November 19, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



559 



of Mesquites, around which the sand had blown into mounds 

 or small hills. Nearer the lagoon the Mock Willows (Pluchea 

 borealis) gave evidence of fresh water, which could, doubt- 

 less, have been obtained at less than twenty feet by digging. 

 Sesuvium portulacastrum and a few other saline plants were 

 also very abundant; but these comprised nearly the whole of 

 the vegetation discovered along Maquata's shores. 



A beautiful mirage led us away from the actual water, and 

 upon learning its delusive character we became skeptical as to 

 the existence of water in any part of the lake. Although I had 

 often seen this phenomenon on the desert I had never before 

 been led astray. In the evening, however, we were enabled to 

 distinguish the true from the false, and found that the eastern 

 part of the lake, for many miles to the southward, actually 

 contained water. On the mesa west oE the lake we made our 

 camp, about three in the afternoon, where there was an 

 abundance of Gietta Grass {Hilaria rigida) for our horses. 

 Leaving my companion to care for the team, I started on 

 foot to search for water in the canons leading down to the 

 desert from the main range of mountains, but failed to dis- 

 cover any up to seven o'clock, when it became too dark to 

 proceed, and I was reluctantly compelled to retrace my steps 

 as best I could. My landmarks, the mountains, were soon in- 

 distinguishable, but taking my bearings from the stars I got 

 back to camp soon after eleven o'clock after an eight hours' 

 tramp. 



Before sunrise in the morning we were again en route to 

 the lake, and after two hours' travel arrived near the edge of 

 the water. With difficulty I reached the water through the 

 soft mud, and found the water so shallow at that place that I 

 had to dig a small hole before 1 could dip up any to taste — 

 and then I found it to be nearly as salt as brine ! 



With our water supply nearly exhausted, the temperature at 105 

 degrees Fahr., and thirty miles from any sure source of water, 

 we considered it only prudent to return to Coyote Wells while 

 we could. For two days our food had consisted mainly of 

 hardtack, and on our return to Coyote Wells the wind pre- 

 vented our cooking a good meal until the following afternoon. 



From Coyote Wells we have moved to Dos Cabesas, where 

 there is an abundance of water, and we are partially sheltered 

 from the wind and rain. It is necessary to pile rocks on the 

 blankets to keep our bed from blowing away with us, and the 

 wind blew my loaded wagon a considerable distance during 

 the night. The sun is shining brightly as I write, but before I 

 finish this sentence the black clouds hanging over us to the 

 westward will have flung us in the shade again. From tropical 

 heat we now find a fire-place a comfort. 



Whether reports concerning New River are equally as trust- 

 worthy as those relative to Lake Maquata we hope to decide 

 later, but it is necessary to haul water for fifty miles at least 

 to settle the question, and to be prepared to return if we do 

 not then find it. These are some of the pleasures of botanical 

 exploration in our great arid regions. 



Dos Cabesas, Colorado Desert. C. R. OrClltt. 



Lumbering in Michigan. 



SIXTY years ago Michigan was almost entirely a wilderness, 

 and a good portion of it was covered with virgin forests. 

 Nearly all of the southern half of the southern peninsula 

 abounded in deciduous-leaved trees, while north of this were 

 large tracts of Pines and other conifers, or a forest of conifers 

 and deciduous trees mixed in varied proportions, or there 

 were some large areas consisting entirely of deciduous trees. 



The pioneer, finding no market for his timber, used a small 

 portion only of the very choicest for his limited needs in build- 

 ing and fencing. He cut and burned, hewing for himself a 

 home out of the forest, making room for cultivated fields in 

 place of trees. Gradually, but slowly, a market was found for 

 timber. At first, only the best cuts of the choicest trees could 

 be sold at any price. In southern Michigan, about the year 

 1850, I drew for my father many loads of the choicest clear 

 stuffof Whitewood or Yellow Poplar (Liriodeiidron Tulipiferd) 

 fifteen miles, where it was sold at $5 per 1,000 feet, and the 

 pay taken in goods at a country store. Even this market 

 was limited, and was found in the Oak-openings. There was 

 not much money in lumbering in those days. The trees, 

 though, had to be got out of the way and made to bring what 

 they would. 



