March 6, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



109 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



I'AGE. 



Editorial Articles: — The Adirondack Forests. — How Trees Grow Tall log 



A German Sketch of American Gardening no 



Conifers Injured by Squirrels J. G. Jack, in 



Agaves (with illustration) 112 



New or Little Known Plants : — Fendlera rupicola (with illustration). . C 5. 6". 112 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV, ]VatsoH. 112 



Cultural Department : — Sparaxis and Lxia W. E. Endicott. 114 



Cultivating Wild Flowers. — Improvement of the Pansy. — Maule's Quince, 



Tlioinas Meeh'in. 114 

 Clematis paniculata. — Shortia glacifolia. — Strong Vitality of Crocus 



Flowers E. O. Orpet. 116 



Sowing Acorns Joseph Mcehan. 116 



Principles of Physiological Botany. X Professor George Lincohi Goodale. 116 



The Forest:— Tlie Forests and Woodlands of New Jersey. IV 117 



Correspondence :— Fruits for Cold Climates J. L. Budd. 117 



The Kentucky Coffee Tree 7. 5. A'. 117 



Winter Care of Conifers John Y. Cnlyer. 117 



Meeting of the American Pomological Society. I iiy 



Notes "9 



Illustrations: — Fendlera rupicola. Fig. 98 113 



Agaves. Fig. 99 115 



The Adirondack Forests. 



THE complete destruction of the Adirondack forests is 

 inevitable if existing- conditions and methods of 

 treatment are to continue. Unimportant improvements in 

 the details of their management may be made from time 

 to time ; such improvements have been made within the 

 last few years, and others are now proposed ; but the proc- 

 esses of destruction are much more rapid and extensive 

 than the effect of these comparatively insignificant means 

 of amelioration, and there is at present no reason to expect 

 that any effective provision will be made for the perma- 

 nent protection of any part of this important region. Noth- 

 ing can be done, indeed, without a thorough change in the. 

 system of control and administration of the forests on the 

 state lands. The methods now pursued interpose no seri- 

 ous check to the influences which will extirpate the woods 

 in a comparatively short time. If the devastation of the 

 region, already far advanced, is completed, centuries of 

 time will be required for any process of restoration. 



The destruction of the North Woods will produce a change 

 in the flow of the principal rivers of the state, and in 

 the water-supply of the Erie Canal, which will cause wide- 

 spread disaster to the interests of the people. There will 

 be uncontrollable freshets at the times of heaviest rain-fall, 

 and when the snow melts in the spring ; the channels of 

 the rivers will be choked by debris brought down from the 

 hills ; and in summer, when a full volume of water is 

 most needed, the ffow^ wall be insignificant. If this ruin 

 is consummated it will be a most serious blow to the pros- 

 perity of the state and of all classes of its people. 



Not less important is the value of the region in its relation 

 to the health and .life of the people of the country, as a 

 place of resort for the inhabitants of the towms, and for all 

 who need the restorative and vitalizing atmosphere and in- 

 fluences of a region of sylvan beauty and peace. As our 

 population becomes more dense, the need and value of 

 wild, rough tracts, incapable of cultivation, will be greatly 

 increased. Beyond the arrangement required for the sub- 

 sistence and comfort of the multitudes of visitors, no settle- 

 ment or inhabitancy should be permitted in any part of the 

 wilderness. If the forests are destroyed the entire charm 



and attractiveness of the region will be eliminated, and a 

 scene of hideous desolation will be substituted which no 

 one will ever wish to look upon. 



The only plan by which such injury can be_averted, and 

 means provided for the permanent conservation of these 

 invaluable forests, is the acquisition by the state of the 

 entire Adirondack region. While portions of it remain in 

 the hands of private owners, injuries to state-lands adjacent 

 to their holdings cannot be prevented. But it would be , 

 senseless and wicked to expend the money which would 

 be required for this purpose while the present system of 

 control continues. It has proved entirely inadequate for the 

 protection of the forests on the lands which already belong 

 to the state, and it would be the extreme of folly to acquire 

 property at great cost when there is danger that it might 

 soon be dissipated and destroyed. 



Unless a system of permanent control under competent 

 direction can be put in operation, the people of New York 

 may as well relinquish all thought of saving the Adirondack 

 forests, and all interest in the subject. There can be no 

 adequate or successful administration of a great forest-pre- 

 serve while its management is subject to the possibility of 

 frequent change because it is treated as a portion of the 

 political patronage of the state government. Unless the 

 care of the forests on the state-lands can be placed in the 

 hands of men of such known and obvious character and 

 qualification for this work as wall inspire general confidence, 

 no system of adininistration can be successful, and com- 

 petent men will not accept a place of such responsibility 

 and importance while their work is always liable to inter- 

 ruption by the agencies of partisan politics. The inade- 

 quacy and failure of the present system of control and 

 administration are inherent in the system itself, and are in- 

 separable from its relation to partisan change and caprice. 

 The evil is not to be remedied by merely changing the 

 persons who administer a system which is essentially 

 vicious. 



If the people of the State of New York have enough 

 regard for their own interests to lead them to insist upon 

 the adoption of a system embodying the essential features 

 of coinpetent direction and security from partisan interfer- 

 ence, it will be safe and wise to acquire the whole Adiron- 

 dack region by purchase. If they have not this perception 

 of the importance of the object in view, and of the means 

 wdiich are necessary for its accomplishment, the forests 

 will be left to their fate. The methods now employed are 

 wholly useless and ineffective. 



How Trees Grow Tall. 



THERE is no question more often asked of persons 

 who are supposed to have some knowledge of trees 

 than one relating to the manner in which the trunk attains 

 its height. It is difficult to convince people, sometimes, 

 that the trunk itself does not elongate and stretch just as 

 the body of a growing child elongates, and that a mark made 

 in the bark at a given distance from the ground will 

 always remain at exactly that height, no matter how tall 

 the tree may become. A correspondent of the semi- 

 weekly Tribune, of this city, raised this question some 

 fifteen years ago, and the answer which Professor Asa Gray 

 wrote is so admirably clear, and such an excellent example 

 of his method of dealing with scientific subjects in a clear 

 and simple way, that we reproduce it for the benefit of our 

 readers, among whom there are some, it is pretty safe to 

 assume, who do not very clearly understand, even if they 

 have ever given the subject any serious consideration, how 

 trees grow tall. 



" When I was a boy a thrift}' Balm of Gilead Poplar before 

 my fatlier's house, barely large enough for the purpose, was 

 used to hang a gate upon. I remember that the passers-by 

 said : ' That is all very well now, but as the tree grows, the 

 gate will go up.' The gate, as I remember, served for years, 

 and did not 'go up.' When I was a boy, a long row of Lom- 

 bardy Poplars on the side of the road leading to Hamilton 

 College was used for fence posts, rails being mortised into 



