January i6, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



33 



plasm which lines the newer cells just back of the tip of the 

 rootlets. When two liquids which can diffuse through one 

 another are separated by a membrane which the two liquids 

 can moisten, diffusion goes on rather more rapidly than if no 

 membrane were interposed. The process is termed osmose. 

 But in the case of such a membrane as parchment and those 

 formerly used in experiments, it was found that there was 

 always an outgoing current to replace the incoming one, and 

 that these currents, if one can call them such, had certain re- 

 lations of equivalence to each other. Now, as there is no true 

 compensatory outward current in the case of absorption by 

 root-hairs, it was beginning to be felt that the theory of osmose, 

 as formerly understood, was inadequate to explain the taking 

 up of matters from the soil. Professor Pfeffer has shown 

 within a tew years that in some artificial membranes, which 

 are very nearly like those of the root-hairs, there is for a time 

 a process of repair going on, by which the activity of the arti- 

 ficial membranes is constantly renewed, and in such cases, 

 just as in that of the root-hairs, there is no compensatory out- 

 ward current to be observed. Thus strengthened by Pfeffer's 

 contributions, the theory of osmose has again taken its place 

 as sufficient to explain the process of root-absorption, or, 

 rather, speaking more generally, the absorption of liquids by 

 any active cells. It is as yet impossible to understand clearly 

 the ultimate nature of the force af work in osmose. We know 

 that it is correlated with certain molecular activities, such as 

 electricity, and that its principal seat in plants is in the surface 

 of the film of protoplasm which lines living vegetable cells. 

 We know also that it is related to imbibition and to capillarity, 

 as these are manifested in non-living matter. Furthermore, 

 we know that the capacity of the protoplasmic matter in cells, 

 for the repair by which osmose can alone be continued, is 

 Hmited in some cells sooner than in others; but why the 

 chemical changes underlying repair should cease in root- 

 hairs sooner than in some other cells of the plant, is, thus far, 

 beyond the reach of experiment. We know, however, that 

 when the power of osmose fails in the root-hairs or in the cells 

 near these, the work of absorption is taken up by others 

 which are freshly formed, and these new ones are, in their 

 turn, soon replaced by others. In every case the new 

 ones are produced in new soil, where fresh materials can be 

 obtained. George Lincoln Goodale. 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



The Forest. 

 The Forests and Woodlands of New Jersey. — I. 



THE following is the first part of a report on the forests 

 and woodlands of New Jersey which has been pre- 

 pared for the final Report of the Geological Survey of that 

 State by J. B. Harrison, Secretary of the American Forestry 

 Congress. Advance sheets have been kindly furnished to 

 Garden and Forest by Professor George H. Cook, Director 

 of the Survey. 



The area of the woodlands in New Jersey is about 41.5 

 per cent, of the surface of the state. This area is slowly 

 diminishing, but the diminution has- been but slight during 

 recent years. In the mountain regions of the irorthern part 

 of the state, some small fields that were once cleared and cul- 

 tivated are relapsing into forest. Seedling trees are encroach- 

 ing upon them from all sides, and the woods are re-establish- 

 ing themselves in their ancient dominion. There are in- 

 stances of the same thing in southern New Jersey ; but they 

 are few and unimportant, and in the whole state the area of 

 land once cultivated which is being again suiTendered to for- 

 est growth is very small. 



Wherever the soil is worth cultivating, on the plains and in 

 the river-valleys, and even on the hills in the limestone lands 

 of the northern part of the state, a little more of the remain- 

 ing woodland is cut off and cleared up each year. In the Pine 

 country of southern New Jersey some considerable tracts 

 have been cleared for farming purposes within a few years. 



Considering that the state has been settled so long, the pro- 

 portion of forest land is very large. The soil varies greatly 

 in quality. In the limestone regions and in the river-valleys 

 in the northern part of the state, much of it is very fertile, and 

 the growth of the trees is rapid, while on the granite and slate 

 lands the soil is thin and poor, and the trees grow much 

 more slowly. On a few small tracts there is so little soil, that 

 when the forest is once cut off it does not reproduce itself. 

 That is, the new growth is so scant and scrubby that it has 

 no value as timber. But over the whole state, with this 

 very slight exception, the forest grows again after it has 



been cut off, the deciduous or hardwood trees sprouting 

 up from the stumps and the evergreens coming again from 

 the seed. 



