426 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 3, 1890. 



in the gardens of Europe, and a few of them, like the Vine 

 Maple, do fairly well in those of this country. It is possi- 

 ble to hope, therefore, that when the secret of the success- 

 ful method of cultivating- this western Dogwood has been 

 discovered, an ornamental tree of the first class will be 

 given to our plantations. 



This species grows from British Columbia to the moun- 

 tains of southern California. It attains its greatest size in 

 western Oregon and Washington Territory, and the trav- 

 eler through the great Fir-forests of that region at the time 

 of year when the Dogwoods are in flower will never forget 

 the impression upon his imagination which their appear- 

 ance creates. 



The Treatment of Trees in Drought. 



WHENEVER there is a severe drought in New 

 England the newspapers tell us that the great Elms 

 in various towns have died, and that the street officers are 

 about to cut them down. But it takes more than one 

 summer's drought to kill an Elm that was growing vigor- 

 ously when the dry weather began. Drought often kills 

 trees the first summer after they are planted, and when 

 they are dead beyond doubt they might as well be cut 

 down or dug up to make room for others. But if a tree 

 that has been for some years firmly rooted is so afflicted and 

 starved by drought as to lose all its leaves in midsummer, 

 that is not a sufficient reason for cutting it down. It may 

 die the following year if nothing is done for its relief, but 

 the rains of the coming winter and spring would probably 

 revive it. A tree which is supposed to be killed by drought 

 should never be cut down before the opening of the summer 

 of the next year. 



But a tree which gives signs of perishing by drought 

 ought to receive sympathy and assistance. The wilting, 

 turning yellow and falling of the leaves are signals of dis- 

 tress. Usually the tree is starving. It cannot assimilate 

 and appropriate solid substances, and as there is no water 

 to dissolve its food it can neither eat nor drink, and has 

 no means of sustaining its life. But a tree of vigorous 

 constitution, growing in its native soil, will endure a long 

 and severe fast. Of course it will not grow while it is 

 starved, and in time its constitution will be impaired, its 

 strength will give way and it will die. But it should not 

 be cut down because it is having a hard trial. 



The trees that are soonest injured by drought have in 

 most cases nearly exhausted the soil in which they stand. 

 The treatment required is not merely a supply of water, 

 but an improvement of the soil. Grass and weeds should be 

 removed from the ground about the tree as far as the roots 

 extend, and either rich loam or manure of a suitable kind 

 should be copiously applied and partially incorporated with 

 the surface stratum. If enough water is then given it from 

 time to time to dissolve the new supply of food, the tree is 

 likely not only to live, but to grow much more vigorously 

 than before. Great numbers of trees in our towns grow 

 very slowly, become enfeebled and perish at last, not on 

 account of drought alone, but because of exhaustion of the 

 soil and an inadequate food supply. The people of a town 

 ought not to remain comfortably indifferent while the noble 

 trees which embower their daily walks are starving to 

 death. They should take measures for their relief. Very 

 often it would be better not to plant so many trees unless 

 they are taken care of afterward. In many instances, 

 Arbor-Day planting is the ceremonious murder of beautiful 

 young trees, which are put into the ground with songs and 

 orations, and are, apparently, not thought of afterward. 



The groups of large trees will usually be accompanied by 

 shrubs to connect them with the lawn : Rhododendrons and 

 other pendent evergreens are very useful for such purpose, 

 when the turf being carried under them leaves no cutting line 

 of border. Shrubs should not be accompanied in the same 

 bed by such flowers as require digging, the line of border 

 above mentioned destroying that repose and that variety of 

 form which ought to characterize the former. — W. S. Gilpin's 

 " Practical Hints," London, 18 J2. 



California Forests and Irrigation. 



