion linih Landscape Gardening zvork, and especially in 

 teaching phases of this subject, I have found that the 

 general public is often misinformed as to the nature of 

 the zvork. This misinformation comes largely from the 

 incorrect use of terms as shown in the heading of this 

 article on page 495. / often find that students enter in 

 Forestry courses in universities expecting to receive 

 training in professional Landscape Gardening 'cvhich icill 

 prepare them to take the position of superintendent of 

 parks and private estates where the ornamental value of 

 trees is the chief care. Forestry is a subject which treats 

 of the studv of the internal structure of plants for the pro- 

 duction of the largest amount of good timber and lumber 

 and is almost diametrically opposed to production of an- 

 ideal ornamental specimen, since it is more important to 

 produce a straight clean trunk to a considerable height 

 from- the ground than to produce an attractive ornamental 

 specimen. Ornamentally, we deal with external structures 

 of trees, paying particular attention to the arrangement 

 and balance of limb structure and to the natural shape of 

 a tree, and we prune i^'ifh the idea of increasing or light- 

 cuing the shade or to increase the amount of Howers and 

 fruit. In many instances it is desirable to have a tree 

 :vhicli branches ciuite lozs.'. especially for lazmi shade, and 

 evergreens should akvays retain their lower limbs as long 

 us possible. 



Of course so far as the entomological phase of the 

 work is concerned, or insofar as the principles of tree 

 repair, or surgery as it is sometimes called, are com'erned , 