It was scarcely more than ten years later (i860) that in the 

 same region farmers had nearly ceased burning log-heaps 

 and had begun to make use of all the timber taken from new 

 land for lumber, rail-fences, fire-wood for themselves or their 

 neighbors or for the nearest village or railway. This was in a 

 country long since noted for its good land and prosperous 



farmers. In fact, Lenawee County, Michigan, is known to be 

 one of the very best "all-round" counties in the United States 

 for diversified agriculture or mixed husbandry. 



In newer portions of the state, many parts of which for some 

 reasons were less suited for agriculture, the removal of the 

 timber has been at a much slower rate. It is now as rare a 

 thing as it was common once to see Hemlock-trees felled and 

 left to rot or burn on the ground, simply to secure the bark 

 for the tannery. The hard wood is now, in 1890, nearly all 

 saved, even in theleast settled portions of the state, for lumber, 

 for the railroad or for charcoal. Still there are a few places, re- 

 mote from market, where the tops, butts and deformed sticks 

 of soft wood or hard wood are not very closely used up, but 

 are allowed to decay on the ground. 



When good farming land, or poor land that is covered with 

 desirable timber, has once passed from state control the owner 

 feels that something must be done with the timber very soon 

 to prevent a losing investment. It has usually been the ex- 

 perience of Michigan men that it has not been profitable to 

 hold timber for higher prices, and few people will attempt to 

 hold it simply for the good of the township or state or for 

 posterity, under such circumstances. Had a much larger pro- 

 portion of the timbered land been held and protected by 

 the Government for a longer time the state would have 

 been much betteroff in the end. Less timberwould havebeen 

 destroyed, the land that was improved would have been 

 better worked at a greater profit. This is a lesson which 

 should be heeded in the more recently settled portions of the 

 country. 



There is too much risk from fire in most places in Michigan 

 to make it wise to hold for a very long time any large amounts 

 of land covered mainly with evergreen trees. Where there 

 are a few evergreens mixed with forests of deciduous trees 

 the risk is very greatly reduced. 



The illustration on page 563 shows what remains after fire, 

 following the axe, has run through the woods and consumed 

 the smaller branches. Sometimes the logs are brought 

 together in heaps and burned, or allowed to gradually dis- 

 appear by a combined process of decay and repeated burning. 



Agricultural College, Mich. W. J . Beal. 



The Lakeside Daisy. 



AN interesting item in the botanical record of the sea- 

 son is the finding in Ohio of an Actinella, which 

 seems to have strayed away from its home in the west. 

 Mr. Clarence M. Weed, of the Ohio Experiment Station, 

 gives the following account of the matter, which we take 

 from the Journal of the Columbus Horticultural Society. 

 Accompanying the article is a good figure of the plant, 

 Actinella acaulis, from a drawing by Miss Freda Detmers. 



Early last May while collecting botanical specimens in 

 northern Ohio, on the limestone plains of the Sandusky Penin- 

 sula, near Lakeside, I came across many large patches of a 

 very pretty bright yellow flower, which formed by far the most 

 striking element of the local tlora. It proved to be Actinella 

 acaulis, Nuttall, the ordinary home of which, according to 

 Gray, is found on the "Rocky Mountains and bordering plains 

 and hills, Dakota to Montana, and south to New Mexico, 

 western Nevada and Arizona." 



Not only is this particular species a western form, but 

 Actinella as a genus is essentially western. Its representa- 

 tives occur especially in the rocky prairie and mountainous 

 regions of the extreme western states : Dakota, Montana, 

 Colorado, Texas and New Mexico are the homes of many 

 species. According to Gray's "Synoptical Flora" the only 

 known occurrence of a member of the genus east of 

 the Mississippi River is that of A. acaulis, variety glabra, 

 which was found many years ago on "an ancient mound at 

 Joliet, Illinois," and its occurrence was said to be "probably 

 adventive." 



In northern Ohio A. acaulis is thoroughly established, and 

 evidently finds on the barren limestone plains, with their two 

 or three inches of soil, a congenial habitat. Dr. C. E. Bessey 

 tells me that in Nebraska it occurs in a somewhat similar 

 situation, being found on the rocky buttes where there is very 

 little soil. 



No one about Lakeside, so far as I could learn, knows any- 

 thing about the time the plant was introduced. The only re- 

 ply to my question as to how long the plant had been there 

 was that it had been noticed as long as the speaker had lived 

 there. I have found it nowhere in the region except about 

 Lakeside. The Lake Shore Railroad is about ten miles south of 

 the place and a branch road now runs up. But the latter has 



