April 16, 1S90.] 



Garden and Forest. 



193 



accurate account of what was done at every date and the gen- 

 eral weather conditions at the time, and to this he adds as the 

 season progresses notes relating to the success or failure of 

 crops and the apparent reasons for both. Every one who has 

 an interest in a garden should begin a diary of this sort if this 

 has not already been his practice. A fertile soil in good 

 mechanical condition is the foundation of all success. If 

 manure has not already been provided it will not do to hurry 

 to the nearest stable and buy a supply, for it will be of little 

 use in a garden until thoroughly decomposed so that when it 

 is put on the soil it will be dark colored and without a trace of 

 straw. If the ground has been well enriched in former years 

 bone-meal, guano and chemical fertilizers are of great advan- 

 tage, but these should be used only as adjuncts to well rotted 

 stable manure. Do not begin to dig or plow while the soil is 

 still wet. The ground should never be disturbed until in such 

 a condition that it will easily pulverize; and when it has been 

 plowed or spaded tender vegetable seeds like those of Cucum- 

 bers, Melons, Lima Beans, Okra, Tomatoes or Corn should not 

 be planted in the open ground until warm weather has per- 

 manently come, which will not be in this latitude until about the 

 20th of May. Other vegetables should be planted as soon as 

 possible and the earliest peas should already be in the ground. 

 The American Wonder is the best of the dwarf Peas for 

 family use, but there are some places where this variety re- 

 fuses to grow. The little round peas should never have a 

 place in the home garden. Of the wrinkled varieties Alpha is 

 among the earliest and is of excellent quality. It is a good 

 plan to make one planting of Alpha as soon as the frost is out 

 of the ground, and then a fortnight later to plant at the same 

 time Alpha and some second early like McLean's Premium 

 Gem, Stratagem for later, and Champion of England for the 

 main crop, and these will follow each other in due succession. 

 The season can be prolonged by later plantings of Champion 

 of England. The seed of Beets, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Parsley, 

 Lettuce, Onions, Parsnips, Spinach, together with the roots of 

 Asparagus, Rhubarb and Horse Radish, should be placed in 

 the ground as early as it can be worked. Tenderer plants like 

 Peppers and Egg Plant, which have been sown under glass, 

 should be looked after and thinned out; they need plenty of 

 room and ventilation on warm days so that they can be 

 hardened. Damping off, owing to the excessive moisture and 

 cloudiness this spring, has been a source of great annoyance. 

 The only remedy for this is abundant ventilation and keeping 

 the soil as dry as is consistent with safety. A sprinkling of 

 clean, dry sand over the soil when the trouble first shows 

 itself is beneficial. The covering should be removed from 

 Rhubarb, Asparagus and Spinach and if the soil is dry enough 

 light cultivation should be given to the surface. 



The Flower Border. — Hardy herbaceous plants should be 

 now set out, and so should dormant Roses and other shrubs. 

 Beds of Pansies, Daisies, Forget-me-nots, Auriculas, etc., 

 should be planted out now and they will be in their glory for a 

 month or more. Seed of Sweet Peas, Alyssum, Asters, Candy- 

 tuft, Larkspur, Poppies, Gaillardias, Coreopsis, Sweet William 

 and the whole range of the hardier Mowers can be now sown. 

 Care should be taken to have the ground in hne condition and 

 that the seeds are not buried too deeply. Seeds of the ten- 

 derer plants, if sown in the open ground now, will either rot, 

 or if they do come up will make but feeble growth. 



Bergen, N.J. P. 0. 



Recent Publications. 



The Forests of North America. — I. 



Die Waldungen von Nordamerika, ihre Holzarten, deren 

 AnbaufdJiigkeit und forstlichcr Wcrth fur Eurofta i»i Allge- 

 meinen und Dentschland insbesonders. Von Dr. Heinrich 

 Mayr. M. Rieger, Miinchen, 1890 (New York, Steiger & Co., 

 25 Park Place). 



As the sub-title of Dr. Mayr's " Forests of North America " 

 shows, his chief concern in studying our trees was to estimate 

 their probable utility for economic planting in Europe, and 

 especially in Germany. The author's first journey in this 

 country was undertaken by order of the Bavarian Govern- 

 ment, while he held the position of Privat-docent at the Uni- 

 versity of Munich. The second time he visited our forests he 

 was on his way to Japan to assume the position, which he 

 now holds, of Professor of Silviculture at the University of 

 Tokio. His book, which was written in Japan, is primarily 

 an official report in the interests of the industries of his 

 fatherland. But, with German thoroughness, he has ex- 

 haustively discussed his subject from other points of view as 

 well as from the chief one, and in many respects the work is 



the most important which has yet been published on the 

 forests of our country. It is the first which has embodied the 

 observations and conclusions of a scientific forester, trained 

 in all the knowledge of the schools as well as by personal 

 experience in European woodlands, and able to take a point 

 of view at once thoroughly scientific, and, in the best sense of 

 the word, thoroughly practical. In the brief space here at 

 command it is, of course, impossible really to review such a 

 book. Each page as it is turned seems of special importance; 

