January 15, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



25 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Forests of California. — Scholarships in the Missouri 



Botanical Garden 25 



The Forest Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition. (Illustrated.) 26 



Down the Rhone. — II Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 27 



New or Little Known Plants : — Phalsenopsis F. L. Ames. (With figure.) 28 



Foreign Correspondence : — New Plants of 1889. — II IV. Watson. 28 



Entomological : — A New Elm Insect, Zeuzera pyrina. (With figure.) 



Professor J. B. Smith. 

 Cultural Department: — Rose Notes W. H. Taplin. 



Christmas Roses E. O. Orpet. 



Propagating Chrysanthemums J. N. Gerard. 



The Loquat and the Medlar George E. Walsh. 



Dracaena Lindenii, Ficus elastica variegata, Homalomena Wallisii, 



F. Goldring. 



Sowing Seed C. L. Allen. 



Tuberous-rooted Begonias F. D. H. 



Correspondence: — The Forest-floor B. E. Fernom. 



Mr. Eyerman's Orchids A. Dimmock. 



Game Covers John Foitler, Jr. 



The Mild Winter • 5. C. Mason. 



A Garden Conceit G. H. E. 



Periodical Literature 35 



>f OTES 36 



Illustrations :— Phalsenopsis F. L. Ames, Fig. 5 29 



Zeuzera pyrina, Fig. 6 . 31 



The Forest Pavilion at the French Exhibition 32 



The Forests of California. 



THE memorial to the congress of the United States 

 which has recently been drawn up by the California 

 State Board of Forestry is most interesting as an official 

 statement of the question which more profoundly affects 

 the material welfare of that state than any other; it ' is 

 important also because it sets forth with singular clear- 

 ness of statement the peculiar dangers which beset the 

 mountain forests of that region and the sweeping disasters 

 which must inevitably follow their destruction. The pro- 

 gress and development of many portions of the Pacific 

 states depends almost entirely upon their water supply ; so 

 much so that a failure of this supply would paralyze all in- 

 dustry and involve the entire section in bankruptcy. Min- 

 ing, as at present conducted, can only be carried on where 

 water abounds, and many rich mineral regions along that 

 coast are now unproductive during a large portion of the 

 year on account of an inadequate water supply. It is be- 

 lieved that this inadequate supply is partly owing to the 

 diminution in the volume of many of the streams which 

 head along the slopes and on the crests of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada Mountains and its spurs and that this diminution is 

 directly traceable to the wanton deforestation of these 

 slopes. Many of these mountain lands have passed into 

 private and corporate hands, and this fact multiplies the 

 difficulties of imposing effectual restraints upon the de- 

 struction of timber by fire, by the axe and by the 

 flocks of sheep which are pasturing the life out of the for- 

 ests. Nevertheless there remain among the water sheds 

 of the Sierra Nevada millions of acres of land still owned 

 in fee simple by the United States. These lands are cov- 

 ered with forests to protect the fountains of the streams 

 which furnish the very life-blood to the mining interests of 

 the state, to its agriculture and horticulture, and to its 

 inland commerce by preserving the navigable flow of the 

 Sacramento and San Joachin Rivers. The custody 

 of these lands, a part of the nation's inheritance, 

 most certainly demands wise management, and there- 

 fore the forest officers of California address the gen- 

 eral government with the full assurance that they have a 

 right to ask for these mountain forests as careful steward- 

 ship as that given to the moneys in the public treasury. 



Measures have been undertaken by the general govern- 

 ment to punish marauders for cutting timber on the public 

 domain, and yet it is held that the value and volume of all 

 the timber and fuel that has been stolen in California for 

 twenty years past are a trifle when compared with the 

 standing timber and the growing young forests which are 

 swept away every year by the combined agencies of fire 

 and of sheep. It is not asked that there should be any 

 abatement of energy in the suppression of the minor evil, 

 but it is urged that the government falls short of its duty 

 when it permits, without remonstrance, the obliteration of 

 its forests by mountain fires and the more complete 

 extinction of their young growth by browsing animals, 

 even though it does spend a great deal of money in the 

 prosecution and occasional conviction of some compara- 

 tively petty trespasser. Recognizing the water-storing 

 character of forests and the danger from freshets which 

 their removal will cause, this memorial invites attention to 

 the added peril which will come from the encroachment 

 of the unhospitable climate of the torrid and tree- 

 less districts lying to the south and south-east of the state 

 if the great forests of the north-west coast which help to 

 resist the enlargement of this arid region shall be swept 

 away. 



In view of all these dangers the Board of Forestry sug- 

 gests, in the first place, the temporary removal of the 

 Timber-entry Law in California and the absolute with- 

 drawal from sale of all Federal timber-lands in that state 

 until future surveys have determined the areas and bounda- 

 ries of such tracts as are necessary to insure the integrity 

 of the streams and natural waterways of the state. Again, 

 it is recommended that the timber of such lands when fit to 

 harvest shall be sold, and not the land. For this land the 

 lumberman cares little. He buys so many feet of saw logs 

 to the acre, and he will pay as much for the timber alone 

 as he will for the timber and the land it stands on. Hence 

 in selling the timber alone there is no loss of revenue to 

 the Government, and while the fee of the land remains in 

 the United States such regulations can be imposed for the 

 preservation of the young growth and for the prevention of 

 fires, as will insure the perpetual forest character of the 

 land and secure continuous revenue for the future. It is 

 worth noting that this plan has already been adopted with 

 good results in Canada. The owners of sheep and cattle 

 have so long used and abused the forest-land as a free 

 range that they have come to think they have a special 

 right to pillage the public domain that is denied to people 

 engaged in other pursuits. But since the conviction of a 

 few timber thieves has abated the once thriving industry of 

 lumber-stealing, the same vigorous process would greatly 

 mitigate the theft of pasture and the fires that invariably 

 accompany it. It is also suggested that encouragement 

 should be tendered to those who are willing to plant large 

 tracts of forest on the mountain and foot-hill lands, which 

 are unsuitable for agricultural use, and as a means to this 

 end the establishment of forest experiment stations in the 

 arid districts of Colorado, California, Nevada and Arizona is 

 advised. 



Every one who has had an opportunity to observe the 

 forests of California and to note the influences which are 

 working to curtail them on every side will endorse the con- 

 cluding statement of this memorial : 



The present administration, or rather want of administra- 

 tion, of the Federal timber-lands of this coast, is an arraign- 

 ment of the best intelligence and patriotism of the general 

 government, which a disregard of the enlightened methods 

 of other nations might not alone challenge, but which a due 

 regard to ourselves and posterity does, and which strenuously 

 and exigently calls for reformation and remedial measures 

 that shall check the menace to our immediate and future 

 prosperity. 



It is to be hoped that Congress will not bury this ra- 

 tional and patriotic appeal in the pigeon-hole of some com- 

 mittee room, but that they will give it the deliberate atten- 

 tion which the far-reaching importance of the subject de- 



