November 13, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



541 



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, NOVEMBER 13, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Work Among the Trees.— Do Not Undertake Too Much. 541 

 The Art of Gardening. XIII. — Roman Country-Seats, 



BIfs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 542 



Autumn Cnlors of Foliage J. G. Jack. 543 



The India Rubber Tree. (With illustration.) 544 



New or Little Known Plants :— Staphylea Bolanderi. (With figure.).. . C. S. S. 544 



Plant NorES ;— The Cloudberry (Rubus Chamffimorus) J. M. Macoun. 544 



Foreign Correspondence; — London Letter ^V- Watson. 546 



Cultural Department : — Autumn Crocuses D. Dewar. 547 



Notes on Forcing VV. H. Taflin. 548 



Spiraea Kamschatika; Sternbergia lutea : Catasetum Bungerothii O. 549 



Storing Root Crops C. G. 549 



Prolonging the Tomato Season Professor E. S. Goff. 549 



Correspondence : — The National Flower Mary Fuller. 549 



Chrysanthemums at Orange, New Jersey G. 550 



Recent Publications 55i 



Notes 55 1 



Illustrations :— Staphylea Bolanderi (Fig. 142) 545 



Ficus elastica in the Botanic Garden at Peradenya, Ceylon (Fig. 143) 547 



Work Among the Trees. 



IT is now rather late to plant trees, at least in this latitude 

 and further northward. This does not mean that all 

 trees planted later than this will certainly die, for it is possi- 

 ble to remove them at any time during the winter. Never- 

 theless, trees set out in late autumn are exposed to unusual 

 dangers. The ground will not have time to settle firmly 

 about the roots, which will be loosened as the top sways 

 in the wind. The tree will be more easily Hfted by frost 

 and its hold upon the soft earth will be more insecure in 

 time of a thaw. Even if these dangers are warded off by 

 careful staking, there is the more serious one which threat- 

 ens the tree from its lack of feeding roots to supply the 

 moisture which the drying winds of winter absorb from 

 trunk and limbs, leaving them shriveled and lifeless. A 

 tree planted in early autumn, in ground thoroughly settled, 

 will throw out roots enough before winter sets in to supply 

 this drain. 



Now is the time, however, to prepare for planting next 

 spring. Where trees are to be set, ample pits should be 

 dug, the more ample, the better for the health and beauty 

 of the future trees. A hole three feet deep and twenty feet 

 across is none too spacious for a long-lived tree. Into 

 these excavations the loam taken out should be returned, 

 together with enough peat or good soil added and 

 thoroughly mixed with it to supply the place of the poor 

 subsoil, hard-pan and stones which should be rejected. 

 This will settle into a firm bed for the roots of the young 

 trees next spring, when they are placed in the shallow hole, 

 which can then be quickly dug in the centre of the large 

 one. If the young trees have not already been secured 

 and heeled in for the winter, they should be bought now 

 and placed in a cold pit or cellar. It is bad practice to 

 wait until spring to select nursery stock, for at that time 

 the nurserymen are overwhelmed with orders, and they 

 cannot give proper attention to the lifting and packing of 

 their stock. 



Planting in spring is half done when it is well begun in 

 autumn. This is an important point gained in tree plant- 

 ing, for time at that season is precious here in the cold 

 north, when the great volume of vegetable life, liberated 



by a few days of sunshine, rushes all at once into full ac- 

 tivity. To take advantage of this sudden change from 

 winter into summer, everything must be in readiness at 

 the first moment when the ground is dry enough to work 

 and the weather will permit it. No matter how thoroughly 

 we prepare for this season, the working days of spring 

 will be found too few and too short for all the operations 

 which must be crowded into them, and the prudent planter 

 will leave nothing undone which will lessen or facilitate 

 his labors then. 



But care for growing trees is quite as essential as the 

 planting of new ones ; indeed, as has been often repeated, 

 time and labor are worse than wasted in planting unless 

 the after care is intelligent, determined, ceaseless. Now is 

 the best time for pruning trees, before work among them 

 is rendered unpleasant and unsafe by extreme weather, and 

 perhaps a coating of ice upon the limbs. Many deciduous 

 trees, which seem to be going into decline, can be started 

 into new life by a judicious cutting away of dead or dying 

 branches; but the limbs should invariably be cut back 

 even with the surface of the trunk and the wound should 

 be covered with coal-tar. 



This is the season, too, for studying plantations and 

 marking for removal trees which are injuring their more 

 valuable neighbors. No tree can attain its full stature or its 

 noblest expression or have a reasonable hope of longevity 

 unless it is fully exposed to the influence of air and sun- 

 shine. Most of our parks and gardens are disfigured by 

 trees which have been dwarfed or starved or forced out of 

 shape by aggressive neighbors. Planting for immediate 

 effect means overcrowding usually, and when the saplings 

 begin to struggle with each other for the mastery, delay is 

 fatal, for they will begin at once to spindle up or bend away 

 toward the light, and soon all will be deformed past 

 remedy. 



These autumn days can be used to no better purpose by 

 one who has trees, or hopes to have them, than by a 

 thorough study of his grounds before the snow covers 

 them, a thorough preparation for getting through the spring 

 work without hurry, and a resolute use of the axe wherever 

 thinning out or tree-surgery is needed. 



We have spoken of autumn as a season of preparation 

 for work among the trees, and we might have added that no 

 time is more suitable for making plans for next 3^ear's 

 operations in every part of the garden and grounds. Now 

 that the summer vegetation is cleared away, the entire 

 place can be studied, and any desirable changes in the 

 general design can be mapped out. But just at this point 

 a word of caution should be spoken. Do not attempt too 

 much. Do not undertake to cultivate too much ground. 

 Do not try to grow too great a variety of plants. There 

 is more pleasure and more profit in cultivating a small 

 garden thoroughly well and in getting the most out of it 

 than can be had from a large piece of ground half culti- 

 vated. It is a common mistake to undertake more than 

 can be thoroughly well done. Every man who cultivates a 

 garden, whether he is rich or poor, suffers from this na- 

 tional tendency. We want to grow everything, and a 

 great deal of it, and the result is that nothing is well done 

 and men rarely get the satisfaction from their gardens 

 which their expenditure of labor and energy and money 

 entitles them to. No one man, whatever his resources 

 may be, can grow all sorts of plants well, or get from 

 them all they are capable of. The men who derive the 

 greatest pleasure from gardening are those who grow a 

 few plants, and study thoroughly their needs and habits 

 and learn all about them. And it is such men, specialists, 

 perhaps, they should be called, who advance horticulture, 

 and who, in getting the most for themselves out of their 

 gardens, do the most to increase knowledge and so to 

 advance the interests of the community. It is due to the 

 specialists from Dean Herbert to the intelligent men of 

 the present day who are satisfied with growing and study- 

 ing one class of plants, wringing from them all their 



