June 19, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



297 



Rocky Mountains), through northern China to the Himalayas 

 and Afghanistan. 



The hidia form is an old inliabitant of gardens, and is not 

 infrequently seen in those of the middle States. 



June 4lh. J- 



The Forest. 



Forest Interests in Pennsylvania. — I. 



I HAVE been looking around in Pennsylvania for a few 

 weeks examining the condition of the mountain woods, 

 and calling on journalists and other leading citizens, with the 

 object of stimulating interest in forestry subjects, and espe- 

 cially in the work of the State Forestry Association. As I was 

 present at the inception of this organization, and encouraged 

 its founders at that time by pointing out some of the difficul- 

 ties they would encounter, I have always felt much interest in 

 its work. It was established chiefly by the efforts of two or 

 three earnest women, and its history illustrates very well the 

 nature of some of the opportunities for service to the public 

 welfare which have recently been opened to public-spirited 

 women in our country. 



During this visit to the principal towns of the state I had, as 

 always, the cordial co-operation of journalists everywhere, and 

 Governor Beaver gave me all possible assistance, as did also 

 Mr. Edge, who is at the head of the State Department of Agri- 

 culture, the officers of the State College and Experiment Sta- 

 tion and prominent men generally. The next annual meeting 

 of the American Forestry Congress, of which Governor Beaver 

 is President, is to be held in Philadelphia on the i6th, 17th and 

 iSth days of October of this year, and the recent energetic ac- 

 tion of the State Forestry Association will, doubtless, prepare 

 the way for an interesting and useful session of the national 

 body. 



There is still a great deal of fine timber in some portions of 

 the mountain forest-region of Pennsylvania. Most of the orig- 

 inal growth was cut off many years ago ; much of it for char- 

 coal, and the various uses for wood connected with the man- 

 ufacture of iron and the construction and operation of rail- 

 roads, as well as for making lumber. The timber now 

 standing is chiefly second growth. A great deal of it is very 

 vigorous, growing rapidly and constantly increasing in value. 

 I saw some wonderful groves of young White Pine. One in 

 Centre County, to which I made an excursion with Professor 

 Buckhout, of the State College, is one of the most beautiful 

 and interesting tracts of young timber that I have ever seen. 

 It is not extensive, but it is a piece of pure forest of White 

 Pine, remarkably dense, and the trees are nearly uniform in 

 size, except that some of the weaker ones are being dwarfed 

 by overcrowding. 



Professor Buckhout has begun some experiments in tree- 

 planting, having set out about 3,500 small White Pines and 

 Chestnuts, a few hundred of them on land belonging to the 

 State College, near the Agricultural Experiment Station, but 

 most of them on a small area from which the timber had been 

 removed, up in the mountains, five or six miles from the col- 

 lege. His object is observation, experiment, comparison of 

 results, as a ineans of increasing his own knowledge of tree- 

 culture. There is, of course, no need of forest-planting in this 

 part of the country, as the trees will come in themselves every- 

 where, if the ground is protected from fire and from pastur- 

 age. But there is need of tree-planting by farmers on small 

 areas which are unsuited to other crops, and which are now 

 mostly occupied by worthless trees, bushes or briers. Such 

 nooks and corners are often nurseries and seeding-places for 

 mischievous weeds, which stock the entire farm or neighbor- 

 hood. They might as well be devoted to growing useful trees, 

 and farmers need more knowledge than they now possess re- 

 garding the best kinds to plant. Professor Buckhout and some 

 of the most intelligent farmers of Centre County believe that 

 the Chestnut does not succeed on the limestone land of that 

 region, though it grows well on the sandstone soil higher up 

 in the mountains. 



In nearly evei-*)^ part of the state there is much complaint of 

 the failure and decay of small tracts of woodland. No matter 

 how vigorous the trees may be in a large forest area, when 

 farms are opened and much of the land is cleared, the trees in 

 tracts which are left for timber soon begin to die at the top 

 and to blow down. The most observant farmers believe that 

 this results from the desiccating effect of the wind, which in- 

 creases in force as more and more of the forest of the region 

 is cut away. In many parts of the state it is noticeable 

 that the remaining woodlands have very little underbrush. 

