368 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 446- 



way as Chrysanthemums. Helianthus decapitatus multiflorus, 

 commonly known as the perennial double Sunflower, is like- 

 wise a good pot-plant, but it is so very common that it is not 

 likely it would be used as a pot-plant except in groups for 

 color effect. 



Browallia speciosa major is a valuable addition to a genus 

 which includes a number of beautiful annual and perennial 

 plants. B. elata is the best known and usually treated as an 

 annual. If seeds be sown about midsummer, and the plants 

 be grown along and stopped into shape, they will flower nicely 

 through the winter months. This new addition is likely to 

 prove just as valuable as a greenhouse plant. The flowers 

 are salver-shaped, nearly as large as those of a single Petunia, 

 and deep blue in color. 



Nemesia strumosa is a pretty little plant, probably an annual 

 belonging to the same family as the Mimulus, which it re- 

 sembles. There is much variation among the seedlings flow- 

 ering here. Cuttings have been taken from a good variety, 

 and these are rooted. It is intended to grow them along for 

 winter blooming. 



Wellesley, Mass. 1 . U . Hatfield. 



Correspondence. 



The Delaware Peach Crop. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The Delaware peach crop will fall fifty per cent, short 

 of the estimate put upon it in the spring by the railroad 

 officials, who use this estimate as a basis on which to prepare 

 for the transportation of the crop. The crop was not over- 

 estimated at that time, but the shrinkage is due to three 

 distinct causes. The first and primary difficulty was the 

 excessively hot weather during the early spring, the second 

 was the high humidity of the atmosphere throughout the sea- 

 son, and the third was the plum curculio. The intense April 

 heat caused an abnormally rapid growth in the young forming 

 fruit, causing it to attain the size by the last of May not usually 

 reached until the middle or latter half of June, and resulting 

 when the growth again became normal in a weakened consti- 

 tution in the fruit. The whole peach crop has consequently 

 matured a week or ten days in advance, the fruit only 

 reaching three-fourths its natural size. 



The humidity of the atmosphere throughout the growing 

 season and the condition of the fruit itself have been favorable 

 to the development of the peach-rot fungus, which has been 

 so serious that thousands ot baskets have been lost. Conser- 

 vative estimates place the loss from this fungus alone at filty 

 per cent, ot the entire crop. But the fruit alone has not suf- 

 fered trom its attacks, which have been so virulent that the 

 growth of the present teason has been seriously blighted. 

 The later peaches are not suffering so seriously, as the atmos- 

 phere has cleared and the most favorable conditions for the 

 spread ot the disease have been removed. 



The third difficulty, the plum curculio, has waged war on the 

 crop, attacking the early peaches more severely than the later 

 varieties. More than half these peaches were stung, and in 

 several instances ninety per cent, were found wormy. The 

 curculio was probably present in greater numbers than usual 

 this spring, owing to the large number bred in the crop of last 

 year, and to the winter and spring which were favorable to an 

 unusually large number of the beetles coming through 

 alive. 



The probable explanation of the abundance of worms in the 

 ripe fruit is to be found in the fact that there was no "June 

 drop" this year, which is mainly caused by the larva ot the 

 curculio and by the imperfect fertilization ot the flowers. The 

 larvas were present in the young peaches, which, however, 

 were being forced so rapidly by the hot weather that they were 

 strong enough to remain on the trees, in spite of the weakness 

 caused by the curculio, and the "June drop," which eliminates 

 a large proportion of the wormy fruit, has been harvested and 

 sold with the rest of the crop. 



The question naturally arises, could this loss of half of the 

 Delaware peach crop have been averted? The only answer 

 that can be made to the inquiry is, that it has been demon- 

 strated, over and over again, that the curculio can be practically 

 controlled by jarring the trees during the egg-laying period, 

 which extends about six weeks from blossoming-time, and that 

 thorough and persistent spraying with fungicides will reduce 

 the loss from peach-rot to a minimum — yet five percent, of the 

 peach-growers have practiced neither this year. 



Delaware has been fortunate for several years in not having 

 severe losses from these two causes, and the growers have 

 practically stopped spraying, but experience has taught the 



lesson that the successful fruit-grower must protect his crop 

 every year, although the conditions do not always seem to 

 warrant the outlay. 



