December i8, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



601 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUHLISHED WEEKLY 1!Y 



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, DECEMBER 18, 1889. 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles :— Our Forest lnlrrests. — The Training o£ Gardeners. — 



Michau.\'s American Gardi ii 6oi 



Abraham's Oak (Illustrated.) 602 



The Art of Gardening — An Historical Sketch. — XV. 



Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 602 

 Holiday Notes in Southern France and Northern Italy. — VIH. 



George Nicholson. 603 



Entomological : — A Tulip Tree Leaf Destroyer. (With Figure ) J. G. Jack. 604 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 605 



Cultural Department: — Christmas Roses D. De^var, O. 607 



Leading American Apples T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 608 



Orchid Notes John Weathers, F. Goldring. 609 



Heating Green-houses IV. N. Taplin. 609 



Propagating IV, N, Taplin. 610 



Chrysanthemums T. D. H. 610 



Carnations John Thorpe. 610 



Kalanchoe carnea f. N. Gerard. 610 



Correspondence: — December in California Charles H. Shinn. 610 



Trees and Telegraph Wires Professor IV, IV. Bailey. 610 



A New Station for Polypodium Scouleri Lorenzo G. Yates, 611 



A Good Native Shrub E. Lewis Sturtevant. 611 



Periodical Literature 611 ^ 



Notes 612 



Illustrations: — Cecidoniyia liiiodendri, Fig. 152 605 



Abraham's Oak, Fig. 153 607 



Our Forest Interests. 



WHEN forestry is first brought to their attention many- 

 persons think chiefly of tree-planting, of the effect 

 of forests on rainfall, and other things which are not essen- 

 tial or of the greatest practical importance. Their first im- 

 pressions are likely to be superficial and inadequate. The 

 question of the effect of forests on rainfall has not been 

 determined. It is a matter for accurate and continued 

 scientific investigation, without which all opinions and 

 theories regarding the subject are alike worthless, because 

 they cannot be verified. The point of general practical 

 interest here is the function of forests, especially of moun- 

 tain forests, in the distribution of the water that falls upon 

 them as rain or snow. The doctrine of rational and prac- 

 tical forestry regarding this matter is, that forests retain the 

 water in the spongy mass of their floor, retarding its de- 

 scent to the channels of streams, and thus prevent or mod- 

 ify both freshets and drought. This effect of the forests 

 upon the streams which have their sources in them is of 

 great practical value ; it is not beyond the range of popular 

 appreciation, but can be verified, without special scientific 

 training, by any observing person who will go into the 

 woods in a hill-country during a heavy rainfall This is 

 one of the essential facts or fundamental principles of for- 

 estry, and it should be urged upon popular attention until 

 it is "in the air" everywhere, a part of the universal 

 thought and established knowledge of the time. 



Tree-planting on a small scale, if intelligently and care- 

 fully done, would be useful almost anywhere as an educa- 

 tional experiment. It would help to awaken and increase 

 interest in subjects connected with the care and uses of 

 trees, and it should everywhere be encouraged. But it is 

 not forestry, is not necessarily any part or feature of it, 

 and it is not best that people should take one thing for an- 

 other without knowing it. In all the eastern part of our 

 country the trees will come in again, and the forests repro- 

 duce themselves, if they are cut off in the right way, and 

 the land is afterward guarded from fire and pasturage, and 

 this natural perpetuation of the forest is of far greater im- 

 portance here than planting trees. 



Looking at forest interests in this country in a practical 

 way, it is plain that the care of individual holdings of tim- 

 ber-lands, and the methods best adapted to perpetuate the 

 growth and production of timber on the farms of the 

 United States, are matters of great and increasing import- 

 ance. The existing condition and practice are unsatisfac- 

 tory, because there is, generally, very little system, plan 

 or management. The future is largely left to chance, or 

 to take care of itself This branch of forestry is obviously 

 a part of agriculture. It is chiefly an economical subject, 

 and there is not much need or room for sentiment or mys- 

 tery connected with it. It has not yet begun to receive 

 adequate attention among the farmers of our country. The 

 diffusion of knowledge and propagation of sound and prac- 

 tical ideas regarding the care of farm woodlands, and the 

 value of timber as a permanent crop, should be a promi- 

 nent feature of the work of the Granges and other organi- 

 zations of farmers, as well as of local and state forestry 

 associations. 



The value of mountain forests, and the necessity of 

 maintaining forest-conditions permanently on lands around 

 the sources of mountain streams, are most vital and im- 

 portant features of scientific and practical forestry. They 

 urgently require attention in this state, in Pennsylvania, 

 New Hampshire and the other states intersected by our 

 eastern mountain-system. The effects of the permanent 

 destruction of forest-conditions over large areas of moun- 

 tain country are so far-reaching and fatal that indifference 

 and inattention constitute a crime against civilization and 

 the nation's life. The fate of the mountain forests on the 

 lands which still belong to the nation is one of the most 

 momentous of all the problems now presented to the 

 American people, and its decision will determine the future 

 of vast areas in the western part of our country, whether 

 they shall be fertile, populous and prosperous, or irre- 

 claimably barren, and, in large degree, uninhabitable. 

 The danger, and the necessity of prompt action in with- 

 drawing the forest-lands of the public domain from sale, 

 and of guarding them effectively from spoliation until a 

 competent commission decides what portions should be 

 kept permanently in forest, and presents a plan for na- 

 tional forest -management, should be urged upon Congress 

 and the President by the people and press of the entire 

 country in the most direct, clear and forcible manner. 



The herbariums entered for the prize offered by Mr. Peter 

 Henderson made one of the most interesting features of the 

 exhibition atthe last meeting of the Society of American Flor- 

 ists. The collection which won the first premium was the 

 work of a young gardener, and it is described by a corre- 

 spondent of The American Florist as consisting of good, 

 typical specimens, carefully mounted, correctly named, 

 neatly tied in folios marked with outside labels to indicate 

 the natural orders, arranged in botanical sequence and with 

 a full index, and placed in an attractive and serviceable 

 cabinet. Now, herbariums in themselves are of little prac- 

 tical value unless they are large and are used systemat- 

 ically. But when a young man sets out in serious earnest to 

 make a good collection of well-preserved plants, the train- 

 ing which he receives in cultivating habits of observation, 

 order and accuracy, and in acquiring a general knowl- 

 edge of plants, will be of immense value to him all the rest 

 of his life. In some of the establishments of Europe 

 the making of herbariums has been long considered a 

 valuable aid in the education of gardeners. In the 

 article referred to we are told that Mr. Henderson him- 

 self received two medals for similar work before he 

 was eighteen years old, and he testifies that the inter- 

 ested and careful preparation of these specimens did 

 much toward developing methodical habits and laying 

 the foundation for business success. There are many in- 

 dications of a growing belief that the prosperous gardener 

 of the future will be a man who has made some progress 

 in the sciences related to horticulture, and who has en- 

 joyed some special training in the art. The collection and 



