1 68 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 2b8. 



of bearing- can be lengthened out by the same method. Cheap 

 cloth protection or wide boards can be used against frost. Two 

 distinct types of these beans are now offered by seedsmen, 

 Burpee's Bush Lima, with large flat pods, well filled with beans, 

 and resembling the old garden Lima, and Dreer's or Kumerly's 

 Dwarf Lima, with shorter pods and beans resembling in shape 

 Dreer's Improved Lima. Either of these can be grown in the 

 kitchen-garden, and for market they will certainly crowd out 

 the climbing varieties, since many more can be planted on the 

 same area and no expense is necessary for poles. 



Geneva, N. Y. C. E. Hutltl. 



Winter Protection. — My orchard and small fruits have come 

 through the winter well, and this is a good time to recall 

 some precautions that I have found useful. In a climate where 

 Peaches and Apricots fail out-of-doors we can protect the buds 

 in several ways, but the most satisfactory plan is to keep a few 

 dwarf trees in tubs in a cold greenhouse which is used for 

 Lettuce and early vegetables, and they will give fine fruit in 

 July. Such trees might be set in a light room in a barn, and 

 gently watered once or twice in the winter, as the fruit-buds 

 will endure zero weather, although they are injured by sharp 

 alternations of cold and warmth. They can often be kept in a 

 cool light cellar. To keep my Quince-trees from drying north- 

 west winds I put up a solid board-fence in autumn, taking it 

 down again in April. With this protection the trees bear well, 

 but the trunks of the young ones should be bound with straw 

 or hay for the winter. Clean sawdust, or sawdust after being 

 used in the stable for bedding, I use for covering Strawberries. 

 Itisputon thickly enough to leave the larger leaves uncovered, 

 and it should be allowed to remain in the spring to hold up the 

 berries from the earth. . When land is well drained there is no 

 danger of Currants and Raspberries " heaving out," but where 

 there is danger the use of stones about the plant is efficacious. 

 The use of coal-ashes is invaluable about fruit-yards, but one 

 of the best purposes it serves is as a winter mulch. Raspber- 

 ries trained to a single wire about four feet high and stapled to 

 posts suffer no damage from heavy snows. 



Clinton, N. Y. E. P. Pozvell. 



The Forest. 



The Forests of Ne-Ha-Sa-Ne Park in Northern 

 New York. 



T7ROM a report recently prepared by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, on 

 ^ the condition of a large forest-estate in the Adirondacks, 

 we are permitted by the author to print the following extracts, 

 which are of general public interest, as Mr. Pinchot's conclusions 

 and suggestions with regard to the management of the prop- 

 erty are applicable to similar forests in many of the northern 

 states. 



" Except for local variations and the greater proportion of 

 the soft timbers in the western and northern part," Mr. Pinchot 

 writes, " the forest over the whole park is approximately the 

 same. The high ground is covered by a magnificent growth 

 of hard-wood timbers, thinly interspersed with Spruce. Beech 

 is here the most common tree, with Birch and Maple closely 

 second. The swamps and low grounds are chiefly occupied 

 by Balsam, Tamarack, Hemlock and White Pine. To these, 

 which have been mentioned in the order of frequency, are to 

 be added in the same order. Cherry, Poplar, Cedar and Ash. 

 Spruce and Pine are at present the most valuable timbers. It 

 seems likely that in future Birch will be the most importanttree. 

 The silvicultural value of the soil has been reached by the 

 accumulation of mold from the waste of many generations 

 of forest-trees. The ground itself is rocky and not rich, and 

 its sustained vigor depends entirely upon the preservation of 

 the humus or duff, with which it is covered almost every- 

 where, sometimes to the depth of six feet. Humus disappears 

 gradually upon free exposure to light and air, and may be 

 entirely consumed by forest-fires. Hence fire and reckless 

 cutting are especially destructive to the Adirondack forests, 

 entirely apart from tfie important loss which they occasion in 

 standing timber and the growth it would have made during 

 the years in which the burnt area is slowly reclothing itself 

 with forest." 



Want of space compels us to pass over the description of 

 many of the trees found in the Adirondack forests. Of the 

 White Pine, he says that it " grows on the west and south-west 

 slopes of the ridges and on the borders of swamps in mixture 

 with Spruce and Balsam. It would be exceedingly advisable, 

 however,to defer this removal, at least in part,until the reason can 

 be discovered why the enormous number of cones produced by 

 this tree do not result in a plentiful young growth. It is pos- 



sible that the conditions favorable to the germination and 

 growth of the Pine-seed may be found to be producible at 

 very little cost, so that it may be possible to assure a large 

 proportion of this valuable timber in the next crop." 



