47° 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 24, 1890. 



color, and, curiously, have less of the rambling tendency at the 

 roots so characteristic of both of the above named varieties. 

 They are both propagated by underground stolons, which 

 ramble in all directions ; and as the old stool dies annually one 

 not familiar with this habit would conclude early in the season 

 that the plants were lost. They are perfectly hardy, however, 

 though disliking too much wet. 



Helenium autumnale. — This showy yellow Composite is daint- 

 ily sketched by Mr. Gibson in the current number of Harpe7~'s 

 Magazine. It is so seldom seen in cultivation that attention should 

 be called to its beauty and merits as a plant for the back border, 

 where in August and September its many-branched heads of 

 golden yellow flowers are very bright and attractive. The plant 

 is a vigorous grower, four to live feet tall and a profuse bloomer. 

 The individual flowers are from one and a half to two inches 

 in diameter, entirely golden yellow, with a round button-like 

 disc, from the lower half of which the flat, blunt petals slightly 

 droop. Like many of our native plants, this Sneezewort is 

 more appreciated abroad than at home. A dwarf variety is 

 offered as H. pimiilum, which is said to be an improvement 

 on the type. My plants are seedlings from this variety, but 

 apparently not true, as they differ little from H. autumnale, 

 except in being somewhat improved in cultivation. 



Desmodium penduliflorum, now in bloom, is one of the most 

 graceful habited of hardy herbaceous plants, with a beautiful 

 combination of flowers and foliage, though quite unattractive 

 earlier in the season, when the leaves have an ugly habit of 

 folding together in all dry spells. The flowers are a bluish 

 red, but even with this drawback the plant is well worth grow- 

 ing for its distinctness and contrast to the usual showy au- 

 tumnal flowers. 



Elizabeth, N. J. G. 



The Forest. 



Preserving Small Forests. 



THE greatest obstacle in the way of securing efficient action 

 for the preservation of the public timber-lands arises from 

 the lack of personal interest in the work. The public forests 

 are spread out over a wide extent of territory ; their character 

 and condition are only partially known to the mass of those 

 living near them, while the bulk of the people resident at a 

 great distance from them know hardly anything about them 

 and feel little interest in them. It is only the comparatively 

 few who take broad views of things and feel that what concerns 

 the public concerns them, and so are ready to make the public 

 interest their own. 



In the case of private forests there is no lack of personal 

 interest. But the difficulty here is that the interest is so 

 limited in duration that there is no adequate motive for a 

 proper forest-management, while the limited extent of indi- 

 vidual holdings usually prevents any such continuity of wood- 

 lands as will secure the best forest-results. Our system of land- 

 tenure is such, and the habit of the people such, that any 

 parcel of land may pass into the possession of a new owner at 

 any time. The prospect of pecuniary gain or relief from a 

 pecuniary exigency, however temporary, is enough usually to 

 occasion the transfer of land from one to another, and most 

 land-owners in this country hold their lands in the conscious- 

 ness of such uncertain and limited tenure. Of course, the 

 motive for planting or properly caring for woodland is 

 correspondingly weak. Then, also, the length of time requi- 

 site to bring trees to their maturity operates as a discourage- 

 ment to effort or outlay in planting or managing forests. The 

 planter stands dismayed before the slowly rounding cycles of 

 the Oak or the Pine. If we had a system of entails it might be 

 different. Then one would feel that though his own life 

 might soon come to an end his efforts and expenditures on 

 his estate would not be wasted, but would accrue to the bene- 

 fit of his family, his children and his children's children. 



What is needed in our country, therefore, for the most suc- 

 cessful dealing with trees in masses, with forests, is a person- 

 ality whose life is as lasting as that of the trees themselves. 

 The nation is such a personality. It lives on without any 

 assignable or necessary limit to its duration. Hence the 

 nation or state can care for the forests in the best manner and 

 use them to the greatest advantage and with the highest pro- 

 fit in all respects, as is seen by the forest-management of 

 European countries. So, also, there are lesser communities 

 having such an unlimited duration of life, such as counties, 

 towns, parishes and precincts. So, likewise, there are various 

 corporations created by law which have no necessary limit to 

 their life. Trust companies and guilds of many kinds are 

 such. They can properly undertake any enterprise, no matter 



how much time it may require for its accomplishment. To 

 such an unlimited life to grow a forest, even of Sequoias, is no 

 more than for an ordinary person to grow a crop of Corn. 



