December 24, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



625 



subsequent supplies turning- out to be ordinary Carnations of 

 no value whatever. It will, perhaps, be remembered that 

 Monsieur Ale"gatiere was the originator of that excellent class 

 of Tree or Perpetual Carnations, well represented by such 

 varieties as A. Alegatiere, Cardinal, Miss Joliffe and Souvenir 

 dela Malmaison, which was so much improved by the late Mr. 

 Charles Turner, of Slough, England. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. B. 



The Forest. 

 Value of Mountain Forests. — II. 



A NOTHER important function of mountain forests is the pro- 

 ■**- duction and maintenance of such conditions of the soil, 

 water, atmosphere and scenery of the region as are highly fa- 

 vorable to human life, health and enjoyment. An evergreen 

 mountain forest like that of our White Mountain region is a 

 great natural sanitarium, one of the best and most effective in 

 the world in its life-giving and health-restoring qualities. The 

 destruction of forest-conditions over this region would dis- 

 tinctly shorten the lives of great numbers of persons. It would 

 be a serious error to conclude that the sanitary influences of 

 these mountain forests are important only or chiefly to per- 

 sons already affected by disease. The millions of dwellers in 

 cities all need a season of out-of-door rest and recreation in 

 summer in order to maintain the physical and mental health 

 and soundness which are essential to success in the work of 

 life. Our New Hampshire mountain forest-region is a sum- 

 mer playground for the inhabitants of Boston, New York, 

 Philadelphia and the great cities of the south and west. As 

 their population increases our entire area of forests, lakes and 

 streams will be needed for this purpose, and it will soon all be 

 brought into use if its attractiveness is not destroyed by 

 despoiling the woods and waters of their freshness and beauty. 

 For the weariness and exhaustion of vitality which so often 

 result from excessive activity in the crowded life of towns and 

 cities there is no healing influence more effective than the 

 silent unconcern of Nature amid the scenes and conditions of 

 summer residence in a mountain forest-region. 

 FISH AND GAME PRESERVES. 



As a part of this sanitary function of mountain forests, their 

 value as natural preserves for fish and game deserves far 

 more serious and intelligent attention than it generally re- 

 ceives. Some occupation is necessary for many persons who 

 go to the woods for summer rest and recreation, and the pur- 

 suit of game and fish supplies both physical and mental con- 

 ditions which are highly favorable and restorative. The 

 slaughter of game of any kind for the mere sake of killing, 

 and of delight in the quantity butchered, is not only unsports- 

 manlike ; it is coarse and disgraceful, and should receive 

 pronounced disapproval everywhere. But fishing and hunt- 

 ing, as pursued by civilized and orderly anglers and hunters, 

 are legitimate and proper means of recreation. If the forests 

 are destroyed there will soon be neither fish nor game. When 

 the shaded brooks are opened to the sun the trout will disap- 

 pear, and when the wilds are despoiled of their sylvan beauty 

 and sheltered solitudes the hunter's delight in them will be at 

 an end. 



The value of mountain forests on account of the beauty and 

 charm of their scenery is closely allied to the sanitary influ- 

 ences already mentioned, and beauty of scenery — in addition 

 to its power to produce happiness, to awaken and nourish 

 "vital feelings of delight," and because of this power — beauty 

 of scenery has in modern times great economic value. Switz- 

 erland and Norway and other mountainous countries in 

 Europe derive important revenues from their scenery, which 

 attracts multitudes of visitors from all parts of the civilized 

 world. New Hampshire is remarkable for having so much 

 attractive scenery, so many beautiful landscapes distinct from 

 each other, within a comparatively small area of country. In 

 this respect it is unequaled in any part of the United States. 

 Several millions of dollars are brought to the hands of our 

 people every year by summer tourists and boarders, and yet 

 the attractions of our mountain region are by no means fully 

 developed. But these valuable revenues will be diverted to 

 other parts of our country, and to Europe, unless our moun- 

 tain forests and streams are protected and preserved. 

 THE UPPER COOS COUNTRY. 



The fertile valley land of the upper Connecticut River is 

 now at its best. The hills on each side were, until a few years 

 ago, heavily covered with valuable timber. Now they have 

 all been lumbered over. This would not of itself do any harm. 