In discussing the age of the trees found in this forest, Mr. 

 Pinchot points to the fact that " young trees are almost always 

 seriously retarded in their growth by the heavy cover of the 

 older specimens. For this reason the rings of annual growth 

 formed during early life are muchcloser together than the later 

 ones. In endeavoring to count the rings of stumps standing 

 on the right-of-way near Lake Lilla, I was often unable to sep- 

 arate those of the first fifty or one hundred years, even with a 

 glass. I found no Maple or Birch whose inner rings could be 

 counted, and but one Beech. This tree was twenty-eight 

 inches in diameter at four feet from the ground, and some- 

 what over two hundred years old. A Hemlock of seventeen 

 inches diameter on the stump was two hundred and ninety- 

 two years old. Spruce-stumps, on which all the rings were far 

 enough apart to be counted, were also exceptional. One butt 

 log, with a diameter of seventeen inches, was two hundred 

 and eighteen years old. This tree had evidently been stunted 

 by the shade of older hard w^oods. It is remarkable that the 

 finest Spruce, that on the hard-wood ridges, must have passed 

 through this period of repression before making its principal 

 growth. By cutting away the merchantable hard woods, which 

 are suppressing the young Spruces jover a large portion of the 

 park, their rate of growth may be enormously increased. For 

 example, two young Spruces, eight inches in diameter, which 

 had grown among others of the same age, and, therefore, 

 with a comparatively abundant supply of light and air, were 

 but fifty-two and sixty years old, although almost twice the 

 diameter of another tree one hundred and twenty-one years old. 



" The power of natural regeneration of all the trees which I 

 have mentioned, with the single important exception of White 

 Pine, seems to be amply sufficient for all the purposes of 

 forest-management. The presence of this reproductive power 

 is of the greatest importance. It puts aside at once the diffi- 

 culty and expense of planting and insures a steady improve- 

 ment in the condition and value of the forest. 



"The vigorous and abundant young growth makes it possi- 

 ble to remove mature trees without injury to the forest, and 

 under proper handling will insure the continuance of its pro- 

 ductive power. The constant character of the forest, even in 

 its changes, lends itself easily to the needs of forestry, while 

 the presence everywhere of mature trees over the young 

 growth makes it possible to cut and yet increase the annual 

 growth of wood from year to year. This steady increase in the 

 value of the forest under forest-management is one of the 

 strongest reasons for its introduction. Forest-management 

 will add constantly to the proportion of valuable timbers in the 

 forest, by judicious cutting, without a corresponding abate- 

 ment in the amount of lumber produced. In other words, for 

 a few years the forest will yield slightly more under ordinary 

 lumbering than it will under forest-management, because in 

 the latter case greater care is used, and many trees which 

 would otherwise fall at once must be allowed to stand. After 

 that time the revenue from forest-management will surpass 

 that from lumbering, and will go on increasing indefinitely, 

 while the returns from lumbering methods will as steadily 

 diminish. The profits will certainly pass their lowest point 

 during the first twenty years, and probably during the first ten. 

 Thereafter they will rise with the rise in prices and the grow- 

 ing productive capacity of the forest. Timber-land as produc- 

 tive as this, as safe from fire, and as accessible to the centres 

 of consumption by rail and water, is, in my judgment, one of 

 the best of long investments." 



Mr. Pinchot recommends that this forest should be carefully 

 examined and mapped with a working plan made " with the 

 supposition that it will be best to cut over the same ground a 

 second time at an interval of from twenty-five to forty years." _ 

 Then he would "divide the forest into as many parts as there ■ 

 were years in the period decided on, and assign the land most « 

 in need of cutting to the first year, the second to the second 

 year, and so on ; but in such a way as to make the annual pro- 

 ducfion of timber as uniform as possible." 



The forest managed in this way is expected " to yield a 

 steady annual return, which ought to constitute a fair rate of 

 interest on the investment," and "to increase the value of the 

 forest by favoring the better kinds of trees, so that the market 

 value of the land, as well as the return from the lumber, would 

 increase steadily from year to year." 



In conclusion, Mr. Pinchot discusses Lumbering versus For- 

 estry, as follows : " The statement is often made that it is pos- 

 sible to lumber the same land a second and then a third time 

 at intervals of fifteen or twenty years, and get as good a cut 