Why may we not a vail ourselves of this larger, longer life for the 

 establishment of forests something like the communal forests 

 so frequent in Europe ? While encouraging every farmer and 

 land-owner to preserve a portion of his existing woodland and 

 to plant shelter-belts, at least, why may not our counties and 

 towns as such establish and maintain forests ? In many of our 

 counties and in many of our towns there are tracts of land, 

 sometimes of large extent, often comparatively small, but 

 many in number, which are unfit, perhaps, for ordinary culti- 

 vation, because they have a stony soil or are swampy and not 

 easily drained, or lie upon steep hill-sides. As they are now 

 they do not yield more than enough to pay the taxes assessed 

 upon them. But while thus unprofitable in their present con- 

 dition they could all be profitably used for the growth of for- 

 ests; and why should not the county or the town — that is, the 

 whole people in their corporate capacity — utilize such tracts by 

 taking them out of their present unprofitable condition and 

 devoting them to a remunerative forest-growth ? In many 

 cases such tracts would be given to the county or the town; 

 in any case they could be bought at a very low price. Where 

 there are several small patches of woodlands, or lands partly 

 wooded, but separated from one another, these isolated 

 wood-lots are useful now only for their small yield of fuel and 

 inferior timber. If they were in the possession of the county 

 or the town they could be combined, the necessary connecting 

 land also being taken, so as to form such a continuous stretch 

 of woodland as to possess more or less of the qualities of a 

 forest, exerting climatic and other influences. Such a forest 

 would also warrant better management and be more produc- 

 tive than smaller parcels. From time to time, also, the county 

 or town could extend this forest-area by gift or by purchase, 

 as the private person adds to his land, and as is done, in the 

 case of their larger forests, by the European states. 



Another advantage which would be gained by the town or 

 county forest-system would be the more efficient protection 

 of such forests. They would be protected from fire and other 

 injury as no strictly private forest or forest belonging, to the 

 General Government would be ; for the whole community 

 would have an interest in watching them as their personal 

 property; for every citizen would be an owner, and if fire 

 should by any chance break out in such a forest, every one 

 would be prompt to assist in extinguishing it. 



Such forests could be cared for and maintained at a mini- 

 mum of expense and a maximum of profit. This would be as 

 the result of the general law, that a large business is more 

 economically managed, proportionally, than a small one. The 

 proprietor in this case, the town or county, or trustees orother 

 corporate person, would always be able to command the 

 requisite labor at the proper time. The work would be done 

 under no such stress for immediate results as often urges the 

 private land-owner ; therefore the work would be done the 

 more cheaply. If an existing woodland or several tracts were 

 thus taken in hand, the necessary thinning could often be 

 secured with little or no outlay of money. 



There can be little doubt that a fair rate of interest on such 

 an investment as this could be secured. Examples of the 

 management of such limited and local forests abroad indicate 

 this very plainly, while the sanitary influence upon adjacent 

 agricultural lands would also properly be taken into account, 

 and their general climatic effect, whenever they were of con- 

 siderable extent. 



Such forests would also incidentally become valuable as 

 experiment stations, where many kinds of trees would be 

 tested on whatever varieties of soil and exposure the grounds 

 might furnish, and thus every landholder around might learn 

 much as to what trees it would be most desirable for him to 

 plant on his own premises. 



A nursery would also, naturally, be a part of the equipment 

 of such a forest, for the purpose of rearing trees to fill the 

 places of those cut from time to time. And this might easily 

 be made a source of revenue, by the sale of young trees to the 

 land-owners of the town or adjacent region. 



Finally, such a forest might have a value over and above 

 any of a pecuniary kind, by being made a place of pleasant 

 resort for the whole community — a place of special meetings 

 on various occasions and of healthful recreation at any time. 

 Thus the people would cultivate their forest, and it in turn 

 would cultivate them, developing in them a taste for natural 

 objects, opening their eyes to new beauties and new sources 

 of delight, binding them together in society and endearing to 

 them theirdwelling-placemoreand more with the passingyears. 



Washington, D. C. N. H. Eglestotl. 



