228 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 432. 



in many others, Stanford University is especially fortunate. 

 The home estate, Palo Alto, lies at the base of the Coast Range 

 foot-hills, near the southern line of Santa Clara County. I have 

 heard this portion of the mountains of the backgrounds called 

 the Sierra Morena ; in fact, the whole Coast Range easily 

 divides into a multitude of smaller groups, separated by val- 

 leys and canons. 



The site of the University is in a land of Oaks, both decidu- 

 ous and evergreen. One lordly group of Redwoods, thrust far 

 out from its companions, twenty miles from the coniferous 

 forests, lying toward the sea and ten miles from the nearest 

 hills, has been a landmark from earliest Spanish days. Hence 

 arose the name of the estate, Palo Alto — tall tree. Spanish 

 priests and explorers of the closing years of the eighteenth 

 century, riding hour after hour through the wild Mustard and 

 chapparal of the unfenced valley between Santa Clara Mission 

 and the drifting dunes of Mission Dolores, well knew this great 

 evergreen spire, 200 feet high, at the crossing of the San Fran- 

 cisquito. Once it was a group growing from a mass of roots, 

 as is the fashion of Redwoods. We have a record of three 

 trees standing among lesser ones, then of two, but now there 

 is only one, the sentinel of the whole valley, the University 

 tree, par excellence. It was long ago bulwarked with great 

 care against winter floods, and it has passed into college litera- 

 ture. Thus Sequoia sempervirens has become the guardian 

 tree of Stanford, even as Ouercus agrifolia is the preeminent 

 tree of Berkeley. 



Senator Stanford was always a lover of trees. He spent 

 much time upon his plantations, and he never allowed a 

 healthy Oak-tree to be removed. About three hundred acres 

 of the richest valley land at Palo Alto were long ago planted 

 with a great variety of shrubs and trees. A large part of these 

 shrubberies and woodlands can be made of immediate scien- 

 tific value. Nearly every species which the various nurseries 

 of California can furnish is represented here, and doubtless 

 there is much that it would be hard to find elsewhere, for 

 Senator Stanford was a liberal importer of rare plants. The 

 Arizona garden, for instance, could only be duplicated at very 

 great expense, because Senator Stanford's opportunities as a 

 railroad man were unusual. He was able to send men out 

 into the desert and collect the finest and largest specimens of 

 desert plants, bringing them in wagons to the nearest point on 

 the railroad, where they could be loaded on his freight cars. 



In driving over the grounds one sees superb specimens of 

 both the Sequoias and of nearly all the other California coni- 

 fers. Among many fine Araucarias, I noted a noble Araucaria 

 Bid willi, with trunk fourteen inches in diameter and shaft rising 

 to a height of fifty feet. Very large Hawthorns in full bloom, 

 groups of fruit-laden Oranges and Lemons and many brilliant 

 flowering trees give color to the May-time woodland. Nothing 

 is as yet labeled, and the University botanists and foresters of 

 the future will have a great deal to do in putting this raw ma- 

 terial in shape. But it is magnificent material. 



The general impression, which is all I have undertaken to 

 give in this brief article, is that of enormous undeveloped re- 

 sources for future educational work in the right hands at the 

 right time. The estate already has greenhouses and propa- 

 gating-houses, which can be enlarged when necessary. All in 

 all, the garden, the shrubberies, the woodland, the orchards 

 and vineyards, taken collectively, are equivalent, in some 

 respects, to a twenty years' start. This is chiefly because the 

 Stanford estate was laid out on a grand scale to begin with, 

 and is nowhere cramped. 



Niles, Calif. Charles Howard Shinn. 



[Some account of the original design of these grounds 

 by Mr. Olmsted, together with a diagram, will be found in 

 vol. i. of Garden and Forest, page 507. — Ed.] 



Elasagnus multiflora in Wisconsin. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the spring of 1892, six plants of this shrub, 

 the Elaeagnus longipes of many gardens, were set on the 

 grounds of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station 

 at Madison. Two of these plants were set in the lawn, 

 and they have been protected each winter by covering with 

 earth or coarse manure. The other four were set in the nur- 

 sery and have received no winter protection other than that 

 afforded by snow a portion of the time. The experience 

 gained from these two plantings enables us to judge some- 

 thing as to the climatic conditions that this plant is capable of 

 enduring. 



