322 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 442. 



that their hope is not in luck or in guesswork but in 

 exact knowledge, and they will then turn naturally for 

 help to these institutions instead of trusting to tradition or 

 being influenced by prejudice or superstition. 



The article of Mr. R. Clifton Sturgis, in the June number 

 of The Cosmopolitan, which has been mentioned several 

 times in these columns, contains an interesting paragraph 

 on the formal planting of home-grounds. When quite 

 small places are in question, Mr. Sturgis is certainly right 

 in pleading for a considerable measure of formality in their 

 disposition. He says : 



I know that there is a prevalent dislike to formality in gar- 

 dening, and many good authorities point out, with some 

 seeming show of reason, that we can never hope to attain 

 more beautiful results than does Mother Nature herself, and 

 that the nearer we approach her wild luxuriance the more 

 beautiful our work will be. Now, while this may be true of 

 the forest, the mountains and the great stretches of sea-coast 

 dunes or inland prairies, it is not true if applied to the treat- 

 ment of a comparatively small and necessarily formal piece of 

 ground. I say necessarily formal, for the moment we put a 

 house on the ground and arrange approaches we have made it 

 formal, and if under these limitations we attempt, as is some- 

 times done, to avoid this formality, and seek to hide our 

 approaches and make our house seem part of the rock on 

 which it stands and as irregular in its plan and outlines as the 

 rock, we get a forced effect which may possibly be picturesque, 

 but which is not restful in any way and which has not the 

 elements of a permanent home. If our piece of land is neces- 

 sarily formalized when we place our house upon it, it is better 

 in every way that the surroundings should show the restrain- 

 ing influence of man's hand and bear the impress of his 

 thought ; and, moreover, the grounds should show that they 

 have been considered in connection with the house. Order is 

 the real keynote of the small house and the small place. To 

 accomplish this the house and the place must be studied to- 

 gether, and the owner or the architect should know something 

 of the outdoor as well as the indoor needs, so as to give each 

 its due consideration. . . . To this end formality of treatment 

 is necessary, and if necessary we may be pretty sure that it 

 may be and ought to be beautiful, as the fulfillment of need is 

 true beauty. 



Waste Planting in Illinois. 



ALMOST all the groves planted in the prairie states have 

 had for their object the protection of homesteads, 

 and have, therefore, been placed without regard to the char- 

 acter of the soil in which they stand. They usually occupy 

 rich fertile soil, and in this respect, as in others, they are 

 not exponents of the best forestry practice, which would 

 confine them to lands of least value for tillage. At Ridott, 

 Illinois, Mr. Thomas Hunt has made a plantation of about 

 ten acres of ridge land, a poor clayish soil from one to two 

 feet deep, underlaid with laminated limestone, which is 

 much broken by cross fractures. Mr. Hunt attempted to 

 cultivate this land for a number of years, but finding it too 

 poor for farm crops he planted trees upon it in 1873. 



In one part of the grove European Larch was set in a 

 mixture of hardwoods, including White Elm, Green Ash, 

 Black Walnut, Box Elder and other species. In the remain- 

 der, rows of White and Scotch Pines, Norway Spruce, Arbor- 

 vita; and Larch were alternated with rows of Willow, Elm, 

 Ash, Poplar, etc. In the winter of 1895 more than half the 

 Larch were cut from the deciduous part of the grove, and 

 averaged two good fence-posts a tree. The remaining 

 stand of trees is only fair, and a considerable growth of 

 weeds and grasses among them indicates the need of a 

 denser leaf canopy. In the other part of the plantation, 

 however, the conifers have almost shaded out the hard- 

 woods, and their dense cover makes weed growth impos- 

 sible. The Larches are the tallest, with the Pines and 

 Spruces of about equal height, averaging thirty-five feet. 