 This indicates that when the larger trees mature and are re- 

 moved the woods will come to an end. In many cases wood- 



lands are destroyed by the encroachment of grass, which ap- 

 propriates the nutriment in the soil which the trees require, 

 so that they die of starvation. Of course, pasturing is always 

 fatal to woodlands, though some farmers appear never to have 

 observed this fact, or thought of the relation between cause 

 and effect in their own experience in this matter. 



Planting belts of White Pme or other suitable evergreen 

 trees all around a tract of woodland might be some protection 

 from the desiccating influence of the wind, but farmers say 

 they do not know how the grass is to be kept out, especially 

 after the process of thinning the woods is begun by the re- 

 moval of some of the trees for use. If the farm woodlands 

 continue to die out it may become more needful than it has 

 been hitherto to consider the matter of planting trees. But it 

 seems evident in such cases that the present generation of 

 trees perishes by reason of the increasing dryness and impov- 

 erishment of the soil, and tree-planting would not remedy this 

 unless we can find some kinds of trees which will live and 

 thrive on dryer and poorer soil. Perhaps planting evergreens 

 thickly among the trees might be useful in protecting the sur- 

 face from desiccation and from light, and also by detaining 

 the leaves for a niulch, which now mostly blow away from the 

 woods which are nearly destitute of undergrowth. The best 

 kinds of trees to plant are, in nearly all cases, those which are 

 already growing well in similar soil and conditions in each 

 region. 



In the towns of the state and on the grounds about public 

 buildings and private dwellings, as well as around old farm- 

 houses, there are many thousands of trees which should at 

 once be cut down, as they are mature, over-crowded, ugly, or 

 for various reasons unsuited to the places they occupy. In 

 most cases there are far too many of them, they having been 

 planted much too thickly and never adequately thinned. This 

 is true of the grounds around the Capitol at Harrisburg, and 

 of those of the State College in Centre County. Many of the 

 trees in the State-house grounds are misshapen, dwarfed and 

 ugly, and are every year causing increased injury to better 

 trees. At the State College neai'ly all the trees should be cut 

 down. They are only valuable as an illustration of what ought 

 not to be. 



On one side of the principal walk leading up to the college 

 from the main entrance to the grounds there is a close line of 

 Norway Spruces, and on the other a row of White Maples. A 

 more incongruous and unattractive arrangement I have 

 scarcely ever seen. But nobody planned or intended it. It 

 was not designed at all. As in so many similar cases, it sim- 

 ply happened so. There was a nursery there once, and some 

 of the rows of young trees were removed, while others were, 

 unfortunately, left to grow, and they have grown until now it 

 is probable that nobody in the state would dare to cut them 

 down. Yet they are intolerable as a feature of an important 

 educational institution, established and conducted by the state, 

 and which therefore represents the civilization of one of the 

 most important and vital communities of our nation. 



It would be an excellent thing to devote the next Arbor Day 

 in this state to cutting down trees, and to begin the work on 

 the grounds which belong to the state around the Capitol and 

 the State College. J . B. Harrison, 



Snow Shoe, Pa., June 8th, 1889. Cor. Sec. American Forestry Congress. 



Recent Publications. 



West American Oaks. Illustrations of West American Oaks 

 from drawings by the late Albert Kellogg, M.D., with text by 

 Edward L. Greene. 



Dr. Kellogg devoted the last years of his life to the prepara- 

 tion of a series of botanical drawings of the Oaks, Pines and 

 other trees of California and the adjacent regions, which he in- 

 tended to publish ^vith detailed descriptions. He did not live, 

 however, to see this important work completed, and some of 

 his old friends and associates have now secured the pulilica- 

 tion of his excellent figures of the Oaks, in handsome style, 

 with full descriptive and critical notes from the pen of Mr. Ed- 

 ward L. Greene, the necessary funds being provided through 

 the liberality of Mr. Janies M. McDonald. 



The Oaks of California are perhaps the most difficult of all 

 our trees to rightly luiderstand and properly characterize. 

 Some of the species are widely distributed over regions of 

 varied climate, and show marked and striking varieties in 

 different individuals ; others of more restricted range vary 

 greatly, some individuals growing as large trees, or as low and 

 humble shrubs within an area, a few miles in extent. Leaves 

 with entire and with sharply-toothed margins appear some- 

 times upon the same branch, and it is im]5ossible without op- 

 portunity for wide and long study in the fields to reach anything 



