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Garden and Forest. 



[October 22, 1890. 



the world for exotic trees with which to beautify their 

 homes; and California valleys are fast becoming con- 

 verted into groves of Eucalyptus and Acacias, while 

 one looks in vain outside the rapidly disappearing for- 

 ests for the native trees, which are world-wide wonders, 

 and which ought to he the pride of every true Californian. 

 There may be seen, to be sure, at every turn groves and 

 specimens of the Monterey Pine, one of the ugliest of all 

 its race, and of the beautiful Cypress of Monterey. These 

 two trees are almost the most local and restricted of all 

 American trees in natural distribution, but, strangely 

 enough, they are easily propagated and transplanted and 

 grow in cultivation at first with surprising rapidity, so that 

 they are now scattered from Victoria to San Diego. But 

 one looks almost in vain in the gardens of California for 

 the other trees which give character, value and beauty to 

 the forests of the state — the Oaks, the Pines, the Firs, the 

 great Broad-leaved Maple, the Evergreen Laurel, the Man- 

 zanitas, and all the host of smaller trees and shrubs with 

 curious foliage and beautiful flowers. But sooner or later 

 the Californians will appreciate the beauty of their own 

 forests and realize the value of the trees of California for 

 the decoration of the gardens and parks of California, and 

 then the Madrofia will certainly attain the position it 

 deserves among ornamental trees. 



As we recall all the beauty of this marvelous tree seen 

 in some sheltered forest glade of the north-west coast, we 

 recall the words which the venerable Albert Kellogg, who 

 loved the trees of his adopted state so well and studied 

 them so faithfully through long years, once spoke of the 

 Madrofia; and to his question, "whether imagination, fic- 

 tion or fancy can portray to itself a sylvan object more won- 

 derful, more chaste or more charming," we can find no answer 

 but one of negation. 



The Proposed State Forest-Park. 



RECENT articles in the New York Tribune regarding 

 Adirondack matters mention the increase in the 

 price of timber-lands as one of the results already pro- 

 duced by the extension of the railroads in the Adirondack 

 region. This increase is a natural consequence, and has 

 long been foreseen by intelligent observers of the course 

 of things in the northern part of the state. This inevitable 

 advance in prices will render more difficult the acquisition 

 of lands for the proposed State Park or Forest Reservation, 

 but it is an advance which is likely to continue for some 

 time to come. It is not probable that the lands needed for 

 a reservation for the protection of the sources of the great 

 water-ways of the state can ever be acquired more cheaply 

 than now, unless the state waits for more of the land to be 

 burned over and completely desolated and destroyed; but 

 this process would also destroy the rivers which the park 

 is intended to preserve. 



In his message to the Senate last winter the Governor 

 recommended that the limits within which lands are to be 

 retained by the state for the purposes of a state park should 

 be settled and defined, and that they should include the 

 wilder portion of the region covering the mountains and 

 lakes at and around the head-waters of the several rivers 

 which have their sources there, including the Hudson 

 River. This recommendation was referred by the joint 

 action of the two houses of the Legislature to the State 

 Forest Commission, with instructions to make a thorough 

 investigation of the possibilities of such an undertaking, 

 and to report to the Legislature its conclusions thereon, 

 and its recommendations as to the most effective methods 

 to be employed to accomplish the end in view — the estab- 

 lishment of a State Park — together with any pertinent facts 

 within the knowledge of the Commission relating to the 

 general subject of forest-preservation or extension, and 

 also to report the number of acres or square miles of land 

 essential to fulfilling the requirements of a suitable reser- 

 vation or park and the probable cost thereof. 



This is the only plan of action, or suggestion of a plan, 

 looking to the establishment of a state forest-park which 



has been presented to the public. The Commission has 

 been making investigations during the summer, and in its 

 forthcoming report it will, of course, present the main pro- 

 position in an affirmative form. That is, it will recommend 

 the establishment of a state forest-park, so that all those 

 who are in favor of that object can unite in support of the 

 essential idea of the report, which is in every way desirable. 

 Other plans may be proposed after the Commission's re- 

 port has been presented to the Legislature. Full discussion, 

 not only in the Legislature but in the press of the state, 

 will be necessary in order to develop the popular judgment 

 regarding the enterprise. There appears to be an increase 

 of public interest in the subject, and a more general impres- 

 sion than hitherto that something is likely to be done. It 

 is to be hoped that this impression is well founded, and 

 that some plan will be presented in support of which all 

 who feel an intelligent interest in the destiny of the Adiron- 

 dack forest-region can heartily unite. It is not likely that 

 the expectation of the Governor, that "a state park from 

 fifty to seventy miles square can be obtained by the State 

 in that region at comparatively trifling expense," will be 

 realized. The necessary cost of the land of such an area 

 will not be trifling. But it will be less this year than in 

 ten or twenty years from now, and for a possession so 

 valuable as a forest-reservation of this extent around the 

 sources of the principal rivers of the state the people of 

 New York should be willing to pay a reasonable price. 



The annual report of the General Commissioner of the 

 Land Office of the United States has appeared. Judge 

 Groff, the Commissioner, devotes considerable attention to 

 the forest-problem. The means at the disposal of the 

 Secretary of the Interior for protecting the forest-property 

 of the nation is acknowledged to be entirely inadequate ; 

 and it is found that the most valuable timber on the public 

 land is being exterminated unlawfully wherever forests 

 exist. This is not a new discovery. The same thing has 

 been stated more than once in previous reports from the 

 same office ; and it has been a notorious fact for years with 

 all persons familiar with the actual condition of our western 

 forests that, unless energetic measures are adopted for their 

 protection, the practical extermination of these forests is 

 only a matter of time. This subject has been brought to 

 the attention of Congress year after year ; bills looking for 

 forest-preservation have been introduced again and again, 

 and have met with the hearty approval of intelligent men 

 in all parts of the country. Congressional indifference and 

 local opposition from the forest-region, fostered by men 

 directly interested in forest-destruction, have prevented the 

 passage of any proper legislation for the protection of the 

 nation's forests. This is a matter of urgent and command- 

 ing importance to the well-being of the whole country, and 

 it cannot be safely postponed. Delay is danger, and 

 danger which is real and impending, although not always 

 readily understood by persons who are not familiar with 

 the topographical and climatic conditions of the western 

 part of this continent, which must become uninhabitable as 

 soon as the forests which protect the valleys from the 

 heights above them are swept away. 



The use of the army of the United States to protect the 

 national forest-domain until some better plan has been de- 

 vised has been suggested by this journal, and, as yet, no 

 better scheme has been proposed. It promises efficiency and 

 has the advantage of economy. The press of the country 

 and many thinking men sanction it with their approval. 



" Great attention must also be given to the situation in which 

 a building is to stand. A feudal castle in the middle of a 

 wheat field — as at Machern, near Leipzig — is almost comic ; 

 as is an Egyptian pyramid in a gay Birch grove or a pastoral 

 landscape, or a thatched hut surrounded by a French parterre. 



" In the same way pointed Gothic architecture appears out of 

 place when set among pointed Firs or Lombardy Poplars, 

 while it is in place among round-headed Evergreens or Oaks 

 and Beeches." — From Piickler-Muskau's " Andeutungen iiber 

 Lajidsch afts-garttierei. ' ' 