 Timber should always be cut when it reaches its best condi- 

 tion. That is what it is for. But at many points in this Upper 



Coos country the steep slopes rising from the valley on each 

 side have been burned over till the root-mat which held the 

 soil in place is breaking up. The young people of our day 

 are likely to live to see this rich upper Connecticut valley 

 almost completely destroyed. The surface materials of the 

 hills will be carried down more and more by the action of the 

 water in the spring season, and will bury the soil of the valley 

 under deposits of inert substance's. There are already places 

 on these slopes where trees will never grow again. 



Both Connecticut Lake and Second Lake were formerly sur- 

 rounded by woods, and the trees grew to the very edge of the 

 water. In order to land, when rowing, a man had to push his 

 boat up among the boughs of the trees and climb out on them, 

 unless there was a landing cleared by the axe. The blue sky 

 never bent over anything in Nature more beautiful than these 

 mountain lakes of crystal clearness, with their miles of shore- 

 line one continuous fringe and wall of green foliage. But 

 Connecticut Lake has been dammed to raise the water to float 

 logs. The back-water has killed the timber, and now all the 

 lower portions of the shores are ghastly and repulsive tracts 

 where the decaying tree-trunks are gradually dropping into 

 the polluted water below. This destruction of the timber by 

 the back-water was entirely unnecessary. 



All the country around Connecticut Lake and Second. Lake 

 and between the two, and part of the way from Second to 

 Third Lake, has been lumbered over. The timber is not all 

 removed, and from a distance the forest still looks green, but 

 in the woods the tangled mass of fallen trees and tree-tops is 

 almost impassable. 



The wilderness around Third Lake has not yet been dis- 

 turbed. This lovely sheet of water is in the heart of a primeval 

 and not easily penetrable forest, and the traveler is here com- 

 panioned by the sources of the Connecticut River. The lake 

 extends within a mile or so of the Canadian line. In the upper 

 Connecticut valley men feel as if the world had just been 

 made and given to them. They say, " Why, there's hardly 

 anything but woods! We haven't begun on them yet." It 

 seems to them as if the forests around them were inexhaustible, 

 but the price of timber lands is advancing in every part of our 

 country because business men have become aware that the 

 White Pine supply of the upper Mississippi Valley is speedily 

 coming to an end, and that everywhere our consumption of tim- 

 ber greatly exceeds the rate of growth. People are unwilling to 

 think of the future, to recognize the conditions which will 

 surround their children. Yet without such foresight the per- 

 manence of what we value most in our civilization is im- 

 possible. — From the Report of J. B. Harrison, Commissioner 

 of Forests for New Hampshire. 



Correspondence. 



The English Sparrow. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I have read lately in the Journal of the French Socie"t6 

 d'Acclimatation an account of the damage done in the United 

 States by the English sparrow. It was a most unfortunate idea 

 introducing into America these birds, always more destructive 

 than useful, without introducing, too, their natural enemy, 

 created, apparently, expressly to check their excessive multi- 

 plication. This enemy of the European sparrow, which it 

 certainly would not be difficult to naturalize in the United 

 States, is the pigmy owl known in France under the name of 

 Cheveche, the Stryx passerina of Linnasus. He is a ferocious 

 and well-armed bird, able from his small size to enter into 

 small holes in walls or rotten trees, or wherever the sparrows 

 make their nests. Although the Chevt-che attacks rats and 

 mice like the other species of Stryx, his specialty as a carniv- 

 orous bird is to destroy sparrows. He is not larger than a 

 blackbird, although shorter and stouter. The short, strongly- 

 armed claws of this bird permit him to climb up the face of a 

 wall and to ascend and descend the cavities of old trees, into 

 which he plunges without hesitation. This little bird inhabits, 

 too, churches and all sorts of old buildings, and, in a word, all 

 the out-of-the-way places which the other birds of the same 

 genus seek. He is only partly nocturnal, beginning to hunt his 

 prey at dusk. The Cheveche not only exterminates the spar- 

 rows' nests, but it drives them away entirely by its presence 

 alone from any locality. Sparrows so fear this bird that whole 

 flocks of them depart as soon as they notice that it is established 

 in any particular region. This little owl to the sparrow is like 

 the presence of a wolf in a sheep-fold. 



It seems to me, therefore, that it would be an interesting ex- 

 periment to try to naturalize this bird in America. In order to 

 make the attempt successful, and this is true in all efforts to 

 naturalize birds, then- are certain conditions which must be 



