August 7, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



383 



Beeches and Red Birches, stunted, gnarled and twisted, but they 

 grow in a moist soil comparatively free from stones, and at- 

 tain a height of 20 or 25 feet. On Defeat Knob, a part of Thunder- 

 head, at the very top, is clustered a clump of Rhododendrons 

 covering several acres, compactly growing together. And 

 about this group is an abundance of moist sphagnum, which 

 is fully three inches deep. 



From this meadow, with an entirely unobstructed view, I 

 counted nine distinct mountain ridges lying in various direc- 

 tions. And here on this top, where in May the snow had been 

 "shoe mouth deep," were grazing on fine pasturage hundreds 

 of domestic animals. Truly this was a strange sight ! 



Early in March the Trailing Arbutus had been on sale in Knox- 

 ville market, and the trees were leafing out, while in early May 

 vegetation was well advanced, the trees being in full leaf. Yet 

 on the tops of these mountains in May, when the trees were just 

 expanding the bud, I gathered in their prime. Spring Beauties — 

 Anemones, Trailing Arbutus — all the earliest ifowers of spring. 

 It was a striking fact that the clusters of Arbutus, which were 

 much larger than any I had ever gathered among the hills of 

 New England, were almost entirely devoid of odor. Yet they 

 were exceedingly beautiful. 



I cannot draw this communication to a close without refer- 

 ring to the enormous fields of Rhododendrons, or Laurels, as 

 the mountaineers term them. They, grow in such dense masses 

 that it is absolutely impossible to pass through them, excepting 

 over a bear trail which has been enlarged. For four miles a 

 companion and myself struggled over the trail, passing down 

 Miry Ridge, between thickets of Rhododendrons through which 

 the only course was in the beaten path, just wide enough for 

 cattle to pass on their way to the summits of the Smokies. 

 This ridge, at least 5,000 feet high, comes to a sharp edge, and 

 up the sides to the narrow top crowd these evergreens. And 

 strangest of all, at times the trail is so -mucky and wet that it is 

 almost impassable. Frequently our horses, on a top not over 

 forty feet wide, where one would have thought all moisture 

 would rapidly drain off, sank into the muck above the knees, 

 and nearly stuck fast. 



In almost any direction, from these summits, one can see 

 the dense green, level tops of Rhododendron thickets passing 

 up and down the mountain slopes, and, as my companion re- 

 marked to me, " patches of fifty acres make a mighty small 

 showing." Certain it is, northern people who have never 

 been in these mountains can have no conception of the re- 

 markable abundance of the Rhododendron. 



Knoxville, Tenn. C. S. Plumb. 



The Preservation of Chittenango Falls. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Permit me to report an instance of the preservation 

 of a beautiful natural object by a rural community, a case that 

 is probably quite unique. Two streams flow from the hills of 

 Central New York; one, the Chenango, an Indian name mean- 

 ing waters flowing south ; the other, the Chittenango, the 

 waters flowing nortli. The Chenango winds through broad, 

 fertile valleys until, lost in the Susquehanna, it finds the sea in 

 the gleaming Chesapeake; the Chittenango plunges eight 

 hundred feet within a few miles, over crag and bowlder, to the 

 lowlands, and on through Oneida and Ontario to the wild St. 

 Lawrence. 



Midway between Cazenovia and the village named for the 

 stream, the Chittenango plunges over ledges of the limestone 

 that upholds the hills of many midland counties, and falls one 

 hundred and forty feet into as beautiful an amphitheatre of 

 fern-clad rock as fancy ever painted. (See page 379.) 



Cedars, Hemlocks and kindred trees cling to the ragged 

 cliffs, where, dripping with spray, they shelter rare forms of 

 Scolopendrium vtclgare and other dainty Ferns and flowers. 

 Since Jan Van Lincklaen, an officer of the Dutch navy, won by 

 the beautiful surroundings of Cazenovia Lake (Owahagina), 

 settled the place nearly a century ago, the falls of the Chitten- 

 ango have been dear to all who loved undisturbed nature, and 

 when plans for turning their power to mechanical use were 

 proposed, the idea gave a shock to many of the old residents 

 of the hill-top village, whose solicitude was so aroused that 

 it assumed a protective purpose two years ago. Then a 

 generous "trust" was formed; and money was raised with 

 which the property was purchased; and an especial Act of the 

 Legislature was procured, forming a perpetual trusteeship to 

 hold and guard the falls free and forever. A little prudent 

 work has opened a drive, enabling persons who cannot 

 scramble to view the falls ; but no art will be allowed to mark 

 or mar the exquisite work that centuries have wrought with 

 water, frost and glacier crush — the free-hand tools that have 



rough-hewn the crags which dainty nature decorates anew 

 with the frailest and fairest plants, watered with the spray 

 that drifts from forming rainbows in the sunlight to pearl 

 drops in the shade. 



