142 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 372. 



to advise in the selection of the ground and in iLxing its 

 boundaries. It is very plain that these boundaries can be 

 much more intelligently laid when something like a gen- 

 eral scheme has been decided upon by the designer. It 

 will cost less money, it will be a safeguard against expen- 

 sive and ruinous mistakes, and it will enable the city to 

 acquire priceless possessions that otherwise will be lost 

 forever. 



Very rarely has a community had so splendid an oppor- 

 tunity for a series of pleasure-grounds. Their design should 

 be entrusted to no one who does not stand in the very 

 front rank of his profession. Let us hope that Essex 

 County will prove herself equal to the occasion. 



A California Brook Side. 



CALIFORNIA has such a wide variety of soils and 

 climates that its experiment stations are properly dis- 

 tributed about the state, and when the system is complete, 

 one who visits the main outlying stations in succession 

 will traverse a road which varies in altitude from the sea- 

 level to 8,000 feet above it, and make a journey of 3,000 

 miles before he finishes the circuit. The Chico Forestry 

 Station is in Butte County, in the upper Sacramento valley, 

 and beautifully situated south of Chico Creek. The work 

 there has already been described by our correspondent, 

 Mr. Shinn, and that much of the land hereabout is favora- 

 ble to tree growth is evidenced by the fact that the 

 famous Hooker Oak, on the grounds of General Bidwell, 

 which was illustrated and described in Garden and 

 Forest, vol. iii., page 606, is only a mile from the sta- 

 tion. The illustration on page 145, from a photograph 

 sent by Mr. Shinn, is given to show a characteristic 

 bit of scenery in this neighborhood, the view being 

 taken from a point on Chico Creek. Except in the higher 

 mountains of California, there is usually a less shrubby 

 undergrowth along the brooks than there is in the eastern 

 states, and they are, therefore, less attractive. What strikes 

 the eastern visitor most is the fact that the Alders which 

 often line their banks are large trees instead of shrubs, as 

 they are here, and that our low-growing Willows are also 

 replaced by trees of considerable size. The principal trees 

 in this picture are the Plane-trees or Sycamores, Platan us 

 racemosa, which the early botanical explorers confounded 

 with our Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, until it was dis- 

 tinguished by Nuttall in 1835. The tree sometimes reaches 

 one hundred and twenty feet in height, with a trunk as 

 much as nine feet in diameter above its broad tapering 

 base, often free of branches for half its height, but more 

 frequently dividing into several secondary stems near the 

 ground, reclining or prostrate for twenty or thirty feet after 

 they separate. The branches of these trees are long, spread- 

 ing and contorted, making an open round-topped, though 

 irregular, head. It is found in the valleys and along the 

 banks of streams, and is one of the noblest deciduous- 

 leaved trees on the Pacific coast. 



Scotch Pine in the West. 



OF the various conifers easily obtainable in the com- 

 mercial nurseries, the Scotch Pine, Pinus sylvestris, 

 has succeeded over a wider area than any other, with the 

 exception of the Red Cedar. It seems to do equally well 

 in Dakota and Kansas, and one of the best \vind-breaks that 

 I have seen is made of Scotch and Austrian Pines at Ains- 

 worth, Nebraska, near the one-hundredth meridian, on high 

 dry prairie. These Pines were two years old when planted, 

 nine years ago, and they are now from twelve to eighteen 

 feet high, and average eighteen inches in circumference 

 two feet from the ground. Armstrong is ten miles south 

 of the Niobrara River, and the soil is the usual clay loam 

 of the plains. Notwithstanding the unprecedented drought 

 of last year these Pines made a fair growth and were stocky 

 and vigorous when examined in October. 



In the spring of 1888, five hundred Scotch Pines, from 



eight to fifteen inches high, were received at the South Da- 

 kota Agricultural College. The trees were set in nursery 

 rows, cultivated and mulched, and eighty-six per cent, of 

 them grew, the average growth for the season being four 

 inches. The following spring these trees were set in mixed 

 plantation with Silver Maple, Birch and Cottonwood. The 

 transplanting was carefully done, but a poor stand resulted. 

