I 12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 369. 



indeed, (hat could picture the interior of an apartment trans- 

 formed into any scene having a "landscape" character. 

 Landscape-gardening is one branch of the art ; naturalistic 

 gardening on a small scale is another, with quite different 

 ideals to meet as well as means to employ. No more than the 

 latter branch, on its smallest scale, can be attempted in the 

 coming exhibition, but, even so, right management will be 

 still more difficult than with small formal schemes. 



All this is said not to discourage in any degree the pro- 

 jectors of the exhibition, but to show them, rather, that the 

 difficulties which they will meet will be appreciated by all 

 observers who have thought about work such as they have 

 in hand. It is a good sign that an architect, as well as a 

 gardener, has been engaged to carry out the interesting 

 conception of the Sculpture Society, for, in all formal gar- 

 dening arrangements, architectural ideas must prevail, and 

 to them both the gardener and the sculptor must accom- 

 modate himself. We wish these artists every success in 

 their novel task, and bespeak wide public attention for 

 their exhibition when its doors shall open, feeling assured 

 that they will- show us many things worth seeing in them- 

 selves, and, perhaps, some which will be of utility, as 

 giving hints and suggestions, if not actual models, for the 

 introduction on a much larger scale of more beauty and 

 more variety into our public parks and the surroundings of 

 our homes. 



Honey Locust in the West. 



THE Honey Locust has a much greater western range 

 than the Black Locust, and it possesses many quali- 

 ties that should make it a general favorite. It has been 

 extensively planted, but has been used to a limited extent 

 only. Indeed, so far as I know, its only use, except for 

 fuel, has been as post-timber. The wood is hard and takes 

 on a beautiful polish, while in color and grain it is 

 much more attractive than several fashionable cabinet 

 woods. 



Repeated efforts to grow the Honey Locust at the Agri- 

 cultural College of South Daki.^ta failed. The young seed- 

 lings grew well the first year, but were killed, root and top, 

 the first winter. In north-western Iowa, twenty-five miles 

 north-east of Sioux City, there is a fine specimen of thorn- 

 less Honey Locust, and in the grounds of the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural College is the handsomest thornless Honey Locust 

 tree I have ever seen. Its trunk is about two feet in diam- 

 eter ; the crown is round and well developed, with a spread 

 of branches of about fifty feet across, and altogether it is a 

 tree of great beauty. 



Professor Silas Mason, of the Kansas Agricultural Col- 

 lege, planted a quantity of seed of the thornless variety of 

 the Honey Locust four years ago, and has a half-acre plat 

 of trees from four to nine feet high. Not more than half 

 the trees are free of thorns, and there is every gradation 

 from smooth to very thorny specimens. These thornless 

 Honey Locusts cannot be too highly recommended for 

 lawn planting. They give a light, though sufficient shade, 

 and their finely divided foliage and long brown fruit-pods 

 make them very attractive. 



On the dry uplands of western Kansas the Honey Locust 

 is one of the most flourishing trees, as is proven by the 

 fine growth of a plat of the species at Ogallah, where it 

 surpasses the Black Locust in size. At Hutchinson, in the 

 moist soil of the Arkansas valley, it also makes fine growth, 

 thus proving its wide adaptability. Thrifty trees were 

 seen in the suburbs of Denver, grown under irrigation. 

 Honey Locust grows well throughout central and southern 

 Nebraska. In an eight-year-old plat at Lincoln specimens 

 twenty feet high were seen. 



A number of years ago the Honey Locust was exten- 

 sively tried as a hedge-plant, but it does not lend itself vvell 

 to this use. It is too rampant a grower, and no amount 

 of lopping, weaving, bending and pruning can keep it 



within reasonable bounds. ^, , , ,- r- 



Wasliington. Lharks A. Ae[ler. 



The European House Sparrow in America. 



