98 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 262. 



and is an inch or an inch and a half long and of a rusty- 

 brown color. 



As a timber-tree the Mangrove is valuable. The wood, 

 which is considerably heavier than water, is dark red- 

 brown in color, very strong- and solid, with a handsome 

 satiny surface ; it makes excellent fuel, but as long- straight 

 trunks are not very common it is not much used as timber; 

 in Florida it is valued for wharf-piles, as the teredo does 

 not relish the tannin it contains and so leaves it alone. 

 All the Mangroves hold in their wood and bark large quan- 

 tities of tannic acid, and the bark has been used in tan- 

 ning, but the leather it makes is of inferior quality, and 

 imtil some method can be found for making it valuable 

 this immense store of tanning material is practically value- 

 less and the Mangrove is left to carry on in peace its quiet, 

 tireless labor. 



The two portraits of the Mangrove which appear in this 

 issue are from photographs made on the streams flowing 

 into Bay Biscayne, in Florida, by Mr. James M. Codman, 

 of Brookline, Massachusetts, to whom we are indebted for 

 the opportunity to reproduce them. 



The town of Weston, near Boston, has accepted, with 

 gratitude, from Mr. Charles Wells Hubbard the gift of a 

 tract of land along the banks of the Charles River. This 

 tract, says the Boston Herald, " comprises about nineteen 

 acres of beautifully diversified meadow and woodland, 

 bordering East Newton Street and the river, and forming 

 part of the picturesque valley through which the Boston 

 and Albany Railroad winds its way between Riverside and 

 Wellesley Farm stations. So much interested have promi- 

 nent citizens of Weston become in the proposed recom- 

 mendations of the Metropolitan Park Commission, with 

 regard to the preservation of water frontages near Boston, 

 and so desirable do they regard the permanent preserva- 

 tion of the beauty of the river-banks, that it is understood 

 that, in case the Legislature favorably considers the Com- 

 mission's report, Mr. Hubbard's example will be followed 

 by further gifts of land, so that ultimately the entire front- 

 age of the Charles in the town of Weston maybe dedicated 

 forever to the use and enjoyment of the public. This will 

 not only preserve one of the most beautiful parts of the 

 river, but will go a very long way toward securing the de- 

 sired action relating to the entire stream." 



The Charles River is not only especially beloved by the 

 residents of eastern Massachusetts, but is held in affection 

 by all intelligent Americans, even those who have never 

 seen how singularly charming a stream it is ; for it has 

 been celebrated in prose and verse to a greater extent than 

 any other American river, not excepting even the Hudson. 

 It is the one stream in America whose name has a classic 

 flavor as connected with the lives and imaginings of many 

 writers whose works are sure of permanent life. Therefore, 

 we may accept, from the point of view of poetic sentiment, 

 as well as the point of view of mere beauty, the words of the 

 writer in the Boston Herald, when he adds : " The Charles 

 River has the same value to the people of Boston and its 

 metropolitan surroundings that the upper river Thames 

 bears to the inhabitants of London. It is a great factor in 

 the recreation of the people. Particularly important in this 

 respect is the charming stretch between Newton Lower 

 Falls and Waltham. Here alone over 800 pleasure craft of 

 various kinds are kept. This proposed gift of land on the 

 Charles, aggregating something between 200 and 300 acres, 

 is but one instance of the prospect of valuable gifts of the 

 kind in other parts of the metropolitan district, in case the 

 recommendations of the Metropolitan Park Commission are 

 adopted. The prospect of such beneficent action on the 

 part of public-spirited citizens should prove one of the 

 most powerful arguments for favorable action by the Leg- 

 islature in relation to the work of the commission." Those 

 who have followed the work of the Boston park commis- 

 sion during recent years, who know how broadly, yet care- 

 fully, its steps have been considered and then taken, and 



who have seen the tracts, lying in various directions from 

 the centre of population, which have already been pur- 

 chased or condemned for future purchase, realize, indeed, 

 that in some respects the government of the chief city of 

 New England may be held up as an example for imitation 

 to the governments of all other American towns. The 

 Metropolitan commission was appointed to consider the 

 needs of the community living in and outside the munici- 

 pal limits of Boston. If the recommendations, which we 

 have already discussed, are adopted, then the New Eng- 

 land metropolis will indeed be fortunate.' 