The winter of 1893-4 was considered rather a mild one for 

 this locality. We had one cold period during which the mini- 



mum thermometer registered below zero each day for six days 

 in succession, the lowest point reached being eighteen degrees 

 below zero. The unprotected plants in the nursery killed back 

 a little at the tips and produced no flowers the following 

 spring, but none of them were seriously injured. The pro- 

 tected plants on the lawn were alive to the terminal bud and 

 yielded a fine crop of fruit the following summer. 



The next winter, 1894-5, was more severe. During nineteen 

 consecutive days, in January and February, the minimum 

 thermometer registered below zero every day but one, when 

 it registered plus two degrees. Three of these days the mer- 

 cury descended to fourteen degrees below zero, one to six- 

 teen, one to seventeen and one to twenty-one degrees below, 

 the last being the lowest point reached during the winter. The 

 snow in the nursery during this cold period was deep enough to 

 cover about the lower half of the stems of the Elasagnus shrubs, 

 and all of the part that reached above the snow was killed, 

 while that below the snow-line not only survived but bloomed 

 freely the following spring. The protected plants showed no 

 injury whatever. 



The past winter was unusually mild. The mercury was 

 below zero on eleven different days, but did not register lower 

 than minus thirteen degrees. The plants in the nursery killed 

 back a very little at the tips, but the flower-buds are uninjured. 



From these observations we can summarize as follows : 



With a minimum of minus thirteen degrees flower-buds 

 were uninjured and stems were very little injured. With a 

 minimum of minus eighteen degrees, wood was not much 

 injured, but flower-buds were killed. With a minimum of minus 

 twenty-one degrees, accompanied by prolonged cold, exposed 

 wood was destroyed, but wood and flower-buds covered with 

 snow were uninjured. No injury has resulted at any time 

 where protection of earth or coarse manure was given. 



I find that seeds of Elasagnus multiflora buried in sand beneath 

 the soil germinate freely the following spring, especially when 

 washed from the pulp. The seedlings, however, appear quite 

 delicate, and I think, with us, must be taken up in autumn 

 and wintered in the cellar. At least a covering of earth dur- 

 ing the past mild winter was not sufficient to save ours from 

 destruction. 



It is unfortunate that the fruit of Eteagnus multiflora has so 

 much of astringency. There is no reason to doubt, however, 

 that varieties may be obtained that are without this quality, 

 and then we shall have a valuable addition to the list of small 

 fruits which can be depended on in this climate. 



University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. -^- ■J- ^OJJ. 



A Novel Method of Tree-planting. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The obstacles to fruit-growing on the plains have led 

 to various methods of culture peculiar to the region, and many 

 experiments have been and are still being tried in the hope of 

 more fully overcoming these obstacles. One of the most note- 

 worthy of these is that known in Nebraska as the Leonard 

 method of tree-planting, from the name of the grower advo- 

 cating it. The greater part of this region is underlaid by a 

 subsoil that, while, perhaps, not so hard as that commonly 

 found in the eastern states, seems to be so hard that the 

 roots of Apple-trees do not penetrate it to any great extent, 

 but spread out near the surface. This, taken in connection 

 with the small rainfall and greater evaporation of the region, 

 seems to be unfavorable to the full development, health and 

 longevity of the tree. The new method of planting is based 

 on the theory that if it is possible to penetrate this subsoil and 

 reach a softer and moister layer beneath, the tree will have 

 access to more water and be able to form a deeper root-sys- 

 tem, thereby becoming less subject to the influences of surface 

 and atmospheric conditions. Accordingly large holes, six or 

 eight feet in diameter, are dug deep enough to get through 

 the harder subsoil layers, if possible. If this cannot be done 

 the hole is dug six or eight feet deep, then from the bottom a 

 hole is bored with a post auger, three or four feet deeper, 

 reaching a moister layer of soil, if possible. The whole is then 

 filled with surface-soil, raising it ten or twelve inches above the 

 level of the surface, to allow for settling, and the tree planted 

 in this position. The method has not been in use long enough 

 to determine its value, but it is being watched with a great deal 

 of interest. Trees planted in this way have made a very prom- 

 ising and vigorous growth, but it should be added that Mr. 

 Leonard gives ideal cultivation, and it is impossible to say how 

 much of this growth would be brought about by the cultiva- 

 tion alone. In order to give the matter a comparative test, 

 Apple, Plum and Cherry trees have been planted in this way at 

 the station-farm the present spring, while alternate trees in the 