AVERY complete history of the naturalization of the 

 'so-called English sparrow, Passer domesticus, on 

 this continent, together with some of the results of this 

 introduction, was recently given by Mr. H. C. Oberholser, 

 in a paper read before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 

 Sciences. A condensation of the more important portions 

 of this paper is herewith given : 



The introduction into the fauna of any country of any 

 foreign species is always fraught with the danger that (he 

 absence of natural checks will permit it to multiply with undue 

 rapidity and develop destructive characteristics unknown in its 

 home. There are certain species of tjirds, for example, which 

 it is difficult to naturalize in another country, even when the 

 conditions seem most favorable, as is proved by the frequent . 

 attempts to introduce the European goldfinch and the skylark 

 into tiie United States. But when a species is found suffi- 

 ciently robust to make itself at home under a new environ- 

 ment its very vigor will insure the development of many 

 injurious propensities. If the persons who introduced the 

 English house sparrow into tliis country had made inquiries 

 among tlie farmers of Great Britain and Europe in regard to 

 the reputation of this bird, they would have probably 

 learned that it was hardly a safe species to colonize, having 

 already shown what might liappen by its destructiveness in 

 Australia and New Zealand. The sparrow, however, never 

 developed its full power for evil until it came to America, 

 where its destructive effects have only been paralleled by the 

 introduction of the rabbit into Australia and of the mongoose 

 into Jamaica. 



In the fall of 1850 eight pairs of sparrows were brought to 

 Brooklyn by the directors of the Brooklyn Institute, carefully 

 housed during the winter, and liberated during the spring. 

 The shade-trees of Brooklyn and New York were then being 

 defoliated by the caterpillar of the white Eugonia moth, and 

 it was supposed that the sparrow would suppress this insect. 

 These birds did not multiply fast enough, and in 1853 fifty 

 more were liberated in New York harbor and a colony was 

 placed in Greenwood Cemetery. From 1854 to 1858 sparrows 

 were brought into Portland, Maine, and Peace Dale, Rhode 

 Island, and in i860 more were brought to New York and to 

 Ouebec. In 1867 eighty birds were liberated in New Haven, 

 and in 1868 twenty were imported to Boston. One thousand 

 were brought to Philadelphia the same year; forty were car- 

 ried to Cleveland, and soon after tliey were transported from 

 the eastern cities to San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Halifax and 

 other places. Perhaps this widespread introduction was based 

 partly on sentiment, because certain naturalized Europeans 

 found in the chirp of the sparrow something which reminded 

 them of their native land. But erroneous reportsof the benefit 

 derived from the presence of these birds in the cities where 

 they were first imported made such a demand for them that 

 it was cheaper to bring sparrows directly from Europe than to 

 pay the price asked for them in New York city. 



In the early years of their introduction the sparrows multi- 

 plied with even more than their natural rapidity because they 

 were provided with food, shelter and nesting-places, and 

 watched over with tender solicitude. They are subject to few 

 contagious diseases, and their natural enemies are few. The 

 northern shrike and the screech-owl are their only serious foes 

 among birds, although there are others which attack them 

 occasionally, but since the sparrows associate closely with 

 man, this in a measure relieves them from danger ; and, be- 

 sides this, they have developed a wariness which enalslesthem 

 easily to elude even the cunning cat and otlier domestic ani- 

 mals. Where it is understood that they are as palatable eating 

 as the reedbird, many of them are annually destroyed, but this 

 is only in isolated localities, and it makes small impression on 

 the great mass. The natural hardiness of the bird, its ability 

 to endure Canadian winters and the heat of the tropics makes 

 it at home everywhere when once established ; its natural 

 aggressiveness and marvelous fecundity aids its surprising 

 spread. Where the ground is covered with snow for a long 

 time, and makes it difficult for the sparrow to oljtain nourish- 

 ment, large numbers of them die, but it is from hunger, and 

 not from the severity of the climate. The blizzard of March, 

 1888, destroyed thousands of them in this neighborhood, and 

 for some time they appeared in dinunished numbers. A se- 

 vere storm in Covington, Kentucky, once choked the sewers 

 with dead birds, but Hocks from the neighboring territory soon 

 rushed in to fill up the gap. We may consider 1870 as the year 

 when the sparrow liad become established on this continent, 

 and in five years it had spread over an area of five hundred 