The Value of Marsh Lands. 



pROFESSOR SHALER, in an interesting paper published 

 -*■ in the annual report of the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 

 culture, calls attention to the value of the extensive marshes 

 of that state, which should reaUy be esteemed a vahiable 

 possession rather than a melancholy encumbrance. While 

 our country was but thinly inhabited, such land was allowed 

 to go to waste, but, as population increases, public attention is 

 beginning to be called to the necessity of utilizing more of the 

 area of the state for cultivation, and these once disregarded 

 fields are beginning to be regarded as objects of economic 

 importance. In Holland the value of its polder land is fully 

 appreciated, and large sums have been spent in draining such 

 marshes as are to be seen along the New England coast for 

 miles. It is estimated that there may be ninety thousand 

 acres of marine marsh in addition to 150,000 acres of fresh 

 meadow in Massachusetts alone, most of which could be 

 made to pay a good income upon the amount necessary to 

 expend for reclamation. The process of making peat-bogs 

 serviceable for agriculture in Europe has been conducted in 

 the slow and unenterprising fashion that characterizes the 

 movements of the older world. It has been left for New 

 England to find out the way in which cranberries can be raised 

 with prompt and satisfactory results upon the lightly sanded 

 surface of a peat-bog, which Professor Shaler considers one 

 of the great discoveries of modern agriculture and a proof of 

 the inventive talent of the Yankee farmer. 



When it is possible to secure a sufficient supply of fresh 

 water to inundate these bogs, in order to protect the flowers 

 and fruit from frosts and from insects, this industry has been 

 so successful that it is said to return a larger percentage on 

 the capital invested than any other form of tillage which has 

 been practiced in the northern states of this union. Unfortu- 

 nately the area in Massachusetts where the Cranberry ran be 

 cultivated is very limited, as it cannot be raised profitably far 

 from the sea-coast nor very far north of Boston. The berry 

 is, to be sure, raised even as far north as the St. Croix River in 

 Maine, but untimely severity of the weather often endangers 

 the crop in that more rigorous climate. The marsh is pre- 

 pared for planting by covering the surface of the peat, after 

 stripping off its upper coat of vegetation, with sand, preferably 

 from the sea-shore, and inserting therein the plants to such a 

 depth that their roots can feed upon the underlying vegetable 

 matter. Stimulated by the moisture and protected by flooding 

 in case of early frost, this late-ripening berry brings in valu- 

 able returns. There are many anxious moments as the critical 

 period arrives, and only the eye of the master has the requisite 

 vigilance to know just when the door of waters must be un- 

 locked to prevent an unlucky nipping of the blushing fruit. 

 Also, when the picking time comes, a whole neighborhood 

 has to be turned into the meadow to secure the ruby harvest 

 with requisite promptness. 



When it is considered that a million dollars' worth of straw- 

 berries and cranberries are raised in one year in Massachu- 

 setts alone, the value of land where both these crops can be 

 supplied with the requisite moisture may more seriously be 

 estimated. For, not only are these bogs valuable for the 

 Cranberry, but it is certain that with much less expense they 

 can be made available for the crops of the market gardener. 

 For these crops the costly arrangements for flooding the land 

 will not be necessary, nor will pure sand only be required, and 

 any arenaceous soil at hand can be substituted. The great 

 difficulty of plowing such land can be avoided by using trac- 

 tion plows, drawn by engines placed on the firm ground, or 

 by spading the whole surface. By thorough ditching and 

 draining the water-level can be lowered until the peat attains 

 sufficient firmness to support draught animals, and should 

 plowing be impossible even then, from the frequency of 

 the ditches, the light character of the soil would make hand- 

 cultivation easy. On such land, strawberries, which delight in 