 White Cedar is somewhat oppressed by the others, but is 

 making fair growth. Seventy White Pines, measured as 

 they come, averaged six inches in diameter, breast-high, 

 last spring. This represents an average width of annual 



ring of about one-third of an inch ; certainly a very satisfac- 

 tory growth considering the site. Mr. Hunt has not only 

 taken a large number of fence-posts from this otherwise 

 useless land, but he has remaining a thick stand of timber 

 that is constantly increasing in value, and which promises 

 a yield fairly comparable to that of his more fertile acres. 

 Washington, d c. Charles A. Keffer. 



A Botanical Journey through New Mexico. — I. 



THE last day of July, 1895, found me at Las Cruces, 

 the first station of importance on our way up the Rio 

 Grande from El Paso. Las Cruces is a pleasant little city 

 of four or five thousand inhabitants, of whom more than 

 half are Mexicans. It is the seat of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege of New Mexico. The valley of the Rio Grande here 

 is wide and but little above the level of the river, which is 

 treacherous and shifting, and often changes its course, as 

 the old river-beds show. In the vicinity of the city irri- 

 gated agriculture is conducted on a more extended scale 

 than it is at any other point in the territory. The condi- 

 tions of soil and climate are especially adapted to the oper- 

 ations of gardening, and orchards and vineyards abound. 

 Not only are the home wants of the people fully supplied, 

 but also large quantities of vegetables and fruits are 

 exported. Later, and during the early winter, as I went 

 northward, I often saw as fine fruits as any country affords 

 on the fruit-stands of the villages and cities. On asking 

 the sellers whence the fruit came, the replies often were, 

 "from Las Cruces, New Mexico." 



Mexicans here do most of the farming. Some of their 

 ways are exactly those of the days of Abraham. Oxen and 

 donkeys tread out the grain, the men and women winnow 

 it by throwing it with flat wooden shovels into the air. So 

 they literally tread the wine-presses with their bare feet, 

 while the purple juice bubbles up between their swarthy 

 toes. They often, too, ferment their wine in leathern bot- 

 tles. But not only are railways and telegraphs, telephones 

 and electric-cars in New Mexico, but also such other civi- 

 lizers as the reaper, the threshing-machine and the fanning- 

 mill are already here, and in a few years these primitive 

 methods of farming will only live in the memory of the 

 oldest inhabitant. 



A lofty range of mountains, whose numerous jagged 

 points rising above the mountains proper have suggested 

 to the people the name of " Organ Mountains," are in full 

 sight from the city and not far awaj'. Early in my stay 

 Professor E. O. Wooten, of the Agricultural College, invited 

 me to visit these mountains with him. We left the city just 

 as the sun was rising, and a ride of about two hours car- 

 ried us to the foot-hills of the range. It was an hour or 

 more before we had made our way through a long, deep 

 and wide canon to the perpendicular wall of rock, a hun- 

 dred or more feet high, over which poured a miniature 

 stream, forming at its base a pool of bright, pure water, 

 which afforded us drink and kept our melons cool. 



Among the many trees growing in the mountains we saw 

 the south-western Locust, Robinia Neo-Mexicana, a hand- 

 some small tree, and worthy of general cultivation for the 

 beauty of its red flowers. It protects itself by larger and 

 stouter spines than the eastern Yellow Locust needs, and 

 its abundant fruit is thickly covered with bristly hairs. 

 Rosa Fendleri, growing in a deep ravine near a spring, was 

 near neighbor to the Locust, and a tall Berberis, a stranger, 

 loaded with red fruit. It bears leaves different in form 

 from those of B. trifohata. I should have called it B. 

 Fendleri, but Professor Coulter tells us that the berries of 

 that species are blue. 



In the canon, up which we came to our camping-place, 

 we found Mullugo Cerviana. It is a long way from Las 

 Cruces to Llano Texas, where I saw it first and last, and 

 exchanged congratulations. So it doubtless may be found 

 at many stations between those places. Here M. Cambes- 

 sides bears its relative company. This species once formed 

 the genus Glinus. Its degradation, perhaps, was uncalled 



