January 9, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



21 



there are discernible, under high powers of the microscope, 

 minute granules which, without special chemical treatment, 

 easily elude observation. 



When the cells at the growing points develop into the 

 leaves and into parts of the flower, changes take place in 

 these granules, or plastids, as they are called. Some remain 

 with hardly any change in the cells where starch and other 

 substances are to be stored, and here they take on the work 

 of gathering up the provision for future use. Others become 

 the leaf-green granules, and have for their office the manu- 

 facture of food, while still others and their products are 

 made to play the chief part in coloring our fruits and flowers. 

 As we have seen that from modifications of the simple cell 

 all the different parts of the plant are derived, so from mod- 

 ifications of the simplest plastids at the points where the 

 cells arise, are formed the other plastids, or granules, in 

 which the myriad activities of the plant are manifested. 



There is still one other body to be referred to as existing 

 in the protoplasm of the cell, namely, the nucleus, a some- 

 what denser part, which passes through a succession of re- 

 markable changes when new cells are produced. The con- 

 sideration of these changes must be deferred until, after 

 having examined the roots, stems and leaves of the plant, 

 we can properly approach the subject of growth. Our first 

 work is to apply these general statements regarding the cell 

 to an examination of the organs which the cells compose. 



Cambridge, Mass. George Lincoln Goodale. 



The Forest. 

 The Catalpa speciosa for Timber Planting. 



I READ with interest the address of Mr. Rurnet Landreth, in 

 Garden and Forest (December 12th, vol. i., p. 500), 

 on " Forest Planting in Virginia," although to one about to 

 start a young forest Mr. Landreth's experience would not be 

 very encouraging. Forest planting, however, can be made a 

 success if the right trees are planted and proper care given for 

 only a few years. An improper selection of trees is the cause 

 of most failures. Why should so many trees be recommended, 

 when a very few would answer every purpose ? For a timber 

 tree in the central part of the United States (including the 

 great corn-producing States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, 

 Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska), no other tree is equal to 

 Catalpa speciosa. It is very easy to grow from seed, trans- 

 plants from nursery to field better than any other, and, after 

 a plantation is once set, it is as easily cared for as so much 

 corn. In three years from planting the trees will almost com- 

 pletely shade the ground, keep out weeds and retain moisture, 

 and then cultivating can be dispensed with. 



These trees should always be planted four feet by four, and 

 at from nine to fifteen years the trees can be thinned so as to 

 stand eight feet apart each way. If planted closely they will 

 trim themselves, and, in tinie, grow into tall, straight trees. 

 But while close planting helps the young trees, thinning should 

 not be delayed too long or the entire grove will suffer. The 

 value of the tree for posts alone makes it the very best kind to 

 plant for profit, as it only takes a few years to grow one large 

 enough for fence posts, while many other forest trees— nota- 

 bly Black Walnut, Red Cedar and White Pine — are worth very 

 little while young. In the prairie region of Kansas and 

 Nebraska the demand for posts is very great, the prices are 

 good and likely to improve. What the forest tree planter 

 wants is a tree that will grow into usefulness in a dozen years. 

 To plant trees that will take forty or fifty years to have a mar- 

 ket value, requires too much trust in the future. White Ash 

 would be the best tree in many places, for it can be used even 

 earlier than the Catalpa. 



Desiring to ascertain, for my own information, what tree 

 would best endure dry, hot weather, I examined many groves 

 during the dry period of July, 1886. I visited the Farlington 

 forests, located in Crawford County, Kansas, and composed 

 mostly of Catalpa speciosa. They are from five to eight years 

 planted. Small bodies of Ailanthus, Osage Orange, White 

 Ash and Black Walnut were scattered among them. These 

 forests cover a section of prairie (640 acres) located in an 

 exposed and treeless region, having, at the time, no protection 

 from the prevailing strong winds. 



This immense body of trees having passed through a long 

 period of intense heat, without rain, was healthy and vigor- 

 ous, and had made an annual wood growth that was surpris- 

 ing. Among the trees the ground was in fine condition, with 

 plenty of moisture, and that, too, when the thermometer 

 stood at 104° in the shade. 