The general Government has the Yosemite and the Yellow- 

 stone ; New York and Canada have rescued Niagara; and the 

 small rural community of Cazenovia has found the temptation 

 to preserve the Chittenango Falls strong enough to win sev- 

 eral thousand dollars for this unusual and, perhaps, all con- 

 sidered, unique purpose. 



The late Horatio Seymour often said that "good works were 

 catching." Perchance many other picturesque places may 

 yet be saved from the axe, the forest-fire and the heavy tread 

 of material purpose. 



Cazenovia, N. Y. L. 



The Floods in Pennsylvania. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The accounts of the late damages by flood in Pennsyl- 

 vania and New York are accompanied, in nearly every 

 instance, by statements of large losses of timber and lumber, 

 washed away by the high waters. At Milford, Pennsylvania, 

 it is said that $200,000 worth of unidentified lumber was de- 

 posited upon one single farm by the receding waters. The 

 presumpfion, therefore, is that the water-sheds from which these 

 floods originated have been recently and largely denuded. It 

 would be well worth the while of friends of "forestry, accessi- 

 bly situated as to these devastated districts, to look thoroughly 

 into the conditions of these water-sheds, and to publish the 

 scienfific results of their investigations. The statements in 

 the newspapers indirectly confirm what foresters would 

 expect to find as one cause of such unusual floods as have 

 occurred this summer ; that is to say, forest-destruction upon 

 the water-sheds of the streams — and the amount of this destruc- 

 tion is shown by the immense losses of lumber — has pre- 

 sumably helped to swell these floods. Each new flood is 

 headed in the newspapers by "Waterspout," or "Cloud- 

 burst." It is hardly reasonable to suppose that so many of 

 these rare phenomena of Nature have occurred within so lim- 

 ited an area, and within so short a time. It is much nearer 

 the results of experience to say that these terrible floods were 

 caused by heavy, but not unprecedented, rainfall upon surfaces 

 denuded of forest-growth by the axe, or fire, or both, and con- 

 sequently unable to detain or absorb the rainfall, as they had 

 formerly done. I trust that competent persons will be led to 

 investigate the true facts as to the floods referred to. 



Santa Monica, Cai. Abbot Kimiey. 



Recent Publications. 



My Handkerchief Garden. By Charles Barnard. E. H. 

 Libby, New York, 1889. 



Mr. Barnard is popularly said to write on more subjects than 

 any one else, not excepting Mr. Gladstone, and to write ecjually 

 well upon them all. Certainly nothing could be better of its 

 kind than this little volume, into the sixty-nine pages of which 

 is crammed much usefifl information, conveyed in a delight- 

 fully easy way. His " Handkerchief Garden " was a house- 

 plot in a suburl)an town, measiunng twenty-five by sixty feet. 

 In one year it yielded him "a garden, fresh vegetables, exer- 

 cise, health and $20.49," ^'^^^ '^^'^ '^^''7 ^'i<^^ the how are so clearly 

 explained that any one who reads and remembers nectl not 

 despair of doing likewise. How the beginning was made, what 

 work was done, and at what times and seasons ; how prepara- 

 tory plans were laid and plants started in the house, are suc- 

 cessively set forth. A couple of chapters on special products 

 follow, and then two — perliaps the most interesting of all — 

 called "What to Do With a City Yard" and "A City Fruit Gar- 

 den." For those unfortunates who are compelled to pass the 

 whole summer season in large towns, there is a wealth of 

 happy suggestiveness in these pages, where we find no vague 

 bits of general advice, but exact directions, what is best to 

 plant, and how to plant it, and sketch-plans illustrating the text. 

 We should have liked to see more attention paid to flowers, 

 the culture of vegetables being that which Mr. Barnard most 

 insistently recommends. Nevertheless, it is certainly true, as 

 he says, tluit while vegetables can be cheaply bouglit in the 

 city, it is hard to get any of them fresh, and many kinds can- 

 not be considered perfectly fresh except when gathered just 

 before they are eaten. No extracts from the little volume 

 woifld be valuable — its merit is in its continuity and careful 

 regard for details. Nor would it in any case be necessary to 

 cull for our readers' benefit any information from a work 

 which can be purchased for so small a sum as twenty-five 

 cents. 



