900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



149 



jmberman, and, should this effort of the 

 Appalachian National Park Association be 

 rowned with success and lead the govern- 

 lent to do what they asked them to do, 

 re have no doubt that in time the park 

 light be made self-supporting. We have 

 o data as to what it would cost to keep 

 ic park in order, but we have an idea 



that the mature timber which might be 

 cut and sold on such a reservation would 

 produce enough revenue to pay the inter- 

 est on all it costs. 



The Jotirnal is heartily in favor of such 

 a park, and hopes that Congress will give 

 it favorable attention." -New York Lum- 

 ber Trade Journal. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



L Guide to the Trees, by Alice Lounsberry 

 and Mrs. Ellis Rowan. 313 pp., 64 colored 

 plates, 164 uncolored illustrations. Frederic 

 A. Stokes Co., New York. 1900. 

 " A Guide to the Trees " is another sign of 

 le increasing popular interest in trees and 

 lings outdoors. It describes and illustrates 

 ;arly two hundred species of trees and shrubs, 

 le description of the parts of each tree being 

 .ven in semi-botanical language, followed by 

 5tes of a general and untechnical nature 

 istorical, anecdotal or otherwise. As the ob- 

 ct of the book is to help the reader to recog- 

 ize our common trees at sight a colored or un- 

 >lored illustration of each species is given. 

 The scale to which the drawings in this book 

 e made is not shown, and the descriptions 

 'ten fail to indicate the average size of the 

 aves, etc., from which might be determined 

 ic proportionate size of the different parts. Of 

 le illustrations of entire trees few can be said 

 i give an adequate idea of the form and other 

 mracters of the species they are supposed to 

 present. Many of our important timber 

 iccies are illustrated by examples grown in the 

 )en, which are wholly unlike the types met 

 ith in the woods. The distinguishing features 

 : these two types are not accounted for in the 

 xt, nor are the real characters of many of our 

 >mmon trees either mentioned or illustrated, 

 would seem that a book which, like the 

 Guide to the Trees," is intended for unscien- 

 fic readers, ought to bring out clearly the 

 >ecial differences between the various trees 

 >nsidered. To this end life-size illustrations 

 : distinctive points, and also comparisons of 

 lose which look alike in some species would be 

 ' the greatest help to the majority who have 

 3 time to discover the distinctions by painstak- 



g analysis. ' 



J. b. 



he Difficulties and Possibilities of Forestry as 

 a Business. Two articles in the American 

 Lumberman for March 3ist, by C. A. Schenck 

 and Geo. H. Holt. 



Mr. Schenck concludes, in the words of Mr. 

 iolt, " that neither the small nor the large land 



owner, nor the investor, nor the speculator can 

 afford to engage in it [forestry], and that 'as 

 the country requires forestry, the country had 

 better practice it on its own account.'" Mr. 

 Holt is an active lumberman and timber owner 

 who agrees "with him that lumber-forestry by 

 private ownership under existing laws and con- 

 ditions " would be out of the question, but pro- 

 poses an interesting plan for government owner- 

 ship under contract. He would have the private 

 individual bear the expenses of planting, super- 

 vision, etc., and make an " equitable " " divis- 

 ion " of profits with the government in return 

 for remission of taxes, and protection from fire 

 and theft. Mr. Holt thinks that such a plan 

 would pay and prove popular. 



Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them : 

 a Popular Study of Their Habits and Their 

 Peculiarities." By Harriet L. Keeler. Svo, 

 PP- 533 ; : 78 illustrations from photographs 

 and 162 from drawings. New York, Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 3900. Price $2.00, net. 

 The appearance in 1890 of Newhall's popular 

 book on the Trees of North Eastern America 

 marked the beginning of a period of book mak- 

 ing for the help of busy people interested in 

 trees. Some good, and some doubtfully use- 

 ful tree books have since appeared. Markedly 

 there is a praiseworthy attempt on the part of 

 authors of this period to make the study of our 

 common trees as easy as possible. They have 

 recognized that there is a much larger class of 

 interested, casual observers of trees, than there 

 is of those plodding students of botany who 

 have time and inclination to learn these plants 

 by the old long way. The attempt to serve the 

 former busy class of people with books in which 

 technical plant characters are clearly described 

 in every-day language seems one of the most 

 admirable efforts of modern popular science 

 work. There is room for more and better 

 works with this popular intent, and it is with 

 pleasure that we notice the coming of another 

 tree book. 



The compass of the present book includes the 

 following features : a short key, based on leaf 

 characters, to serve as a guide to groups and 



