34 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 413. 



$40,000,000 toward reforesting dunes and devastated 

 mountain-sides, and in the budget for last year for its 

 Forestry Department nearly $1,000,000 of the $2,500,000 

 appropriated for the department is set aside for such exten- 

 sion of forest area and improvement of the existing one. 

 In addition, the private property is controlled entirely as 

 regards clearing ; that is to say, no clearing may be done 

 without the sanction of the Government authorities. 



In Prussia, which represents about two-thirds of Ger- 

 many, the policy of selling also prevailed in the beginning 

 of the century, but since 1831 a constant increase has taken 

 place, the increase in the old provinces from 1831 to 1892 

 being but a small fraction, but in the entire monarchy from 

 1870 to 1892 it amounted to 280,000 acres. Here, espe- 

 cially, the apparent small increase is due to the fact that 

 much land was exchanged or given to get rid of servitudes, 

 obligations which were a charge on the forest property. 

 For this purpose 125,000 acres were ceded, besides the 

 payment of fully $20,000,000 in money, all of which repre- 

 sents an increase in the efficiency of the remaining forest 

 property. Altogether, between the years 1867 and 1895, 

 over 22,000,000 marks were spent in increasing the forest 

 area, and the budget for 1895-96 contains an item of 

 2,000,000 marks for the purpose of acquisition. In addi- 

 tion it is of interest to note that during the last twenty-five 

 years the conservative management has resulted in increas- 

 ing the stock of wood in the state forests by over 25 per 

 cent., in spite of the fact that the annual cut has increased 

 by 40 per cent., while the receipts have increased by 50 

 per cent., although the expenditures, and especially the 

 salaries of the forest officials, have been increased during 

 the same time. The net income was of the gross receipts — 

 in 1830, 61 per cent.; in 1870, 52 per cent., and in 1893, 47 

 per cent The control of private forest property in Prussia 

 is, perhaps, least developed in the German states, the 

 necessity for such control being probably less on account 

 of the situation of the larger part in the plains country, and 

 also because the large holdings of the great proprietors 

 were less liable to dismemberment or mismanagement. 

 The belongings of the communities, however, are under 

 the same control as in France, and legislation looking 

 toward greater control of private property wherever com- 

 munal interests are involved is in preparation. 



In other German states we may note an increase of 4 

 per cent, in the state forest area for Bavaria between the 

 years 1873 and 1890 — an increase of over 3 per cent., by 

 purchase, for the state forests of Wiirttemberg, the one state 

 in Germany where clearing is also absolutely controlled 

 by the state authority. A small increase is notable in 

 Baden and Saxony, so that we see Germany, as a whole, 

 is increasing its state forest property. 



In Austria the selling craze lasted until about 1872, and 

 now the state is the only great purchaser, buying, besides 

 minor lots, in 1886, 60,000 acres; in 1888, over 230,000 

 acres, and in 1 89 1, 210,000 acres in single purchases. 



Italy, to be sure, has been too poor to enlarge its state 

 property, but the laws of 1877 and 1890, which provide for 

 reforestation of denuded mountain lands with financial 

 assistance to the communities from the Government ex- 

 chequer, exhibit the conservative tendency of the Govern- 

 ment and its recognition of the fact that a strong communal 

 interest attaches to this kind of property. 



Even Russia, though probably the least-developed of the 

 European countries, and largely in the pioneering stage, 

 holds on to its Government possessions, provides for their 

 rational administration and extends the same where this is 

 desirable. In the extreme north, where more than one-half 

 of the country is still covered with woody growth, no 

 forest policy, probably, is carried out. In the central 

 states and Baltic provinces, representing one-quarter of 

 the total area, where the percentage of forest land sinks 

 below 30 down to 17 per cent., a conservative forest man- 

 agement of the Government forests after the pattern of 

 Prussia is established ; and in the prairie country on the 

 southern third of the empire large amounts of money are 



spent by the Government in planting forests or assisting 

 private owners to do the same. Russia, therefore, does not 

 sell any of its real timber-lands, excepting where commu- 

 nities do not own their timber, and, therefore, the state 

 property is liable to depredations, when the Government 

 tries to obviate the difficulty by making the community 

 owner. In addition a very elaborate law exists for the 

 purpose of preventing mismanagement, which places the 

 approval of working plans, of making clearings, etc., in 

 the hands of a specially constituted committee for each 

 department, and the Government itself must secure the 

 approval of this democratic committee for its operations. 



Finally, while England has not any forest area worth 

 speaking of, for India, at least, the same policy of conser- 

 vation and of increasing Government control is notable. 

 Her Indian forest policy was inaugurated about 1873. 

 From 1882 to 1892 the reserve forests were increased from 

 46,213 to 59,743 square miles, and the total forest area 

 under the control of the Government from 71,972 to 114,966 

 square miles. Strong efforts are being made to place 

 the entire forest under the direct control of the Government. 



We see, then, that these nations, having learned from 

 sad experience, reversed in time their policy and act upon 

 their knowledge that forest property is best preserved in 

 the strong hands of Government, which is permanent, as 

 the forest cover in the mountain must be to secure favora- 

 ble agricultural conditions. Must the United States learn 

 also from her own experience, or can the lesson be learned 

 from the experience of others ? 



Forestry Division, Washington, D. C. 



B. E. Fertww. 



Plant Notes. 

 Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia. 



THE genus Stuartia, a member of the Tea or Camellia 

 family, named in honor of John Stuart, Marquis 

 of Bute, is distinguished by its deciduous membranaceous 

 oblong-ovate serrulate leaves, large solitary axillary flowers 

 with five or six sepals and five or six obovate crenulate white 

 petals, and by its five-celled pods with one or two seeds 

 in each cell. The genus is confined to eastern Asia, and 

 to eastern America, where there are two shrubby species ; 

 one of these, Stuartia Virginica, grows only in the coast 

 region of the southern states and bears the largest and 

 most beautiful flowers of any member of the genus which 

 is now known ; the other, Stuartia pentagyna, is common 

 on the lower slopes of the southern Appalachian Mountains, 

 where it sometimes grows in great profusion, especially in 

 eastern Tennessee. In Japan and China there are two or 

 three species of Stuartia. Only one of these, however, 

 Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia, is a common plant in Japan ; the 

 others are either confined to the southern islands or are 

 extremely rare, and neither of them is found in our gar- 

 dens. Little is known of Stuartia in China beyond the 

 fact that one of the species of southern Japan extends to 

 the mainland, where it is not improbable that other 

 members of the genus will be found. 



Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia (see illustration on page 

 35) is a tree upward of fifty feet in height, with a trunk 

 sometimes two feet in diameter, and in the mountain 

 forests of central Japan, where it is abundant, is always 

 a conspicuous object, owing to the smooth, bright red 

 bark, which peels off in great thin flakes like that of the 

 Crape Myrtle (Lagerstrcemia), and gives the tree its name 

 of Saru-suberi, or Monkey Slider. The handsome dark 

 green leaves, which insects do not mutilate yet in our 

 gardens, and the large delicate flowers, whose beauty is 

 heightened by the contrast between the purple stamens and 

 the white petals, need no special description, for, in gen- 

 eral appearance, they resemble those of our native species. 



Thirty years ago Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia was sent to 

 the United States by the late Thomas Hogg. It was propa- 

 gated with other Japanese plants in the Parsons' Nursery, 

 at Flushing, Long Island, and flowered several times in the 

 neighborhood of this city some years before its flowers 



