February 12, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



81 



in the open air, four or five weeks earlier — that is, about the 

 second week in March — with me. The plants form a low 

 mass of palmate, much-divided leaves, and the deep blue 

 flowers are from three-fourths of an inch to an inch in diame- 

 ter. Iris Bakeriana, a native of Kurdistan, was introduced by 

 me only two years ago. Treated in the same way as the Ane- 

 mone, it will flower at the same time. It is a near relative of 

 I. reticulata, has lavender standards, white falls blotched 

 with blue, and a deep blue-black tongue. It is powerfully 

 violet-scented when the sun shines upon it, and is very beau- 

 tiful on account of the harmonious coloring of the flower. 



Baden-Baden. Max LeichtlUl. 



Correspondence. 



Forestry Matters in New Hampshire. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The Forestry Commission has held two public hear- 

 ings — one at Littleton, in the heart of the mountain summer 

 resort region, the other in Manchester, the largest city of the 

 state. The leading men of Littleton attended, with many 

 from adjacent towns, and there was a large and spirited meet- 

 ing. After brief addresses by members of the Commission 

 there was a general expression of interest in the preservation 

 of the forest scenery as the chief attraction for summer visit- 

 ors. The importance of good roads and of keeping the road- 

 sides and adjacent forests in an attractive condition was urged, 

 and a plan was suggested for the employment of an equipped 

 organization of firemen in each town, under the direction of a 

 state officer, the men to be paid when in actual service fight- 

 ing forest fires. Most of those present seemed to think favor- 

 ably of judicious and limited action by the state, but the main 

 emphasis was upon the necessity of individual effort and the 

 importance of action by the towns of the region in improving 

 the local conditions, and thus making the mountain country 

 more interesting and agreeable to visitors. 



Some of the men who had all their lives been familiar with 

 the mountain woods, emphasized the fact that fishing is one of 

 the principal attractions for many men from the cities, and that 

 cutting off the forest at once puts an end to the fishing through- 

 out the area thus uncovered. As the fish can live and thrive 

 only in the shade, they leave the streams at once when the sun 

 is let in and warms the water. 



At Manchester the manufacturers, merchants, lawyers, 

 bankers and newspaper men of the city were well repre- 

 sented, and there were many farmers from remote towns. 

 Some of these had had experience in tree planting, and the 

 meeting was much interested in their description of methods 

 and results. The love of trees and feeling of delight in them, 

 without which it is so difficult to do anything in forestry mat- 

 ters, was very manifest at this hearing, and if those who are 

 thus vitally interested can be brought into co-operation with 

 each other something may be accomplished. 



There is more intellectual movement in New Hampshire of 

 late than for many years before, more thought about the gen- 

 eral interests of the people of the state. The agitation regard- 

 ing forestry subjects and the discussion about abandoned farms 

 mutually stimulate each other. It happens that circumstances 

 bring home to us here with unusual directness the close rela- 

 tion between good taste, beautiful scenery and the qualities of 

 an advanced civilization on the one hand, and the means of 

 subsistence on the other. This is the situation in briefest 

 terms — while our mountain forest-scenery is preserved it at- 

 tracts multitudes of visitors, and sustains a summer resort 

 business which brings into the state perhaps two millions of 

 dollars every year. This revenue goes into general circula- 

 tion and thus benefits the whole state. But if .the forests are 

 destroyed there will be no beauty or attraction here for any- 

 body. The tourists and boarders will go elsewhere, and our 

 mountain hotel property will be worthless. 



But the owners of forest-lands do not keep boarders ; they 

 depend on the sale of their timber for their means of subsist- 

 ence. So here are conflicting interests. The only way out 

 that appears practicable is for the lumbermen to cut off the 

 woods by an orderly method and system, not all at once, 

 " smack and smooth," as the axeman's phrase is, but by tak- 

 ing- out the large timber and leaving all below a certain size to 

 grow for another crop. Handled in this way the forests will 

 yield perpetual revenues. The lumbermen can be always cut- 

 ting, and yet forest conditions will never be destroyed. The 

 ineffable charm of the mountain scenery will be permanent. 

