May 28, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



257 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted bv Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE l'OST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles:— The Preservation of Natural Scenery.— The Pine Supply 



of the United States 257 



The Major Oak. (Illustrated.) 258 



Forestry and Economics 258 



Horticultural Education Professor L. H. Bailey. 259 



Plans for Small Places. (Illustrated.) F. L. . 259 



Notes on North American Trees. — XV) I Fro/essor C. S. Sargent. 260 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. Watson. 260 



Cultural Department:— Orchard Experiences. — V T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 262 



Notes on Shrubs J. G. J. 262 



Spring Flowering Iris F. IV. Burbidge. 264 



N otes on American Plants /•'.//. Ilorsford. 264 



Hardy Plants for Cut Flowers.— VI E. O. Or/>et. 264 



Seasonable Hints, The Flower Garden P. O. 265 



The Forest :— Forestry in Northern Ohio J. IV. Pike. 265 



Recent Publications 266 



Correspondence:— Orchids in New Brunswick, New Jersey A. Dimmock. 267 



The Rest of Plants Maxwell T. Masters, M.D. 267 



Notes 267 



Illustrations: — Outline Plans of Four Small Places, Fig. 39 261 



The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest 263 



The Preservation of Natural Scenery. 



THAT pleasing natural scenery has a positive value of 

 its own is a proposition which will hardly be disputed, 

 and yet few persons seem to realize that, if this is true, the 

 destruction of such scenery must be a loss to the common 

 wealth. Occasionally a community comes to understand 

 that a placid, forest-bordered lake or a mountain stream 

 tumbling through a gorge is not only a delightful posses- 

 sion, but gives an additional pecuniary value to all sur- 

 rounding property. Now and again we hear of a rural 

 community which, without any sordid motive, forms a 

 generous trust to purchase some charming natural object 

 to protect it from being vulgarized or destroyed, and to 

 hold it free for public enjoyment forever. The preserva- 

 tion of Chittenango Falls (see vol. ii., page 373) affords 

 a conspicuous example of this enlightened public spirit 

 which cherishes natural beauty as an inheritance which 

 should, if possible, be handed down without impairment to 

 posterity. As a rule, however, no organized effort is put 

 forth to protect these picturesque places from invasion, and 

 one by one, especially in the more thickly settled parts of 

 the country, the axe and fire, or the equally destructive 

 holiday picnic, is robbing them of every element which 

 makes them poetic or refreshing to the spirit. 



A few weeks ago Mr. Charles Eliot invited attention in 

 these columns to several fragments of the primitive New 

 England wilderness which still survive within ten miles 

 of the Boston State House. One of these is the steep 

 moraine, upon which are grouped the great Waverly Oaks 

 (page 85) ; another is the remnant of a Pine-wood ; a third 

 is a dark stream, over which, from rugged banks, hangs a 

 forest of Hemlocks, and there are other bits of scenery 

 equally characteristic and attractive. But even if there 

 was a manifest desire to save these and other examples of 

 unsophisticated nature, it would be difficult to do so under 

 existing laws. The Chittenango Reservation was author- 

 ized by special act of the Legislature, although in this 



state a general law has been enacted to provide for a body 

 corporate with the power of succession, and authority to 

 acquire lands and hold them forever for public use. A 

 movement is now on foot in Massachusetts to "facilitate 

 the preservation and dedication to public enjoyment of 

 such scenes and sites as possess uncommon beauty or his- 

 torical interest," under the auspices of the Appalachian 

 Mountain Club. The scheme looks to the establishment 

 of a Board of Trustees empowered to acquire parcels of 

 real estate, and to hold them, free of taxes, open to the 

 public. It was in the interest of this movement that a 

 noteworthy meeting was held in Boston on Saturday last, 

 at which a committee was appointed to perfect a plan 

 under which it is hoped that private generosity will be able 

 to rescue from danger many scenes of natural beauty and 

 hold them for the enjoyment of coming generations. 



The Yosemite Valley, the Yellowstone Park, the Niagara 

 Reservation are examples of what government may at- 

 tempt in this direction; but still more effectual than govern- 

 ment aid would be an enlarged appreciation by the great 

 body of the people of the soothing and uplifting value of 

 beauty and grandeur in natural scenery. Such an appre- 

 ciation would manifest itself not only in securing land for 

 city parks or in saving to some town its deep glen, cool 

 with falling water, tree-shaded and fern-embroidered. It 

 would ensure for the parks proper planning and main- 

 tenance, and for the glen not only the mere preservation of 

 its native graces, but the addition of a new charm to every 

 feature by skillful and reverent treatment. It would be felt 

 not only in a few isolated acres specially guarded by law, 

 but over the whole face of the country. It would protect 

 many a mountain slope from being scarred by railroads, 

 when they could have been constructed as well without 

 defacement of the scenery. It would be seen in the 

 preservation of every pleasing prospect and in the treat- 

 ment of every country roadside. But until there is a pub- 

 lic conscience to protest against the obliteration of natural 

 beauty wherever found, these efforts to save a little here 

 and there deserve the active and hearty co-operation of all 

 forward-looking and public spirited citizens. 



In a recent communication on the proposed changes in 

 our tariff on lumber made to the Canadian Journal of Com- 

 merce, Mr. William Little, of Montreal, one of the best in- 

 formed lumber-men of America, discusses the present con- 

 dition of the standing pine in the states of Michigan, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota, once the chief source of the 

 pine supply of the United States, and reaches the conclu- 

 sion that the great White Pine-forests of this country have 

 vanished practically for all commercial purposes. He takes, 

 as an illustration of his position, the Pine-forests of the 

 lower peninsula of Michigan, in which it was estimated by 

 the officers of the United Slates Census that there were 

 standing in 1880 29,000,000,000 feet of merchantable White 

 Pine. In 1889 the editor of the Chicago Timberman made 

 an investigation of the merchantable pine standing in the 

 same region and found only 3,000,000,000 feet. Some of 

 this was cut last winter, so that, if these figures are correct, 

 there is not now pine enough in the lower peninsula to ' 

 supply the saw-mills of the state for more than six months. 

 It should be remembered, however, as Mr. Little points 

 out, that there are still left gleanings from third or fourth 

 cut burnt-over stump-lands which produce grades of lum- 

 ber of very inferior quality, some Red Pine and some infe- 

 rior Hemlock, which may keep the mills running for a 

 short time. 



Mr. Little then assumes that it is fair to suppose that the 

 census estimates of pine standing in Minnesota, Wiscon- 

 sin and the upper peninsula of Michigan were as nearly 

 correct as experience has shown those of the lower Michi- 

 gan peninsula to have been, and, taking the census figures 

 of 55,170,000,000 and deducting the amount which has 

 been cut during the last ten years, 37,451,341,338 feet — the 

 figures recently prepared by the North-western Lumberman 

 — he finds only about 20,000,000,000 feet standing in the 



