December io, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



601 





long after the leaves have fallen. It is the only hardy bush 

 Honeysuckle here which ripens and retains its fruit in perfect 

 condition so late in the season. The black seeds are plainly 

 visible within the pulp, which is somewhat mucilaginous and 

 disagreeably bitter to the taste. The pubescent, ovate, pointed 

 leaves are from one to two inches in length, and the flowers 

 are small and of a light yellowish white color. In well drained 

 and moderately sheltered situations the plants are quite hardy 

 in this latitude, and may grow as large as the more showy 

 flowering Tartarian Honeysuckle. 



Among the climbing Honeysuckles the shining black fruit 

 of the popular Japanese species (L. Japonica) is too much 

 hidden by the evergreen foliage to be conspicuously orna- 

 mental, but at this date (November 27th) a large proportion of 

 the fruit of L. Sullivanii is still full and fresh looking and of a 

 bright red color. No other climbing deciduous species ap- 

 pears to keep its fruit in a fresh state so late in the season. 



Arnold Arboretum. J • Cr. J • 



Correspondence. 



Early Chrysanthemums. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It is true, as Mr. Thorpe states in his reply to my note 

 on September Chrysanthemums, that they will continue to be 

 grown, but even his well known passion for these flowers does 

 not seemingly lead him to claim much beauty for the varieties 

 which we at present possess. It is gratifying, however, to be 

 assured from such an authority that advances are being made in 

 this class of plants. Some of Mr. Thorpe's early flowers were 

 very promising this year, but only renewed tests and propaga- 

 tion (seemingly one of the greatest trials) will prove their 

 value. Skillful hybridizers like Mr. Thorpe have secrets be- 

 yond the ordinary grower, and yet it is difficult to understand 

 how varieties of which M. E. Nichols is the type are to be 

 hastened into bloom a whole month earlier than their natural 

 season. As a type they seem to lack the very early maturation 

 which, with quick bud development, brings Madame Des- 

 granges into bloom so early. The mid-season kinds seem to 

 differ from the November ones only in the quicker develop- 

 ment of buds, as both classes of plants form buds at same 

 time usually. 



It is hardly a legitimate occasion for criticism that any one 

 finds pleasure in growing any flowers at any season, but, 

 speaking for myself, Chrysanthemums are flowers to be en- 

 joyed only in their proper character and relations. To me 

 Chrysanthemum means profusion of bloom and great masses of 

 color, and these, I find, can only be fully enjoyed in late Octo- 

 ber and onward. As a fancier I can appreciate flowers at any 

 time; as the owner of a garden I find my greatest pleasures in 

 the blooming of my flowers in their normal seasons. In a 

 well stocked garden one instinctively separates the seasons on 

 certain shifting lines. Certainly the emotions awakened by 

 flowers at one season are entirely different from those pro- 

 duced at others. The Chrysanthemums are glorious on a 

 frosty morning; they seem brighter and firmer in the keen air, 

 and my pulse always beats faster, and it is always with pleasant 

 excitement that I go among them then, to enjoy the 

 masses of bloom and inhale their camphorous odor. What 

 an antithesis to the earliest flowers of spring, whose sudden 

 awakening, stimulated by the first warm rays of the sun, must, 

 even to the most unemotional, bring a pleasure at once ex- 

 quisite and sober as the mysterious forces of reviving nature 

 are made evident ! As the seasons advance the reflective 

 gardener has with each a different set of emotions gratified. To 

 paraphrase Mr. Warner, the gardener needs all the consola- 

 tions of these pleasures. 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N. Gerard. 



Cycles of Fruit Growing. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The culture of the sour Cherries has greatly declined in 

 the older sections of America. The cause was the prevalence of 

 black knot. This disease has now almost entirely disappeared, 

 and there is no reason why there should not again be a great 

 planting of this most wholesome fruit. If only a few trees are 

 set by scattered cultivators there will be no fruit saved from 

 the birds. There should be a special movement on the part 

 of nurserymen to encourage Cherry-planting. The sorts 

 most advantageous for the general grower covering all the 

 northern states are the Early Richmond, the Mayduke, the 

 large Montmorency, and the common sour Cherry, from which 

 the Richmond and Montmorency have been improved. These 

 are entirely hardy, and could well be grown for their beauty in 

 blossoming season. Percival Lowell's description of Cherry 



worship in Corea and Japan is peculiarly fascinating. These 

 Orientals go out in crowds at the time of Cherry blossoms, and 

 also in Plum season, and, sitting under the trees, sip tea, write 

 poems and become as sentimental as lovers. But aside from 

 the flowers, the beauty of the fruit is beyond that of any other 

 tree, and there is none more wholesome. 