They had not been cultivated for some years, but their 



foliage had formed a complete shade to the land, stopping the 

 growth of weeds and grass and restraining evaporation from 

 the soil. 



The Ailanthus showed no signs of dry weather. Black 

 Walnut and Osage Orange looked very well, but were making 

 a very slow growth. White Ash was making feeble growth, 

 and showed the injurious effects of the intense heat. 



The Catalpa-trees at Fort Scott, Topeka, and in a grove in 

 Morris County, Kansas, were also examined, and in each case 

 were found doing better than any other tree. 



Observations during the last two years have confirmed the 

 belief that under our trying prairie climate this tree has no 

 rival for forest planting. The wood is beautiful, and takes a 

 fine polish ; for durability in posts and fencing material it is 

 only equaled by the Red Cedar and Black Locust. 



So far as I can see, there is little danger of failure with the 

 Catalpa here. Close planting seems to be the one thing 

 needed, so that the ground may receive as soon as possible 

 that shading which is always afforded by natural forest-growth. 



Topeka, Kansas. G. W. Filicher. 



[As our correspondent insists, the ffrst and most essen- 

 tial step in tree-planting is the selection of trees 

 suited to the climate and the soil of the locality in which 

 the plantations are to be made. The importance of knowl- 

 edge of the requirements of trees, and the unsatisfactory 

 results which must follow the planting of trees where their 

 nature and wants are not understood, are made apparent 

 by the result of the tree-planting experiments recently 

 described in this journal. 



A little knowledge, the result of the most casual obser- 

 vation, would have shown the men who competed in 

 Massachusetts for the prizes offered by the Trustees of the 

 Agricultural Society of that state, that they could not 

 hope to induce the White Ash to grow to any size or value 

 upon thin, gravelly, worn out drift, upon which they would 

 not have found an Ash-tree of any size growing naturally. 



Mr. Landreth's experiments in tree-planting in eastern 

 Virginia (see vol. i, p. 500) show too, that observation of 

 natural conditions may save useless expenditures of time, 

 energy and money. The soil with which he had to deal 

 was never very strong, and it had been practically ex- 

 hausted by long years of cultivation upon the wasteful 

 principles which have ruined much of the soil of the south 

 Atlantic sea-board States. Upon this soil, when fire is kept 

 away, the Loblolly, or Old Field Pine (Pinus Tceda), springs 

 up in the greatest profusion, and, during many years, grows 

 with great rapidity. But the presence of this tree shows 

 that the land is of poor quality, and that it has been so im- 

 poverished that other trees cannot grow vigorously in 

 these old fields with the Pines. A knowledge of the Lob- 

 lolly Pine and its habits might have saved all the cost and 

 troulile of these plantations, which lead only to the in- 

 evitable conclusion, that the best tree for any particular 

 climate or soil or location is the one which is growing nat- 

 urally and flourishing in that climate and location and upon 

 that soil; and that in eastern North America the planting of 

 trees in forests is not so much needed as the care of the 

 trees which spring up freely in all situations and upon all 

 soils. 



The absence of trees, due to causes not entirely climatic, 

 from the region extending along the eastern border of the 

 dry and treeless central plateau of the continent, made ex- 

 periments in tree-planting in this part of the country neces- 

 sary in order to establish the fact that trees could be grown 

 there successfully on a large scale, and to determine the 

 varieties of trees best suited to flourish under conditions in 

 which the controlling features were dry and hot summers, 

 cold winters, fierce winds at all seasons of the year, and 

 deep and very rich soil. 



The large plantations at Farlington, in eastern Kansas, 

 described by our correspondent, were made for the 

 special object of determining what trees would thrive under 

 these peculiar conditions ; and while suflicient time has not 

 yet passed since the trees were planted to make the result 

 conclusive in any way, it is evident that the Western Ca- 

 talpa is the most promising tree which has yet been tried 

 to any extent on the western prairies. It is not wise. 



