

January 22, 1890.] Garden and Forest 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



37 



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 22, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles: — The Money Value of Rural Improvements. — The Regu- 

 lation of Brush -fires 37 



The Decorative Use of Flowers Mrs. Candace Wheeler. 38 



The Nettle-tree. (With illustrations.) C. S. S. 39 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter , W. Watson. 42 



Cultural Department : — Grafting: S. B. Parsons. 44 



The Rose-beetle A.W.Pearson. 44 



Perennials from Seed E. O. Orpet 45 



Cattleya Dowiana " Calypso." 46 



Correspondence : — Horticultural Notes from California Charles H. Shinn. 46 



The Citizen's Right in Street Trees C. C. Binney. 46 



The Christmas Rose T. E. Francis, M.D. 47 



The Mild Winter Professor W. F. Massey. 47 



Periodical Literature 47 



Notes 48 



Illustrations : — Celtis occidentalis (Mississippi Valley), Fig. 7 39 



Celtis occidentalis (Massachusetts), Fig. 8 40 



Celtis occidentalis (Entire-leaved form). Fig. 9 41 



Celtis occidentalis (Dwarf form). Fig. 10 41 



Celtis occidentalis (Lower Rio Grande), Fig. 11 4j 



Celtis occidentalis (Arizona), Fig. 12 41 



Celtis occidentalis (Coast of Massachusetts), Fig. 13 43 



The Money Value of Rural Improvements. 



ONE of the strongest considerations in favor of pre- 

 serving the forests in mountain regions like those of 

 New Hampshire is that they offer irresistible inducement 

 to people in the city who are looking for summer resorts. 

 Many people have come to consider a summer residence 

 among the hills as essential to their comfort as a winter 

 home in the city ; and the growing practice among those 

 who cannot afford to support more than one establishment 

 of spending some weeks or months away from the confine- 

 ment of city life makes it a matter of importance that pro- 

 vision should be made for those who find health and 

 pleasure in the woods and amid the scenery of wild 

 nature. 



It would be hard to estimate the direct pecuniary advan- 

 tage which a state like New Hampshire derives from this 

 tide of summer travel which flows toward her mountains 

 all summer long. Every one of these visitors, in some 

 way or other, helps the entire community upon which he 

 depends for a certain time each year for his pleasure and 

 subsistence ; and it would not be difficult to prove that the 

 actual and prospective revenue derived from this source is 

 so important that the value of the material products of the 

 forests of the state, even under the wisest management, 

 would be insignificant by comparison. 



But it should not be forgotten that there are thousands 

 of people from the cities who, instead of resorting to 

 mountain and forest regions, or to the shores of the ocean, 

 prefer to spend their summers in quiet country villages and 

 farm-houses. Of course it is quite as much to the interest 

 of rural communities to make their neighborhood attractive 

 as it is for the owners of sea-coast and mountain-land. It 

 is true that this should not be considered as the chief rea- 

 son for efforts to improve the appearance and add to the 

 convenience and comfort of country towns. Societies for 

 rural improvement accomplish a good work when they 

 brighten in any way what is often the dull side of country 

 life. Every attempt to beautify the surroundings of coun- 

 try homes and make them attractive brings its own reward 

 in the happier life of those who inhabit these homes. But 

 apart from this there is a tangible business advantage to be 



gained by country villages when they are made specially 

 attractive to city visitors ; and this profit accrues not to the 

 villages alone, but to all the surrounding region, when the 

 farm-houses are open to paying occupation, and a market 

 is provided for the products of the farm. It happens in 

 this way that to the population of a large district it is a 

 matter of actual profit to have the neighboring villages 

 and towns made attractive. 



The first work in this direction is to improve the roads 

 so that there is some pleasure or at least some comfort in 

 traveling abroad. A visitor who reaches a village over a 

 muddy and rough highway receives no good impression of 

 it, and as the road is also the last thing as well as the first 

 thing which attracts his attention, bad roads are among 

 the most repellant and disagreeable features which any 

 community can present. But where the roads are smooth 

 and hard, with little dust and mud, and where good foot- 

 paths abound, a strong inducement is presented to those 

 who love to pass much time in the open air. Of course 

 this is but one feature of the reform in any community. 

 Shady walks, roadsides clean and bordered with shrubs 

 where this is practicable, farm-yards free from unsightly 

 objects, gardens neatly planted and kept — all these things 

 not only delight the eye as manifestations of beauty and 

 order always do, but they suggest a cleanliness and pro- 

 priety in all the details of life and a proper regard for 

 health and comfort ; they give assurance of good drainage 

 and pure air and all other conditions which make a sojourn 

 in the country desirable and beneficial. 



Now, inasmuch as all the inhabitants of a given district 

 are interested in matters of this sort, combined action is 

 naturally suggested. The influence of personal example 

 is undoubtedly great, and many a man, by the proper 

 ordering of his own grounds, has set a pattern which has 

 been followed by his neighbors until an entire community 

 has been regenerated. But after all, these matters can be 

 much more efficiently carried on if it is done in an organ- 

 ized way. Many a town in New England and in the 

 middle states has become prosperous because wealthy 

 men from distant cities have bought lands near by, which 

 have been transformed into beautiful parks, stocked with 

 well-bred cattle and horses. All this was brought about 

 because in the beginning there was unity of purpose in the 

 community to make the town attractive, and transient 

 guests were induced to become permanent residents. Ex- 

 amples like this should be an encouragement to all country 

 neighborhoods and especially to such as have some natural 

 advantages. There will be no abandoned farms in a region 

 where there is associated effort for rural improvement. 

 Such effort cannot fail, in any event, to add to the com- 

 forts and pleasures of rural life, and it is more than prob- 

 able that it will insure a more substantial return in actual 

 revenue than any other equal outlay in whatever direction 

 it is invested. 



In every state where there is not already a law to that 

 effect, the friends of the forests should, as soon as possible, 

 secure the passage of an Act restricting the time and 

 method of burning brush. Brush fires are the principal 

 cause of damage to the forests in the eastern and thickly 

 settled parts of the country, and it is hopeless to try to 

 check forest fires unless this evil can be restricted. The 

 notion that a man has a right to do as he pleases on his 

 own land would be well enough, perhaps, if one man 

 owned all the land in the country and were its sole in- 

 habitant. Then his doing as he pleased could injure only 

 his own property. When there are but a few people in a 

 great forest region they are naturally apt to acquire the 

 habit of indifference to the consequences of their actions, 

 because there is often no one to be injured by them or to 

 call them to account. As population increases the habits 

 of careless freedom which were formed in earlier times 

 are still followed, but under the changed conditions they 

 work great and increasing injury. 



A man. has no right to liberate a destructive force on his 



