DYING OUT OF FORESTS. 189 



BARK BOUND TREES. 



It is well known among nurserymen, that trees will sometimes languish 

 because the bark is so hard that it hinders expansion. The remedy is a 

 light incision down the side of the tree with the point of a knife. It should 

 be done in tiie spring, when the sap is starting; and its effect is quite 

 apparent, within a year or two, by a notable expansion of the trunk, as 

 shown by the strip of new bark along the line of the incision. 



BARBERRY RUST. 



It has long been a popular belief in England, that the barberry bush 

 {Berberis vulgaris) has some agency in the propagation of rust in wheat 

 and other grain, and the researches of botanists have somewhat tended 

 to confirm this belief. The spores from grain rust {Puccinia grominis) 

 are said to find their way to the leaves of the barberry, germinate 

 and form cluster-cups on the under surface of the leaves, and the spores 

 from these in turn germinate on the grain by alternate generation. 

 The fact tiiat rust sometimes appears in fields where there are no bar- 

 berry bushes in the vicinity, appears to indicate that there may be other 

 plants capable of bearing the intermediate form of growth. The clear- 

 ing off of barberry bushes has been claimed to be followed by good 

 results, and if it vshould be proved beyond doubt that there is a' direct 

 relation between this and grain rust^ the use of barberry as a hedge plant 

 should be wholly discontinued.^ 



THE DYING OUT OF FORESTS. 



Mr. Dan. Millikin, of Hamilton, Ohio, in an essay on the best prac- 

 tical means of preserving and restoring the forests of Ohio,^ makes the 

 followiugstatement concerning the death of the forests, with his opinion 

 as to the cause : 



In soKie places, and to the great regret of proprietors, the remnant of forest is dy- 

 ing 80 rapidly that lumber is sold to avoid its rotting. I donbt if ten thrifty white- 

 oak trees of a diameter of 2^ feet can be found in Bntler County ; all have dead tops and 

 are on the sure road to decay and death. Oth<.r species are similarly affected in local- 

 ities, and the Board of Agriculture does well to ask for the best method of preserviog 

 the forests of Ohio. It is proper for us to inquiie into the cances of this blight, which 

 is sweeping away the fiuest trees in the region where timber-growing just begins to 

 bo prized. The soil of the ancient foi'est was spongy in its structure, and was less 

 liable to extremes o heat and cold and drought than treeless soil. For ages the trees 

 Lad been drawing nutriment from all strata, so that by the fall of their leaves, and the 

 fall and decay of successive generations of the trees themselves, great amounts of 

 plant-food had become stored in the very uppermost layers of the soil. Hence later 

 generations of trees had come to live mainly in this upper soil. Even the oaks and 

 the nnt-bearing trees had extensive root-systems near the surface, and many genera 

 now flourish which habitually live near the air. When the forest is brought under 

 subjection by the American farmer, the saplings are cut out " to give the big timber a 

 chance." All small bushes are grubbed up or are browsed away by domestic animals. 

 Brush, leaves, and rotten logs are burned by accident or design. Cattle are freely ad- 

 mitted to the forest because at some seasons the pasturage is good, and because at 

 other times they cannot go upon tillable land. 



The trees thus injured, the temperature becomes less uniform, winds 

 and the sunlight reach the soil and the rains are not retained as for- 

 merly, and the surface becomes grassed over. The remedy proposed is 

 the preservation of the young timber, exclusion of cattle, and tbe 

 planting of young forests where the old forest grew. He was convinced 

 that this woitld be profitable nearly everywhere in Ohio. 



'See papers upon this subject in Beport of. Mass. Hor.Soc, 1877, part 1; and Rei)ortof 

 Ma\ne Board of Agriculture, 1809, p. 178. 

 2 Ohio Agncidtural Report, 1871, p. 335. 