Agricultural Experiment Station, Newark, Del. G. Harold Powell. 



The Forest. 



The Burma Teak Forests. — VI. 



EFFECT OF SYSTEM UPON THE CONDITION OF THE FORESTS. 



'THE system here described, underwhich the Teakforestsof 

 -*■ Burma are worked, is designated by foresters as the system 

 of selection fellings. Single trees are selected for felling among 

 those which have attained marketable size, and the selection is 

 governed chiefly by what is best for the maintenance and regen- 

 eration of the forest, and likewise by the question whether, if 

 left standing, these trees are likely to improve in value or 

 whether they will deteriorate. Obviously it is a matter of 

 great importance to ascertain what effect the operations car- 

 ried on under this system in Burma have had upon the condi- 

 tion of the forest ; in other words, whether they have secured 

 the maintenance and regeneration of its most valuable con- 

 stituent, the Teak-tree. 



At the outset it will be convenient to consider what takes 

 place in a forest, like those here described, which is left alone, 

 and from which no Teak is extracted. It has thus happened 

 that a tract in the interior of the hills which separate the 

 Sitang and Iraauddi valleys at the head-waters ot the Hpyoo 

 stream was examined by me by means of linear valuation sur- 

 veys in January, 1868, and that twelve years later, in February, 

 1880, the same tract was examined in the same manner. On 

 the first occasion in three days a length of seventeen miles, 

 with an average width of 100 feet, or an area of 206 acres, was 

 surveyed. On the second occasion the route was a little longer 

 and the total area surveyed in four days came to 250 acres. 

 The results give the growing stock on 100 acres as follows : 



186S. 1880. Increase. 



. 1S3 249 66 



. 162 300 13S 



. 392 657 265 



First class, 6 ft. girth and upward, . 

 Second class, 4 ft. 6 in. to 6 ft. girth, . 

 Third chiss, 1 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. 6 in. girth 



Total Teak above 1 ft. 6 in. girth, . . . 737 1,206 469 



This part of the forest had not been worked between 1868 and 

 18S0, and no trees had been girdled. Bamboos and other trees 

 had been cut to a small extent by the Karens living in the 

 vicinity, but the Teak had not been touched. The improve- 

 ment in the condition of the forest is remarkable. Neglecting 

 trees blown down, or burnt by the annual fires, sixty-six, or 

 forty per cent., of the second-class trees had attained six feet 

 girth in twelve years, from which may be concluded that in 

 thirty years' time the whole of the second-class trees would 

 have attained first-class size. Again, 138 4- 66 = 204 trees, 

 or fifty-two per cent., of the third-class trees (392) had at- 

 tained four feet six inches in girth, so that in twenty-three 

 years the whole of the third-class trees would have attained 

 second-class size. Equally satisfactory is the increase of the 

 smaller trees. Obviously, by leaving the Teak alone, and by 

 moderately cutting Bamboos and other trees, it would be pos- 

 sible greatly to increase the proportion of Teak in a forest of 

 this description. 



So far regarding a forest from which no Teak has been 

 extracted. In order to understand the changes which have 

 taken place in a forest regularly worked under the system here 

 described it will be necessary to consider those districts for 

 which special working plans have lately been prepared. It has 

 already been stated that special working plans have been pre- 

 pared for eleven forest districts in the Iraauddi valley. These 

 districts form a continuous belt of forest on the hills east of 

 the Iraauddi River, with a few outlying blocks in the plains, 

 extending over ninety-eight miles from north to south. The 

 entire area has been demarcated as reserved forest, and it 

 aggregates 652,569 acres. The growing stock of Teak of the 

 different age classes has been determined by examining a 

 large number of sample areas, 2,105 m number, averaging 

 sixty-two acres each, carefully selected, so as to furnish a cor- 

 rect representation of the different descriptions of forest in each 

 district. It must be distinctly understood that the remarks 

 which follow only relate to the eleven districts in the Iraauddi 

 valley. The area, however, sixteen per cent, of the total area 

 of reserved forests in Burma, is sufficiently large to admit 

 correct conclusions being formed. 



The first step in preparing a proper working plan is to divide 

 the forest into compartments of manageable size, which on the 

 hills must be formed in accordance with the configuration of 



