May 27, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



21 1 



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, MAY 27, ic 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Forest Fires — Another Lesson from India 211 



Shrubs, Native and Foreign 212 



The Dauphin Elm. (With figure.) M. L Dock. 212 



The Flora of the California Coast Range. — II.. . . Carl Purtfy. 213 



Plant Notes 214 



Cultural Department: — Carnation Notes IV. jV. Craig; 216 



The Hardy Flower Garden T. D. Hatfield. 216 



Tree Pa?onies J. N. G. 217 



Shrubs and Climbers Winter-Ui.led, Sulanum citrullifolium, 



Edward J. Canning, zs-j 



Correspondence : — The Elm- leaf Beetle IV. F. C. 217 



Close of the California Orange Season Win. M. lisdale. 21 S 



Notes from West Virginia Dar.ske Dandridge. 218 



A Natural Garden...'. Rev. E. J.Hill. 210 



Recent Publications 219 



Notes 220 



Illustration : — White Elm at Dauphin, Pennsylvania, Fig. 32 215 



Forest Fires — Another Lesson from India. 



THE unusual drought which prevails throughout the 

 eastern United States has made the forests more 

 liable to fire than usual at this season, and as we write 

 there are destructive conflagrations in the woods of south- 

 ern New Jersey, western Pennsylvania, Long Island, the 

 Adirondacks and all of the New England states. It is the 

 same sickening story of standing timber, saplings and 

 seedlings vanishing together in smoke, while the soil is 

 burned to absolute sterility, or, at least, is left in a less 

 productive condition for new forest growth. In many 

 cases, too, fences, orchards, fruit gardens and farm-build- 

 ings have been swept away, so that the whole thing means 

 dead loss for the present, and loss of hope for the future, 

 without any palliation or compensating advantage. Next 

 spring, if the weather is dry when farmers who live on the 

 forest border begin to start their brush fires, tbe woods will 

 burn again, and careless campers, locomotive sparks and 

 the reckless tramp who owns a match will all aid in the 

 work of destruction. This will be repeated the spring fol- 

 lowing, and so on, but it is evident that an end must come 

 to this wanton destruction at some time in the future. 

 Intelligent people in various parts of the country are com- 

 ing to understand that the loss of the forests is not simply 

 a loss to their owner, but a loss to the community. The 

 legislatures of different states are enacting laws which, if 

 properly enforced, would protect the woods. States like 

 Maine and Minnesota have taken the lead in this legisla- 

 tion, and if the laws would enact themselves there would 

 be few more forest fires. But, as we have repeated over 

 and over again, what is primarily needed is an educated 

 public opinion. As soon as it is generally understood by 

 the people who live near the forest that it is as truly to their 

 personal interest to stop a fire in the woods as it is to stop 

 a fire in their own buildings there would be good laws, and 

 these laws would be enforced. 



This we have asserted often, because the statement is 

 based on reasonable grounds, but we never realized to the 

 full that it had been demonstrated on a large scale until we 

 carefully read the paper by Mr. Ribbentrop, to which 

 allusion was lately made on page 191. Under the sway 

 of the Mohammedans in India, the wandering tribes fired 



the forests year after year to provide grazing grounds for 

 their growing herds of cattle. Under the Eritish rule the 

 herds multiplied and new areas were cleaned by fire. The 

 woods were every where looked upon, as they were in the 

 early history of this country, as barriers against progress, 

 obstructions which must be swept away to make room for 

 profitable agriculture. At last it began to be felt in India, 

 as we are beginning to feel here, that wood is worth 

 something. The Government began to realize that large 

 portions of the forest area in the Indian Empire would be 

 burned unless special measures were adopted for their pro- 

 tection. Fifteen thousand square miles were set apart for 

 special patrol and protection in 1883. Twice that area is 

 now protected, and the rest of the forest which is not under 

 this special care has secured much greater immunity from 

 fire. The protected areas include not only the ever- 

 green woods, and those which in marshy regions are self- 

 protected, but large areas of dry forests which were 

 formerly subjected to yearly or, at least, to oft-recurring 

 conflagrations. Besides this, fire is kept out of the com- 

 paratively unprotected woods, and this is largely due, 

 according to Mr. Ribbentrop, to the spread of knowledge 

 among the agricultural population. Their growing interest 

 in the protection of the woods has led to a careful use of 

 fire in their vicinity. 



The Indian Forest Department has thus proved clearly 

 that it is possible to protect large forest areas from fire even 

 in the very driest climate by a well-considered system of 

 patrol, and their experience has also proved that the exam- 

 ple set by Government has caused the agricultural popula- 

 tion to pay a greater respect to forest covering. Of course, 

 in this country, where labor is comparatively scarce and 

 dear, a system of forest guards will be more expensive, 

 but, on the other hand, the education of the people is 

 much higher than it is among Indian peasants, and, as 

 Mr. Ribbentrop well says, "the feeling of the people in 

 respect to a conservative forest policy has more to do with 

 successful fire protection than any number of fire-breaks 

 and watchers." No doubt, the way to begin to protect 

 forests is to pay for their protection. No scheme for volun- 

 tary help is trustworthy. Strict laws are necessary and 

 the enforcement of them requires men and money, but this 

 will be the cheapest process in the long run, for the people 

 will soon learn to be careful how to use fire in the danger- 

 ous neighborhood of forests, and they will soon be helpful 

 in enforcing the laws rather than harmful in opposing them. 



Since the above was written we have received a circular 

 issued by the Forestry Division of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, which discusses the question whether protection 

 against forest fires is practicable, and the answer is that 

 although these fires cannot be altogether prevented by any 

 system, there is abundant experience on this continent to 

 prove that it is practicable and simple to protect large 

 forest areas against fire, and that it is practicable to burn 

 the debris of the lumbermen's chopping, and to do both 

 cheaply. In support of the first proposition the report of 

 the Commissioner of the Crown Lands of the Province of 

 Ontario for 1895 is quoted. Here a system of fire-ranging 

 is established under which a number of men are enlisted 

 from May to September wherever there is special da: 

 The men who own licenses to cut the luml who are, 



therefore, interested and who are familiar with the topog- 

 raphy, are allowed to nominate the men employed, the 

 Department reserving the right to reject or remove any one 

 who neglects his duties. These rangers put up posters 

 containing the fire act throughout the territory under their 

 charge and hand the laws in pamphlet to settlers, so thai 

 everybody becomes familiar with their provisions. They 

 are authorized to employ assistance when the li 

 out, and when these assume dangerous proportions they 

 are required to notify the Department and the license 

 that both may be represented. The Department bears 

 of the expense, and at the end of the season, diaries, with 

 sworn accounts and reports on the lire losses, etc., aresenl 



