January 2, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



I'UliLISHED 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. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article; — The Forests of the National Domain i 



Utility and Landscape Syhester Baxter. 2 



Christmas in the Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 3 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. IVatson. 3 



New or Little-known Plants: — Streptocarpus Dyeri. (With figure.). . /K. IV. 5 



Plant Notes 6 



Cultural Department; — Germinating Nuts and Acoriis y. G. Jack. 6 



Notes on Lilies F. H. Harsford. 7 



Propagatint; Ficus elasfica William Scott. 7 



Romneya Coulteri > E. D. Stttrievant. 7 



Protecting Peach-trees Fred IV. Card. 7 



Cliorozemas, Streplusolen Jamesonii IV. N. Crai^. 8 



Correspondence: — The Chestnut Weevil li. A. S. 8 



Some Aspects of British Forestry S. .4. 8 



R ecent Publications 9 



Notes 10 



Illustration ; — Streptocarpus Dyeri, Fig. i 5 



The Forests of the National Domain. 



THE small company of forward-looking people who, 

 in the face of almost universal apathy, had been 

 for years urging the necessity of some rational sys- 

 tem of management for the forests on our national domain, 

 felt greatly encouraged ten years ago when President 

 Arthur was moved to mention the subject in one of his 

 annual messages. " We have no systematic forest-policy 

 yet, not even the beginning of such a policy, but we are 

 no longer surprised or unduly elated over the fact that men 

 in places of high authority consider the matter worth talk- 

 ing about, at least. President Cleveland, like his imme- 

 diate predecessors, in his message to Congress, which 

 assembled last month, strongly advised that some adequate 

 protection should be provided for the areas of forest which 

 had been reserved by proclamation, and he also recom- 

 mended the adoption of some comprehensive scheme of 

 forest-management. He condemned the present policy of 

 the Government of surrendering for small considerations 

 immense tracts of timber-land which ought to be reserved 

 as permanent sources of timber-supply, and urged the 

 prompt abandonment of this wasteful policy for a con- 

 servative one, which should recognize in a practical way 

 the importance of our forest-inheritance as a vital element 

 of the national prosperity. 



The House of Representatives, too. has taken prompt 

 action upon Mr. McRae's bill, entitled. An Act to 

 protect Public Forest Reservations. The provisions of 

 the bill are simple. It authorizes the employment of 

 the army to patrol these reservations, as has been done 

 effectively in the Yellowstone Park and in the Yosemite 

 Valley, and it empovi'ers the Secretary of the Interior to 

 make regulations in regard to their occupancy, to utilize 

 the timber of commercial value they contain, and to pre- 

 serve the forest-cover from destruction. It also empowers 

 the Secretary of the Interior to cut and sell timber on non- 

 reserved lands under the same rules as those made for the 

 forest reservations, provided that it shall be first shown 

 that such cuttings shall not be injurious to the public in- 



terests. The bill had some unfortunate features, but any 

 system which regulates the use of public timber is better 

 than the indiscriminate plunder that has been going on 

 hitherto, and the authorization to use the military for pro- 

 tective purposes is altogether commendable. The bill was 

 amended, however, so as to strike out, if we understand it 

 correctly, the provisions relating to non-reserved lands, and 

 it restricts the sale of timber on the reservations to trees 

 that are dead or mature, thus limiting skilled forest prac- 

 tice, instead of authorizing trained foresters to make their 

 own selection, and, worse than all, it grants free supplies 

 of timber from the reservations to miners and settlers. 



It is to be hoped that when this measure comes before 

 the Senate that its original features will be restored. In 

 its present form it does little more than to expose the 

 timber on the reservations to new dangers. We are 

 judging, it is true, from the newspaper accounts, and the 

 published text of the bill may show that the amendments 

 are not so bad as they seem. If military protection is 

 assured, that is one step forward, but if such protection is 

 made possible only when the War Department shall con- 

 sider it worth while, it is a very short step, indeed. No 

 doubt, any measure which gives the assurance of efficient 

 policing of the reservations, or efficiently controls the cut- 

 ting of public timber, is to that extent a gain, but v\'e cer- 

 tainly want something more definite and decisive than the 

 McRae bill as it now stands. 



And, while measures of this sort are being prepared 

 and pressed for passage, why shall we not take immediate 

 steps to examine this magnificent forest-property of ours 

 in a more thorough manner than has yet been done, so that 

 we can obtain facts to guide us in framing future laws, or, 

 at least, to enable us to administer them intelligently.' 

 Seven years ago we urged the withdrawal of all these lands 

 from sale until a comprehensive report should have been 

 made by some commission capable of deciding what lands 

 to sell and what to hold forever in forest, and we then pro- 

 posed that, pending such a report, they should all be put 

 under military protection. Why not provide for such a 

 commission now, and begin the investigation at once.? 

 This work would not interfere with the adoption of any 

 protective policy, and certainly we can get no laws which 

 go farther and deeper, and furnish a comprehensive sys- 

 tem of forest-management until we have secured posses- 

 sion of forests to inanage. The appointment of such a 

 commission need not be deferred until the passage of a 

 protective law. Its creation would be entirely independent 

 of other action. The work of the commission certainly 

 would not obviate the need of forest-protection. It would 

 be in quite another field to furnish facts as a basis for 

 future legislation which shall embrace a detailed manage- 

 ment of the forests. If such legislation were devised at 

 once, the very first thing done by the officials created under 

 it would be to make just such a forest-survey as a com- 

 mission would make. This means that the appointment 

 of such a commission as we contemplate would not dis- 

 turb the administration of any law, but would in every 

 wa}' be in harmony with it. and help to carry out its spirit. 



The nation holds these magnificent forests in trust for 

 future generations. We certainly cannot know too much 

 about their extent, their value and their character, and we 

 cannot learn these things too soon. No Congressman who 

 opposes other forest-laws need object to the inauguration 

 of such a survey, because a commission can do nothing 

 except to disseminate knowledge and furnish facts as a 

 foundation for future action. Even if every recommenda- 

 tion of the commissitsn should be rejected, we can think of 

 nothing which would be a more powerful stimulus to pub- 

 lic opinion than a comprehensive report upon our forest 

 resources. The discussion which would be aroused by 

 such a report, with its accompanying recommendations, 

 would be an educational force of the highest value, and 

 our only hope for legislation, immediate or in the future, 

 depends upon the creation of such a public sentiment as 

 will compel action. 