XT O other part of the United States has so much at stake in 

 -L ' any proposed system of irrigation as California. Farther 

 north there is more rainfall, and farther south and east there 

 has been little done as yet, in horticulture, and while the min- 

 ing and pastoral communities in those regions have much to 

 gain from almost any attempt at irrigation, they have less to 

 lose from hasty experiments or reckless legislation. As the 

 traveler comes westward from the valleys and plains of Colo- 

 rado and Utah, the gardensof the Rockies, he sees in Nevada, 

 as in much of New Mexico and Arizona, a land indeed arid, 

 but nevertheless a land that can wait if need be. Few wheat- 

 fields and vegetable farms and no great commercial orchards 

 and vineyards are yet established in this vast territory. It is 

 chiefly the great American speculator who urges the immedi- 

 ate expenditure of millions of dollars to restore fertility to this 

 Sahara of the continent. There is no need of haste; let the 

 work be done as increasing population presses hard on its 

 food supply. 



But California has a different claim. She has developed by 

 a marvelous chain of circumstances a group of great indus- 

 tries that depend not partly nor temporarily, but absolutely 

 and forever upon two things: (1) the permanence of the re- 

 maining forests upon her mountains and (2) the adoption of 

 the most perfect system of irrigation under the best laws that 

 human skill and experience can devise. Unlike Nevada, Ari- 

 zona, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, this 

 great commonwealth has already established orchards and 

 vineyards, which represent potentially the most important 

 horticultural investment in the world, and every new fire in 

 the Sierra Pines, every new logging camp in the Redwoods, 

 every day's delay in the passage of laws to withdraw from entry 

 all the timber-lands that yet remain, is as much a blow at 

 vine and tree in the valleys as if the axe were actually laid at 

 their roots. 



While the thirteen American colonies were fighting King 

 George, theSpanish settlers of California were planting vines and 

 Olive trees, avenues of Pear, Fig and Orange, and establishingat 

 more than a hundred mission villages and " ranchos " planta- 

 tions that a century later were to become gardens of beauty 

 and broaden into thousands of acres of fruit trees and vines. 

 With few exceptions these old Spanish homesteads are the 

 centres of the famous horticultural districts of the present time. 

 Spain, Italy, Portugal and Mexico gave of their best to the 

 gardens of the past, and the course of the ultimate growth of 

 California was decided by that gift. The " gold rush " and the 

 placer mining episode were merely a summer or two of camp- 

 ing in the foot-hills and splashing in the bright Californian rivers. 

 When " the boys " came back from the mountains, there were 

 the mission wheat-fields to bid them break the broad Sacra- 

 mento plains; there were the mission vines and orchards to 

 show them the real work of the future. Then they planted 

 15,000,000 fruit-trees and 15,000,000 grape vines. That, at 

 least, is what they have to-day, after numberless experiments, 

 and having utilized the greater part of the lands that under ex- 

 isting conditions are perfectly well adapted to horticulture, 

 they begin to look abroad over their own wheat fields and 

 pastures, which have the soil and climate required, but need 

 security of another sort. Some of the orchards and vineyards 

 are on " sand plains," once covered with Artemisia and Cactus, 

 but reclaimed by irrigation. Most of them, however, have 

 merely taken the place of Willow "bottoms," Oak-forests and 

 miles of tangled mountain shrubs, and the actual leaf-surface 

 is hardly greater in any of the valleys than it was before the 

 orchards were planted. 



Meanwhile the forests have been cleared at a rate which has 

 never been surpassed in any community of equal size. Wood 

 is almost the only building material in use in California. There 

 are a few buildings of brick and stone, but these are but the 

 exceptions to the rule. Then, too, the great mining opera- 

 tions have used up the forests with frightful speed. There are 

 miles of flumes, miles of timbering and flooring, and " blocks " 

 in tailing races, all cut from the best part of the trunks, with 

 the rest left to perish. The Comstock mines have used up 

 timber enough to build a city. Every smelter's furnace clears 

 off acre after acre, usually taking only "fine milling lumber." 

 The building of the stamp mills requires an amount of timber 

 that astonishes the visitor. When a miner takes up a claim he 

 first assures himself that water and wood are in the vicinity, 

 without which it cannot be worked. No one who only 

 knows the ordinary wastage of forests in other regions can 

 have any adequate conception of the enormous and in- 

 creasing requirement of the miner's pursuit. If the forests 

 were withdrawn from sale, put under capable control, 



