January 8, 1890. j 



Garden and Forest. 



13 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 





















ENTERED A* 



i SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW 



YORK, N. V. 



NEW 



YORK, 



WEDNESDAY, 



JANUARY 8, 



l8C)0. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Lditorial Articles: — The Forests on (he Public Domain 13 



Down the Rhone. — I Mrs. Sckuykr Van Rensselaer. 14 



Holiday Notes in Southern France and Northern Italy. — X. 



George Nicholson. 15 



New ok Little Known Plants : — Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens 



(with figure.). C.S.S. 16 



Foreign Correspondence : — New Plants of 18S9.— I IV. Watson 16 



Cultural Department : — Orchard Experiences. — I T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 18 



Celeriac W. H. Bull. 19 



Clipping Currant Clusters Professor B. D. Halstcd 19 



Hakea lamina. — Senecio macroglossus W. 19 



Water Lilies , G. B. 20 



Calanthe Veitchii F. Atkins. 20 



Correspondence : — The Knees of the Bald Cypress (illustrated) 



Robert H. Lamborn. 21 



A Chart of Standard Colors Robert Ridgway. 22 



Magnolia glauca in Massachusetts T. O. Fuller. 23 



The Mild Winter Rev. John E. Peters, S.H.Collins. 23 



Periodical Literature 23 



Notes 2 4 



Illustrations: — Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens, Fig. 3 17 



Denuded Roots of the Bald Cypress, Fig. 4 20 



Hypothetical Cypress 22 



The Forests on the Public Domain. 



THE address by Major J. W. Powell, Director of- the 

 United States Geological Survey, before the Chamber 

 of Commerce of this city, on December 5th, on " Problems of 

 Irrigation," was an eloquent and suggestive discourse. He 

 explained that there are nearly a thousand million acres of 

 arid lands in the United States, or one-half of the area of 

 the country, excluding Alaska. Nearly one hundred and 

 twenty million acres can be irrigated when all the avail- 

 able water is used. More than six million acres are 

 already cultivated by means of canals. The great resource 

 for irrigation is the use of the rivers, and accumulated capi- 

 tal and organized industry are necessary for the construc- 

 tion of reservoirs and other works required. "Capital 

 must come, for the work is demanded and will pay." He 

 thinks it will cost about ten dollars an acre to redeem the 

 arid land, and fifty dollars an acre he regards as a small 

 estimate of its value after it is put under irrigation, and thus 

 the investment of a thousand millions of dollars will yield 

 five times that sum by the redemption of a hundred mil- 

 lions of acres. Where agriculture depends upon irrigation, 

 if there is more land than the water will supply, values 

 inhere in water, not in land, as land without water is without 

 value. 



The arid land, he said, is now mostly in the possession 

 of the general Government, and it is important to determine 

 how the water shall be divided. When all the water of the 

 Arkansas River is utilized it will irrigate only about one- 

 third of the land of the valley. The people of Kansas 

 want this water, and say it should be left in the river chan- 

 nel till it runs down to them, and they are using some of 

 it, and the people of Colorado have taken a large part of it 

 out on their lands. When seasons of drought come they 

 permit no water to flow across the state line, and the agricul- 

 tural property below is threatened with destruction. If every 

 man may take out water as he pleases, the men along the 

 river below are at the mercy of those above them. This is 

 an inter-state problem to be settled by the general Govern- 

 ment. Already there is conflict between farmer and farmer, 

 between different counties and between states. 



In Major Powell's judgment, the foot of the steep slopes, 

 the point at which the river enters the plain, is the place at 



which the water should be taken from the river channel 

 for irrigation. If permitted to flow farther down much of 

 it will be lost by evaporation, and it will take up mud 

 which will choke the reservoirs. The general Government 

 should determine where these waters are to be used, and 

 should exercise supervision in this matter when it disposes 

 of its lands to actual settlers, taking into account the wel- 

 fare of the greatest number of people yet to find homes. 

 Montana and the two Dakotas are interested in the water 

 of the upper Missouri, and there is not enough for all the 

 arid land of the valley. How shall it be divided? The 

 Rio Grande del Norte is, in a part of its course, the boun- 

 dary between this country and Mexico. The division of its 

 water is an international question. 



We quote from a noticeable passage on mountain forests: 



" On the mountains and plateaus of the arid lands great for- 

 ests are found. To a large extent they are composed of conif- 

 erous trees — Pines, Firs, Hemlocks and Sequoias. The plains 

 and valleys below, where agriculture by irrigation is to be car- 

 ried on, are treeless and almost naked of grass. The forests 

 flourish where the rains fall in the regions above, but these 

 forest lands are not agricultural for climatic reasons, as snow 

 and frosts prevent farming in those regions. It is thus that 

 the forest lands and the agricultural lands are severed. They 

 are often far away from each other — tens, scores and hundreds 

 of miles apart. The people below on their farms, and in their 

 villages and cities, require this timber for their domestic use, and 

 they are the people primarily interested. But these farmers have 

 still other interests in the forest lands. The mountains where 

 the forests grow are the catchment areas for the waters which 

 they must use, and, to a large extent, the mountain lakes are 

 natural reservoirs for the waters of irrigation, and many of 

 the mountain valleys must be converted into reservoir lakes 

 by the hand of man. So the management of these forests 

 and forest lands should be in the hands of the men who use 

 the timber and who must control the waters. If they are un- 

 wisely destroyed, the sources of water supply are impaired. 

 Consider how these forests are destroyed. More than two de- 

 cades ago I was camped in the Middle Park, of Colorado. The 

 night was arched with the gloom of snow clouds, so I kindled 

 a fire at the trunk of a great Pine, and in the chill of the even- 

 ing I gazed at its welcome flames. Soon I saw it mount, climb- 

 ing the trunk, crawling among the branches, igniting the rough 

 bark, kindling the cones and setting fire to the needles, until 

 in a few minutes the great forest Pine was all one pyramid of 

 flame, which illuminated a temple in the wilderness domed by 

 a starless night. Soon the fire flakes were borne by the winds 

 to other trees, and the forest was ablaze. On it spread with 

 the winds, and the lingering storm came not to extinguish it. 

 Still on it swept for miles and scores of miles, until more 

 timber was destroyed than has been used by the people of 

 Colorado for the last ten years. It is thus that, under con- 

 ditions of civilization, the great forests of the arid lands are 

 being swept from the mountains and plateaus. 



"The people of this country, witnessing this vast destruction 

 of values and the deterioration of the water sources of arid 

 lands, are appealing to the general Government for a Forestry 

 Commission — the establishment by law of armies of men to 

 protect the forests, and they propose that the general Govern- 

 ment shall engage in timber culture and in the timber busi- 

 ness, holding the lands in the possession of the Government 

 and selling the timber to the people who live below. For this 

 purpose thousands and scores of thousands of men will be 

 needed, a formidable list of offices must be created, and office- 

 holders multiplied. 



"The great forests that clothe the hills, plateaus and moun- 

 tains with verdure must be protected from devastation by lire 

 and preserved for the use of man, that farms may be protected 

 and homes built; and that all this wealth of forestry, those un- 

 born cottages and school-houses may be distributed among 

 the people." 



How is all this to be provided for ? Major Powell says 

 to the general Government, " Hands off! " He would organ- 

 ize the people of each river drainage area, or hydrographic 

 basin, into a great irrigation district, under national and 

 state laws, and then let them make their own laws for the 

 division of the water, for the protection and use of the 

 forests, for the protection of the pasturage on the hills, ami 

 for the use of the water-power : 



"This, then, is the proposition I make: That the entire 

 arid region be organized into natural hydrographic districts, 



