12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 359. 



Even if we are planting to exclude some disagreeable ob- 

 ject from sight it is better to set the trees so that they can 

 have abundant room for their roots and light for their tops, 

 even though during a few years we must wait patiently for 

 the wall of foliage which is to do duty as a screen. If we 

 plant this screen thickly the offensive object will be quickly 

 hidden, but it will be only a short time before the lower 

 branches give up their struggle for life, and there will 

 remain a roof of foliage with bare trunks which hardly 

 obstructs the view. A much more serious matter it is to 

 destroy a good tree that is in the way. It requires firmness 

 of purpose to destroy an object which is beautiful in itself, 

 but it is much better to sutfer a pang for such a loss than to 

 have the life-long vexation of knowing that a tree, though 

 noble in itself, is out of harmony and proportion with its 

 surroundings, or that it compels some inconvenient adjust- 

 ment of walks or drives, and that it will keep on doing this 

 forever. The proper way is to plan and plant for posterity, 

 and even if the removal of a tree leaves a wound which 

 can only be healed in tifty )'ears, it should be remembered 

 that the sapling planted near it will not only fill its place, 

 but make a complete and satisfying picture which will give 

 unalloyed delight for centuries. 



It is not worth while to restate here our often expressed 

 views on the subject of the distribution of seeds as it has 

 been conducted for years by the Federal Department of 

 Agriculture. We are glad to know that the matter was 

 brought before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 last month, and, on the motion of the Hon. Joseph R. 

 Leeson, seconded by Francis H. Appletcin, Esq., the 

 following resolution was unanimously adopted, and copies 

 forwarded to the officials named in it. It is to be hoped 

 that agricultural societies and horticultural societies which 

 are now having their annual meetings will express their 

 views in a similar way, and give the authorities at Wash- 

 ington to understand that the people of the country are 

 tired of this abuse and intend to have it abolished : 



Whereas, more than half a century ago improved varieties 

 of seed were sent out by the official then in charge of that 

 work at Washington, to farmers and gardeners of the country, 

 in order that such seeds might be tested and their practical 

 value ascertained, either over others already in use, or as to 

 their value for introduction and cultivation, 



And whereas, we recognize that the present distribution of 

 seeds from the Department of Agriculture does not meet the 

 original intention as herein indicated, and lias grown to unrea- 

 sonable dimensions (and has become a gratuitous distribution 

 of seeds that the recipient is often unwilling to use), the cost 

 of such distribution in 1893 having been $160,000, 



We, the members of tlie Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety, assembled by our representatives in our hall at Boston, 

 respectfully recommend to the Congress of the United States 

 that the present method of, and appropriation for, the distri- 

 bution of seeds be abolished ; and that in its stead an appro- 

 priation be made of sufficient amount ($35,000 suggested), by 

 which the Department of Agriculture can distribute to the 

 experiment stations, now located in almost every state and 

 territory, such seeds as may to the said department seem wise, 

 and require a report upon the same from the slations, the sta- 

 tions to perform the required work under appropriations 

 already provided for annually ; and direct that the Secretary 

 send a copy of these expressions to each of our Senators and 

 Representatives and to the Secretary of the Department of 

 Agricuhure at Washington. 



Black Walnut in the West. 



1IKE the Catalpa, the Black Walnut can only be grown 

 _^ successfully in a limited portion of the plains. It 

 reaches its greatest development in the rich bottom-lands 

 along the Ohio and Mississippi, and its northern limit is 

 Nicollet County, Minnesota. In the west it is found in the 

 eastern counties of Kansas and Nebraska, but I have not 

 heard of its being found anywhere in South Dakota. It 

 has been extensively planted in Kansas and Nebraska, more 

 than any hard-wood tree, except the Ash. In a moist rich 

 soil it grows quite as rapidly as the Ash, and usually more 



so. On upland soils, especially where there is a stiff sub- 

 soil, as in most prairies, it does not succeed. 