The time required to reproduce the forest after it is cut off 

 varies according to the differences of soil and the habit or 

 character of different kinds of trees. In the fertile lands of 

 Salem County, and in other parts of the state, trees will con- 

 tinue growing, and the value of a tract of woodland will go 

 on increasing for a hundred years or more. But in some 

 parts of the forest about Ringwood, and in other portions of 

 the mountain region of northern New Jersey, the trees reach 

 their culmination, or condition of greatest value, within 

 twenty-five years after the former growth has been cut off, 

 and it is then best to cut them again. Some tracts which 

 have been standing for thirty-five years are no better now, the 

 owners say, than they were ten years ago. 



When the perpetuation of the forest is desired, it is best to cut 

 it off a litde before the trees reach maturity, as the succeeding 

 coppice growth after young trees have been cut off is much more 

 vigorous and rapid than the process of reproduction after an 

 old or mature forest has been removed. Each new growUi 

 of timber is apt to be somewhat different f/om the one which 

 it succeeds. Some kinds of trees sprout from the stump 

 more vigorously than others. Chestnut, for instance, usually 

 sends up a greater number of sprouts than any other kind of 

 timber which grows in the region under consideration, and 

 cutting off a forest composed of Chestnut, Hickory, Ash, Oak 

 and other kinds of trees will often increase the relative num- 

 ber of Chestnut trees. 



Forest Products. — The chief products of the forests or 

 woodlands of New Jersey are lumber, shingles and other 

 building materials, timber for bridges and ships, wagons and 

 carriages, telegraph poles, railroad ties, posts and fencing ma- 

 terials, staves and heads for barrels, tubs and pails, hoop-poles, 

 and handles for axes, agricultural implements and umbrella- 

 sticks. Baskets, wooden ladles and spoons and spools are 

 sometimes manufactured in the state, and wood-pulp to be 

 used in the manufacture of paper is made in small quantities. 

 The use of wood for fuel is general though not universal in the 

 state, and charcoal is made in some places. 



As is well known, large quantities of White Cedar timber 

 were formerly " mined," or taken from underground, in 

 swamps in the southern part of the state, but in most of these 

 the available supply is nearly exhausted, what remains being 

 mostly too far underground to admit of its being raised and 

 manufactured with profit, though logs are still sometimes 

 taken out. The same industry was formerly carried on in 

 some of the northern swamps, though less extensively than in 

 the south, and logs are even now occasionally raised in the 

 north for materials for tubs and pails. Dense swamps of 

 Tamarack {Larix Americana) were formerly a prominent fea- 

 ture of the forests in some parts of northern New Jersey, but 

 they have nearly all been cut off, and the Larch does not 

 appear to have reproduced itself to any great extent? 



In some parts of the state many Christmas trees are cut for 

 the markets of the towns and cities, and the boughs of the 

 Holly, with its bright green and unfading leaves and its beau- 

 tiful red berries, are gathered in large quantities in the month 

 of December and sold in Philadelphia and perhaps in other 

 places. In the spring and summer there is a very considera- 

 ble traffic in wild flowers and plants of various kinds from the 

 woodlands of the state. Great quantities of Water Lilies and 

 Azaleas are sold, with the Trailing Arbutus, Iris, Wild Violets, 

 Xerophyllum asphodeloides, Helonias bullata, Pyxidanthera 

 barbulata, Arethiisa bulbosa, the Pogonias and Calopogons, 

 Clethra, Swamp Magnolia and other flowers. 



The oil of sassafras is sometimes distilled in places in the 

 southern part of the state, where also quercitron, a prepara- 

 tion of Black Oak bark, for dyeing purposes, was formerly 

 made in considerable quantities. This latter industry appears 

 to have been relinquished several years ago. 



Original Forest. — There is not much really original or 

 primeval forest left standing in New Jersey. That is, there 

 are few, if any, large tracts of forest that have not been cut off 

 at some time since the settlement of the state by white men. 

 There is a small piece of White Oak woods on the farm of Mr. 

 Thomas Lawrence, near Hamburg, in Sussex County, which 

 has never been cut. These trees cover a remarkable hill, or 

 long, narrow ridge, which rises eighty or a hundred feet above 

 the fertile valley of the Wallkill River, and one would have 

 to travel far to find a more interesting or attractive grove. 

 Though they stand very near to the busy haunts of men, the 

 great trees are populous with gray squirrels, who appear to 

 have learned to feel entirely comfortable and secure among 

 them. 



