132 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 423. 



to have flowed in midsummer at least twenty-five miles 

 lower than it does at present, being now dry almost to its 

 source, 8,500 feet above the sea-level. Living springs once 

 abounded on the ranches in the White River valley, which 

 now all run dry in midsummer. There is hope for those 

 who desire the preservation of the Sierra forests in the fact 

 that the valley rancher detests the sheep-herder, whom he 

 regards as a foreigner and a parasite, who intends to return 

 sooner or later to France, or Portugal or Ireland, carrying 

 with him his gains pilfered through sheep-raising on land 

 not his own. 



The condition of the woods on the reservation was often 

 such as to cause Professor Dudley the greatest concern. 

 Fires some time in the past have swept over a large part of 

 it ; not an old Sequoia has escaped fire, and most of the 

 Pines and Firs bear evidences of the ravages of the flames. 

 In the region south of Nelson's Fork of the Tule River the 

 number of overripe or decayed Fir-trees is enormous, 

 and these trees, dying apparently from old age, in falling 

 are carrying down young trees and furnishing the best pos- 

 sible material for destructive forest fires. Professor Dudley 

 was everywhere reminded of the lamentable contrast be- 

 tween America and Germany. The latter has forest schools 

 and trained foresters, who cull out the ripe timber, remove 

 and sell it for the Government. In America, whose forests 

 are unexcelled in variety, beauty or value, we have no 

 efficient system for preventing their destruction by fire, 

 no schools for training a class of men to husband and de- 

 velop the enormous forest resources of which we are the 

 spendthrift heirs. 



As a relief from this gloomy picture it is pleasant to learn 

 from the testimony of ranchers and hunters that last sum- 

 mer there were probably not more than a third as many 

 sheep in the Sierra Reservation as had invaded it the pre- 

 vious year, a decrease accounted for by the presence of the 

 United States soldiers in the adjacent Yosemite National 

 Park, which had alarmed sheep-herders and scattered their 

 flocks. 



In concluding his address Professor Dudley called the 

 attention of the club to the fact that there are still large 

 tracts of Redwood-trees standing in the coast-range region 

 of California, and urged the establishment by the Govern- 

 ment on unsurveyed lands of a Redwood reservation. 

 This should be done, and done speedily, as we have more 

 than once insisted. The Redwood is only inferior in size 

 and interest to the Sierra Sequoia. Its value as a timber- 

 tree and its accessibility doom it to destruction, and if the 

 demand for Redwood lumber increases in the future as it 

 has in the past, another generation will see the destruction 

 of these peerless forests. The Redwood grows only on the 

 California coast-ranges, and unless the Government will 

 create a Redwood reservation, as it has a Sequoia reserva- 

 tion, the majestic trees which have been growing for two 

 or three millenniums will be swept away forever. 



We commend a careful study of this number of the Sierra 

 Club's bulletin to all who are interested in the national for- 

 ests and in the welfare of California. The address of the 

 Secretary, Mr. Elliott McAllister, from whom probably 

 copies can be obtained, is Academy of Sciences Building, 

 San Francisco. 



It is an unpleasant truth that, in spite of all that has been 

 written and said on the necessity of forest protection in this 

 country, the great mass of people still need to be instructed 

 on this point, and since no comprehensive and efficient 

 forest policy can even be devised without a more culti- 

 vated public sentiment, and since the best of laws would 

 fail to be enforced without the quickening of the public 

 conscience, every effort to arouse interest and disseminate 

 knowledge on the general subject of forests, their uses 

 and their management, is an occasion for gratitude as well 

 as encouragement. We, therefore, commend, as an exam- 

 ple to similar bodies, the action of the New Jersey State 

 Federation of Women's Clubs at its recent meeting in Tren- 

 ton. A prominent place in the programme was given to an 



address on the "Forest Interests of New Jersey" by Mrs. 

 Edward D. McCarthy, of Plainfield, who explained in a 

 clear way the different forest conditions which pre- 

 vail among the mountains in the northern part of the 

 state, in the Pine plains of the south and on the shift- 

 ing sands of the seashore, together with descriptions 

 of the special beauties and uses of the woods of each 

 region ; and then gave convincing reasons for the adoption 

 of a conservative forest policy in each. The history of 

 the steady growth of sentiment in favor of good forestry 

 throughout the country was graphically sketched, and then 

 practical ways were pointed out in which women could 

 reinforce the propaganda. Work was suggested through 

 schools, libraries and public discussions ; by offering prizes 

 to school children, and having in every district exhibits of 

 maps and photographs illustrating the results of wanton 

 forest destruction and scientific forest management ; by 

 joining forestry associations ; as clubs and classes by taking 

 up a systematic study of the forest in its economical aspect, 

 and, more than all, by the cultivation of a sympathetic love 

 of trees and of natural beauty and order out of which will 

 grow village improvement societies with forestry commit- 

 tees and the like. There is no doubt that Mrs. McCarthy 

 was justified in the statement that if the women of New Jer- 

 sey took hold of this matter in earnest, "within a year a 

 State Forest Commission would be organized, a radical and 

 practical fire policy would be so enforced throughout the 

 state as to save the remnants of our forests, and courses 

 of instruction would be founded which would teach us to 

 value them and use them aright." 



In connection with this address, and illustrating it, was 

 an admirable exhibition in an adjoining chamber. This 

 consisted of a series of maps, showing the forest reserva- 

 tions in the west and the forest area of New Jersey ; large 

 photographic views of the Palisades, in which nature and 

 nature's defacement were contrasted ; views to show 

 the desolation wrought in various parts of the country by 

 criminally careless methods of lumbering ; pictures of the 

 expensive engineering work in southern France, made 

 necessary by stripping the mountains of their forest cover. 

 Besides these, pictures of noteworthy trees and attractive 

 landscapes and the instructive leaf charts of Grace Anna 

 Lewis were disposed in an artistic way about the walls, while 

 on the tables were pamphlets on tree-planting, forestry and 

 village improvement, sample copies of periodicals devoted 

 to forestry, a sheet for the registration of names of all who 

 wished to enroll themselves as taking an interest in the 

 subject, and a circular for distribution containing a brief 

 list of book* relating to forestry, village improvement and 

 rural life. The arrangement of this exhibit was so effec- 

 tive that it seemed a pity that it must be transient, and the 

 suggestion that every library and schoolroom should have 

 something of this kind as a general help in the education 

 of public sentiment was felt by all who saw it. 



What Would be Fair Must First be Fit. 



A CONSTANTLY increasing number of Americans are 

 desirous of securing some measure of beauty in the 

 surroundings of their every-day lives. These people are 

 not content with things as they are. They want more and 

 more of pleasantness in and around their own houses and 

 about their village, town or city as well. 



To these earnest and inquiring people come a numerous 

 company of writers and would-be missionaries, who, how- 

 ever, preach strangely differing gospels. First to appear 

 are the gentlemanly agents of the commercial nursery- 

 men. These bring many books of pictures of more or less 

 lovely and rare plants, shrubs and trees, and say, " Look, 

 you can make your surroundings beautiful if you will plant 

 some of these interesting and lovely things. You ought to 

 screen that ugly fence with Roses, scatter 'specimen orna- 

 mentals' about your grounds and put a bed of Cannas 

 before your door." Next come the more pretentious 