The Black Walnut is a light-demanding tree, and 

 should always be planted far apart among good shade- 

 makers. In this way it will grow tall and rid itself of 

 lateral branches, making a straight clean log, free from 

 faults. Even when planted pure, if set close, the Black 

 Walnut cleans its trunk much better than the Catalpa. At 

 Farlington, Kansas, there are two plats of this tree — one 

 almost pure, and the other a mixture with Wild Cherry, 

 which is a good shade-maker while young. In the pure 

 plat, thirty-five measured trees averaged 3.8 inches in 

 diameter three feet from the ground, and were twenty-four 

 feet high, with laterals within six feet of the ground. In 

 the mixed plat, twenty-six measured trees averaged 

 4.1 inches in diameter and thirty feet high. They had 

 clean trunks to a height of fifteen or eighteen feet, with 

 very small crowns. The trees in the pure plantation had 

 much larger crowns, and really contained more wood in 

 the aggregate, but since this was largely in branches 

 it was of no value. These trees were set in 1878 as year- 

 lings, and they were, therefore, sixteen or seventeen years 

 old when measured. 



At the home of Professor Poponoe, of the Kansas 

 Agricultural College, Manhattan, there is a plat of about 

 two acres of close-planted Black Walnuts which are 

 making a strong and vigorous growth, and they are 

 shedding their lateral branches very well. This plat is 

 in deep soil adjacent to a never-failing spring-stream, so it 

 has abundance of moisture. At Hutchinson, Kansas, Judge 

 Honck planted Black Walnut seed in 1S87 on half an acre 

 of sandy loam, with water within ten to fourteen feet of 

 the surface. Last fall about two hundred trees were found 

 on the plat, which averaged about twenty-five feet high, 

 and specimens eight inches in diameter three feet from the 

 ground, were found. In going from Omaha, Nebraska, to 

 Nebraska City I observed a very fine grove of Black Wal- 

 nuts, averaging fully forty feet high. Good specimens were 

 seen in Hastings and Red Cloud, Nebraska, but only on 

 low deep soil. The tree is doing very vi'ell on the farm of 

 the Nebraska State University at Lincoln. 



In South Dakota, the Black Walnut is not a success. At 

 the Agricultural College of that state a few specimens re- 

 main in mixed plats, set in 1889, but they are weak. At 

 At the Colorado Agricultural College there is a plantation 

 of these trees of about an acre in extent, in which these 

 trees are set twelve to eighteen feet apart both ways, re- 

 sembling an orchard more than a forest-plat. The trees 

 are in vigorous condition, but they have short trunks and 

 large crowns. One of the best measured twenty-one feet 

 high and five inches in diameter three feet from the ground. 

 These trees were grown under irrigation, 

 washinsion. ' Cliarks A. Keffcr. 



Notes on the 



Tree Flora 

 Mountains.- 



of 

 -I. 



the Chiricahua 



BY most people Arizona is thought of as the Sahara of 

 the New World — a land of broad mesas and rugged 

 mountains, where strange Cacti, tall Agaves and wide- 

 spreading Yuccas flourish, while trees and shrubs with 

 broad green leaves and shady foliage are unknown. 



It is true that Arizona has unnumbered miles of broad 

 mesas and sand-blown plains, but even here many species 

 of shrubs, besides perennial and annual herbs, find a con- 

 genial home. Growing, as they do, where the rainfall is 

 light, where there is little dew or other moisture, where 

 the days are successions of bright sunshine, all the plants 

 of the plains have small leaves, or, frequently, none, a dense 

 pubescence, or thick epidermis. Nature, by lessening or 

 protecting the evaporating surface, enables plants inhabit- 

 ing these regions to withstand prolonged drought and the 

 scorching heat of an almost tropical sun. The deep green 

 of other regions here gives way to " Arizona green," a color 

 hard to describe — a sombre gray which harmonizes well 

 with the stretches of sand and rock-strewn hills. 