 The myriads of visitors will return year after year, and suc- 

 cessive generations of their families will seek a summer 

 dwelling among our hills. 



The danger is that we shall not adequately appreciate the 

 necessity of popular education in the broadest sense of the 

 term, of the general propagation of right ideas regarding the 

 facts of the case, and all the interests and relations involved. 

 It is indispensable that the lumbermen and owners of timber 

 lands should be engaged and interested in the movement for 

 the preservation of forest conditions in the White Mountain 

 region. The lumberman's right under the law to do what he 

 will with his own is invincible. If he should not help us, but 

 stand stubbornly on his right to cut off his own timber in his 

 own way, and to make a desert of his own domain if he 

 chooses, we should accomplish very little. We must secure 

 his co-operation, or the practical results of our efforts will be 

 but slight. 



Franklin Falls, N. H. J. B. Harrison. 



A Late African Novelty. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I notice in your excellent paper for January 29th an 

 account of that much bespoken novelty, Kalanchoe carnea, 

 which impels me to say that a reasonably extensive 

 experience leads me to consider it one of the least satisfac- 

 tory introductions of the last thirty years. Beauty is not a 

 quality either of its flowers or its foliage. The color of both 

 is washed out and mawkish, the perfume of the flowers is 

 agreeable but weak, though of the many exaggerated state- 

 ments that have been circulated concerning the plant, the 

 common account of its fragrance is perhaps the least beyond 

 the truth. 



I enclose a photograph of the plants of Kalanchoe that have 

 been cultivated in my greenhouses, so that you can see that I 

 do not speak without knowledge ; and my advice to other 

 cultivators is to choose some other subject for hope and 

 experiment. C. A. Dana. 



New York. 



Spanish Moss in Northern Tennessee. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In August of last year, while engaged in geological 

 work along the Cumberland River, I came across a locality 

 where the beautiful, pendent tufts of Tillandsia usneoides 

 abound. It is on the face of a great limestone bluff which 

 overhangs the river, and has a full southern exposure. The 

 bluff, known to boatmen as the " Checkered House Bluff," is 

 something more than two miles below Cumberland City, in 

 Stewart County, Tennessee, and about fifty miles a little 

 north of west from Nashville. The face of the bluff has a 

 scattered growth of Cedar, Oak and other plants upon it, and 

 the trees over a large area are richly ornamented with the 

 drapery of this hanging and luxuriant plant. 



Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. J. M. Safford. 



Vegetables Under Glass in New Jersey. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir.- — It is not an easy matter to find Jobstownon the map of 

 New Jersey, although the place has been made famous for 

 years by the Rancocas stock-farm, from which Parole, Iroquois 

 and many another thoroughbred has gone out to carry the 

 Lorillard colors to victory. The visitor who is now so fortu- 

 nate as to be shown through the great stables by McLaughlin 

 will find the day too short to listen to the history of the purple- 

 blooded celebrities in their stalls and watch the graceful move- 

 ments of the youngsters at their exercise. There is not so 

 much to stir the blood in the greenhouses, which stretch away 

 in a continuous line for nearly 1,000 feet, but in them one can 

 see what is perhaps the most successful experiment in this 

 country, on a scale of such magnitude, in raising vegetables 

 for market under glass. This business is carried on by Mr. 

 John G. Gardner, who was the gardener in charge of the estab- 

 lishment here, when it was the custom to furnish its owners 

 in their city home with melons, pineapples and strawberries, 

 green corn and peas — in short, from twelve to fifteen kinds of 

 "home-grown" fruit and vegetables for Christmas dinner. 

 Mr. Gardner now rents the houses and turns his experience 

 and skill to good account in producing fruits and vegetables 

 of the highest quality, and commanding, of course, the highest 

 prices. 



It was on the 5th of February when I made my pilgrimage 

 to Jobstown, but the Swamp Maples were red with bloom on 

 the banks of the Delaware ; the narrow ribbon of green grass 

 along the water-courses was broadening out and invading the 

 brown stubble in the meadows, and forehanded farmers were 

 plowing in the uplands. As I stepped from the cars I heard 