The time of depression for the Quince is also about over. 

 Forty years ago it was grown very largely in the northern 

 states. Then the borer attacked the trees and whole orchards 

 were obliterated. The cutting of forests also made our climate 

 subject to sharper changes, which made more protection 

 needful for semi-tender fruits. For the last thirty years 

 Quince-growing has been confined to a few localities. Prices 

 have ruled very high, so that a good acre of Quinces will 

 realize profits beyond any other fruit. Seven dollars a barrel has 

 been the average price of first-rate quinces in this market. But 

 the borer is gone or nearly gone; and we know how to prevent his 

 ravages. Now, there is common sense in a general planting 

 of this fruit once more. The requisites of success are a south- 

 ern or south-eastern exposure, and protection, natural or arti- 

 ficial, against the north-west winds. I always bind my trees 

 with stalks, straw or hay while young and keep them well 

 mulched. A Quince-tree to thrive must be well fed, but not 

 over-fed. Use coal ashes abundantly about the trees. 



Another fruit that should come back about no wis the currant. 

 I think that in proportion to the population we do not have half 

 the currants that were grown in 1850. The twig-borer is gone, 

 and the currant worm is very easily managed by two sprink- 

 lings of hellebore. The market for this delightful fruit is never 

 overstocked. 



When I was a boy there were four fruits specially abundant : 

 plums, currants, cherries and quinces. No one imagined they 

 could get on without them. They had their cycle of growth, 

 then a cycle of decadence ; now we may replant. The plum is 

 already finding its old place, but the quince, cherry and currant 

 are scarce. Our only chance of successful com petition with birds 

 and insects is to plant enough for both the birds and ourselves 

 and together whip the insects. We cannot succeed without 

 an alliance with our friends in the air. The probability of 

 their multiplying beyond reasonable numbers is very slight, 

 except in such an abnormal case as the English sparrow ; but 

 we must furnish them food. 



Clinton, N. Y. E. P. Powell. 



The Forest. 



Systematic Timber-cutting in Quebec. 



'THE following remarks are translated and condensed from 

 -*■ a paper presented in French to the American Forestry- 

 Association at its meeting of September 2d, 1890, by Mr. 

 J. X. Pirrault, Secretary of the Quebec Forest-Association: 



Now while the destruction of the state forests is carried 

 on so systematically that it is possible to foretell the fatal 

 moment when the province of Quebec will be stripped of its 

 most valuable forest-trees, it is a public duty to make a last 

 appeal to the patriotism of the men who govern us to put an 

 end to the vandalism of which we are every day the witnesses. 



For more than a century the public domain has been pil- 

 laged with the thoughtless consent of the state. What was 

 once the finest forest-property in the world has been ruined 

 by pasturage, and by the wasteful methods of lumbermen who, 

 not content to make enormous fortunes at the expense of the 

 Province, have cut and destroyed everything in their path 

 without thought of the future. 



Our neighbors in the United States have acted with the 

 same want of forethought, but with tins difference, that with 

 a population ten times larger than ours the destruction of their 

 forests has gone on more rapidly. Never, perhaps, in the his- 

 tory of any people has there been seen the administration of a 

 public domain so criminal and so disastrous. 



The forests of the United States, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific and from the frontiers of Mexico to those of Can- 

 ada, cover 450,000,000 acres. The annual cutting over of 

 25,000,000 acres gives on an average 4,800,000,000 cubic feet 

 of lumber. The railroads use, in addition, 500,000,000 feet, 

 the mines 150,000,000, fences consume 500,000,000 ; 150,- 

 000,000 feet are exported, while 18,000,000,000 feet are con- 

 sumed as fuel. The whole forms the enormous total of 

 24,000,000,000 feet, of an approximate value of $1,000,000,000— 

 that is to say, more than the total value of the crop of wheat, 

 rye, oats, potatoes, cotton and tobacco produced in the United 

 States, and thirty-three per cent, more than the value of all 

 exportations of every kind from that great country. 



It is hardly conceivable and yet it is true that no forest- 

 administration has been charged with securing intelligent 