 In October, 1894, the Pines averaged four feet high, the 

 tallest being eight feet nine inches. The average growth 

 for the past dry year was eleven inches. This illustrates 

 very well the action of the Scotch Pine throughout the 

 west. As with most other conifers, it is difficult for it to 

 become established, but once a stand is secured there is no 

 further difficulty. 



There are a number of fine Scotch Pines at Arbor Lodge, 

 the home of the Secretary of Agriculture at Nebraska City, 

 Nebraska. One of these measured thirty-two feet in height 

 and five feet in girth, breast-high. Standing in the open it 

 had branched freely near the ground, making a broad 

 spreading crown. At Franklin, in Nebraska, the south tier of 

 counties and near the ninety-ninth meridian west, the 

 Scotch Pine is vigorous, and trees ten years from the seed 

 measured twelve feet high. A tree that had been planted 

 in prairie sod when two feet high, ten years ago, measured 

 fifteen and one-half feet high. It is impossible to imagine 

 a condition of greater drought than prevailed at Franklin 

 last year. When seen in October the land showed no trace 

 of moisture, even in the fields. 



Scotch Pine was tried in an experimental planting in the 

 Sand Hills of central Nebraska, but only a few trees lived, 

 butthesedidnot equal the Banksian Pine in growth. The soil 

 of the region is nearly pure sand, raised in high ridges and 

 almost devoid of vegetation, only a few species of the 

 hardiest plants growing on it. 



Fine young specimens of Scotch Pine were seen in the 

 suburbs of Denver, where all trees are irrigated. In the rich 

 sandy loam of the Smoky Hill River, at Salina, Kansas, the 

 Scotch Pine flourishes, many large trees growing in the 

 lawns of that pretty prairie town. At Ogallah, on the high 

 dry plains of western Kansas, one Scotch Pine, planted 

 several years ago in the unbroken prairie sod, is growing 

 slowly, but is evidently in perfect health. At the Kansas 

 Agricultural College, Manhattan, the Scotch Pine has not 

 succeeded as well as the Austrian Pine in close plantation. 

 It has grown taller, but does not look as vigorous. How- 

 ever, the comparison is hardly fair, as there are many more 

 Austrian than Scotch Pines in the plat, and the latter are 

 more closely planted. 



It is safe to assume that, once the trees have survived 



their first year in their prairie home, no conifer that has 



thus far been largely tested gives better results in the west 



than the Scotch Pine. ^, , ^ r- n- 



Washington, D. c. Charles A. Aeffer. 



Exhaustion of Soil by Trees. 



CORRESPONDENT of The Counfiy Gentleman writes 

 as to the comparative exhausting power of different 

 kinds of forest-trees upon the soils where they have grown. 

 He had heard that the Pine-barrens are so called because 

 Pine woods made land barren and that certain native spe- 

 cies . are poison to land. The letter was referred to Mr. 

 B. E. Fernow, chief of the Forestry Division of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and we quote the main points in his 

 reply : 



As far as exhaustion of minerals from the soil is concerned, 

 no fear need be entertained, since forest-trees require only the 

 smallest quantity of the commoner kinds of minerals from the 

 soil, and in addition they return the l)ulk of these to the soil 

 in a more soluble form by the fall of leaves and twigs; hence 

 they improve the top soil, as is well known. The foliage of 

 some trees decomposes more readily than tliat of others, and 

 forming a humus of more or less desirable composition, this 

 beneficial effect varies with the species ; thus, while the coni- 

 fers, especially Larch and -Spruce, as well as the Beech, are 

 among the greatest improvers of soils, the humus from Catal- 

 pas, Black Locust, etc., is of little use, while the foliage of the 



