February 12, 1? 



Garden and Forest. 



61 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1896. 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article : — A German View of the Value ot the Forest 61 



A Botanical Journey in Texas. — I E. N. Plank. 62 



Distribution of the White Cedar in New Jersey John Gifford. 63 



Foreign Correspondence: — Mr. Chamberlain's Garden IV. Watson. 63 



New or Little-known Plants : — Rhododendron mucronulatum. (With figure.) 



C. S. S. 64 



Plant Notes 64 



Cultural Department: — Amaryllis E. O. Orpet. 65 



Showy Acanthads R. Cameron. 66 



A Few Momordicas Alex. Mac El-wee. 66 



Notes from Santa Barbara F. Franclieschi. 66 



Crassula quadrifida, Cotyledon gibbiflora Etlward J. Canning. 67 



ThePleiones N. J. R. 67 



Correspondence : — Old Stone Bridges in Pennsylvania .... Isaac R. Peiinyfiacker. 67 



Training Tomatoes G. A. IVoolson. 67 



Habits of Ferns C. S. Valentine. 68 



Meetings of Societies : — The Western New York Horticultural Society. — III. . . 68 



Peninsula Horticultural Society 6S 



Recent Publications 69 



Notes 70 



Illustration : — Rhododendron mucronulatum, Fig. 7 65 



A German View of the Value of the Forest. 



WE recently attempted to answer in a general way 

 the question, " What is Forestry ? " To give some 

 idea of the importance of this science to the people at large 

 we now quote some passages from an address delivered by 

 Dr. Franz Baur, in November last, on the occasion of his 

 inauguration as Rector of the Ludwig-Maximilian Univer- 

 sity in Munich. 



This address was a discussion of the peculiar place held 

 by the forest in national life, or, as Dr. Baur expressed it, 

 "in the housekeeping of a nation." In the course of it he 

 showed that forest preservation has not only a strictly 

 economical, but also a social-political and ethical side. 

 "At the time," he said, "of the despotic rule of Napoleon I., 

 near the beginning of this century, Germany lay econom- 

 ically exhausted, and through the pressure of necessity the 

 axe was used more vigorously against German forests than 

 in normal times. It was then that E. M. Arndt, who loved 

 his fatherland above all else, exclaimed, 'Now, in many 

 lands, the axe which is laid against the tree is laid against 

 the people itself.' Evidently, in using these words, he 

 thought less of a decrease in the revenues from the forests 

 than of a lasting injury to the character of the German 

 people through persistent forest destruction. And, in a 

 similar spirit, W. von Riehl wrote these significant words : 

 ' Hew down the forests and you will ruin our historic 

 burgher society. By destroying the contrast between field 

 and forest you will take from the German people its princi- 

 ple of life. Man does not live by bread alone. Even if 

 we should need wood no more, we should need the woods. 

 Even if we should no longer require the dried products of 

 the forest to warm our bodies, we should still require the 

 living forest to warm our souls.' The truth of these words 

 grows ever clearer with the rapid development of our indus- 

 trial life. Already in our great factory towns there live 

 millions of people who exhaust themselves during the week 

 in crowded, and often unwholesome, workrooms, and on 

 Sundays and holidays seek indispensable recuperation for 

 mind and body in the fresh green forest." 



This, according to Dr. Baur, is one peculiarity of the 

 forest among the economical treasures of a nation — the 

 fact that it has a spiritual, an ethical, as well as a purely 



economical, importance. And from this he deduces the 

 truth that the management of public forests should not 

 be regarded in a narrowly business-like way, as a mere 

 matter of present capital and present interest. The forests 

 of a nation should be looked upon as a great national trust. 

 They should be so controlled that, while the present gen- 

 eration is enabled to draw from them as large a revenue as 

 possible, at least as large and varied a revenue should be 

 secured to future generations. " The dissatisfied directors 

 of our forest finances," he adds, "who always consider 

 the present profit they yield too small, would be in better 

 spirits if they more clearly realized this radical peculiarity 

 of the forestry question." It is true that forests may be 

 made to yield a satisfactory revenue, but since they mature 

 slowly, instead of giving an annual crop, like wheat or 

 barley, they cannot, like many other sources of national 

 wealth, be regarded solely from the money-making stand- 

 point, and, still less, can they lend themselves to the 

 modern wish to secure immediate returns upon invested 

 capital, and to meet, with speculative rapidity, the chang- 

 ing needs and tastes of a community. 



After briefly surveying the past history of European 

 forests, during the long periods when no official care was 

 taken of them, and during the more recent periods when a 

 right realization of what this care ought to be, in extent 

 and in kind, he explained that there are still European 

 countries, like Spain and Denmark, where the need for 

 scientific forestry is not yet appreciated ; and of the United 

 States he said: "Even in the primeval forests of North 

 America, once believed to be inexhaustible, irreparable 

 damage has already been wrought. Eager for quick profits, 

 the great lumber syndicates of that continent still continue 

 the work of destruction ; yet, even there, the necessity for 

 some thought for the future has been recognized, and mil- 

 lions of acres have been set apart as forest reservations — 

 that is, even in this comparatively new country, it has 

 come to be a recognized fact, as it is in the Old World, that 

 if the wounds inflicted on the forest through lack of fore- 

 thought are to be healed, the cure must be worked by the 

 state rather than by rich private landholders. Even the 

 popular assemblies of most of the German states are no 

 longer willing that their forests should be at the mercy of 

 private interests." 



Dr. Baur adds, that in addition to lumber, fuel and other 

 staple products, the forests produce vast quantities of berries, 

 fruits, flowers, mushrooms, mosses, basket-material and 

 materials for decoration, the value of which cannot be 

 accurately computed, although it certainly amounts to 

 millions of marks annually, and hundreds of poor families 

 in Germany, who would otherwise be destitute, depend 

 upon these products for a livelihood. 



The unique value, however, of forest-lands as sources of 

 refreshment, enjoyment and inspiration for the souls of men 

 is something which should always be insisted on. If one 

 imagines Heidelberg, for instance, denuded of its forests, 

 or Baden-Baden or Carlsbad, one can understand the im- 

 portance of forest surroundings to an urban community. 

 Nor are economic interests ignored even when this point 

 of view is taken. Were these cities denuded of their 

 forest environment the multitudes of travelers who now 

 frequent them and bring gold to the hands of their inhab- 

 itants would conspicuously diminish. 



No government, says Dr. Baur, in conclusion, can 

 administer a forest as it may administer a factory, where it 

 writes over the door, "No admittance except upon busi- 

 ness." To do this would be to destroy the value of the 

 forests as a possession of the people. Their portals must 

 be thrown wide open, not only to the architect, the painter, 

 the musician and the poet, not only to the scientific .student 

 and the seeker after health, but to the public at large. And 

 in this country one needs to add, the public at largo as well 

 as the government must be taught to realize that, whilethe 

 forests should be utilized by all they should be injured by 

 none, for they are the property, not of this generation only, 

 but of generations yet to be born. 