 there is no chapter to which justice could be done by a short 

 summary; there is more than one of which the value depends 

 upon its fullness of detail, its wealth of illustrative facts ; and 

 when the would-be reviewer has carefully read the volume 

 his conclusion is that only a translator could fully explain its 

 excellence and significance. So earnest is the author's inter- 

 est, as a friend of our people, in the forests upon which our 

 prosperity largely depends, and so conscientiously and wisely 

 has he pointed out what should be done for their preservation, 

 that he well deserves the honor of a translation. Meanwhile 

 all that can here be done is to give a brief indication of 

 the character and arrangement of the volume, together with a 

 promise that, from time to time, its most interesting portions 

 shall be placed before our readers. 



It is a large and well printed octavo of 450 pages, with twenty- 

 four pictures in the text, and ten separate plates, a map showing 

 the different zones of vegetation in North America, and a chart 

 giving geographical sections, for comparative use, of the 

 North American, the Asiatic and the European continents. 

 Two of the plates show the leaves and fruit of various North 

 American Oaks, three the leaves and fruit of a number of 

 other deciduous trees, one the fruit and foliage of conifers, 

 two the seeds of conifers, one the anatomical structure of the 

 wood of certain conifers, and one a number of the fungi which 

 afflict our trees. 



In the preface Dr. Mayr briefly tells of the inception of his 

 task and the way in which it was prosecuted, renders hearty 

 thanks to all who in this country gave him practical or scien- 

 tific help, and outlines the scheme of his book. The text 

 proper begins with a discussion of the conditions under 

 which forests exist and general remarks upon forest-flora ; 

 and the forests of North America are then described and dis- 

 cussed under different headings. These are : (I.) The Gen- 

 eral Condition of the North American Forests; (II.) The Size 

 and Divisions of the Forests ; (III.) The Products of the For- 

 ests ; (IV.) The Growth and Quality of North American Forest- 

 trees ; (V.) Changes in Forest-Vegetation through the Action 

 of Man ; (VI.) Forestry Efforts in North America ; (VII.) A 

 Special Consideration of the North American Forest-Flora 

 according to Districts and Species; (VIII.) The Behavior of 

 Exotic Species in North America ; (IX.) North American Spe- 

 cies from the Standpoint of their Fitness for Cultivation in 

 Europe and especially in Germany, and (X.) from the Stand- 

 point of their Economic Value to the German Forest ; (XL) 

 Scheme for the Planting and Treatment of North American 

 Species as Trees of the German Forest. The work then con- 

 cludes with a twelfth section or appendix, in which we find 

 information upon the anatomical characteristics of the woods 

 of our conifers ; a scheme for the arrangement of Pines (in- 

 cluding non-American) according to Natural Sections ; tables 

 for the identification of the more important Cupressina by 

 their young branches and cones, and of the North American 

 Pines by their seeds ; a description of the vegetable parasites 

 observed on our forest-trees during the late autumn of 1885 

 and of 1887 ; a list of firms from whom the seeds of American 

 forest-trees may be obtained ; and a few notes and errata. 



Two schemes were open to the writer of a book covering 

 this ground. He might have adopted what we may call a 

 scientific scheme, taking up each species of tree in botanical 

 order and arranging under a single heading all the information 

 he had to give with regard to it. Such a scheme would have 

 been more attractive to the student and lover of trees in them- 

 selves, would have avoided the many repetitions and cross 

 references which now increase the bulk of the volume, and 

 would, we think, have been more easily serviceable to the 

 European forester. But, on the other hand, the method Dr. 

 Mayr has in fact adopted gives what the other scheme would 

 not have given — complete pictures of the forest-flora of our 

 different zones of vegetation. Such pictures the reader would 

 otherwise have had to compile in his mind from a multitude 

 of isolated passages. Now what he has thus to compile is the 

 author's information and opinion with regard to any ojven 

 species which may specially interest him. The scientific stu- 

 dent might have preferred the botanical arrangement; but to 

 the general reader, in any part of the world, the actual one will 

 undoubtedly be more attractive. Nor, in his case, are the 



