April io, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



149 



interests. No one cares to study forestry, and our legislators, as a 

 rule, oppose all bills which involve expenditures of public 

 money except in relation to matters in which they are person- 

 ally interested. 



A small plat of two acres of trees in rows was started about 

 eighteen years ago on our college farm, and has proved of 

 considerable interest to a few persons. This farm, which 

 originally contained rather more than a square mile, and con- 

 sisted almost entirely of virgin forest, has been cleared, until 

 now little more than two hundred acres remains of what, by a 

 charitable construction, may be termeil woodland. Owing 

 partly, perhaps, to frequent changes of professors ot agriculture 

 in the College, who had control of both the cultivated fields and 

 the woodlands, there has been no settled system of management 

 of the forest. During the past winter the State Board of Agri- 

 culture conferred with the Professor of Forestry and with the 

 Professor of Agriculture, and it was decided to attempt some 

 systematic improvement of the College woodlands in an unos- 

 tentatioiis and inexpensive way. South of one of the two 

 railroads which cross the rear part of the farm is a tract of 

 seventy-five acres, considerably broken by a marsh and many 

 small cat holes. This has been cut over from time to time 

 and in places some of the undergrowth has been killed l)y 

 fires, wliile many seedlings and sprouts have been destroyed 

 by cattle and sheep, while the inroads of grass have been en- 

 couraged. This area is to be cleared of all woody growths 

 and the land subdued by pasturing and crops, and then the 

 whole plat is to be planted with trees, according to what is recog- 

 nized as the most scientific practice. Another section of 

 seventy-five acres is more heavily timbered, inuch of it with 

 Beech and American Elm. A strip on the north-east of a 

 fence adjoining a railroad track has been cleared. This will 

 be pastured by sheep for a year or two and then back-fired in 

 such a way as to help in preventing fires from getting into the 

 woods. The considerable quantity ot Oak on this tract was 

 removed four years ago, as the trees were losing rather than 

 gaining in value. A tract of fifteen acres to the north was 

 nearly cleared of timber some years ago, and all the trees 

 larger than a man's arm that remain will be removed, so that 

 the young trees antl sprouts can have a good chance to grow 

 evenly and occupy the land. Farther to the north, and sepa- 

 rated from this tract by fields in cultivation, is a narrow strip 

 containing fifty-four acres of good land, and here is the best 

 timber standing on tlie farm. The strip is longest from east 

 to west and slopes to the north adjoining Cedar River. A space 

 four rods wide will be cut north and south through the mid- 

 dle ; this will Be kept clean and will illustrate one method of 

 preventing the spread of fires, and at suitable times it will be 

 liack-fired. 



From all this land which is to be retained in forest the old 

 logs and dead brush should be removed or burned in open 

 places. None of it has been pastured, and it contains a fine 

 growth of young timber in variety. The whole tract has been 

 surveyed and staked off into plats of some ten acres each, and 

 a record will be made of the present condition of each and 

 notes will be made of all future operations. Not a conifer can 

 be found, with the exception of a few small Tamaracks, on 

 any of these tracts. Native coniferous trees in variety will be 

 planted in open places which suit them, especially in the nar- 

 low strip of a river. It is not expected that each plot will be 

 treated alike. In a few slightly shaded places where the soil 

 is light and drj', seeds of the common Locust will be sown or 

 sprouts planted. We are induced to try the Locust in this wav, 

 since a few of these trees growing in our arboretum are now 

 large enough to make good telegraph poles, and yet they are 

 only twelve years old from sprouts. 



There are other areas of woodland, one of them a piece of 

 rough new ground which we proposed to turn into woodland, 

 but there is no need to give any further details. My purpose 

 in writing is to show that we are preparing here to have some 

 practical instruction in forestry, and to invite suggestions as to 

 the best method of managing our woodlands. 



Agricultural College, Michigan. J^. J- Beat. 



Recent Publications. 



A Popular Treatise on /he Physiology of Plaiils. By Dr. 

 Paul Sorauer. Translated by F. E. Weiss. Longmans, 

 Green & Co., London and New York. 



This title is not of itself sufficiently descriptive of the 

 book, which is not onl)' a treatise on plant physiology, but 

 a treatise prepared for a special purpose — namely, "for the 

 use of gardeners or for students of horticulture and of agri- 

 culture. " Professor Sorauer is something of an authority 



in certain branches of botany, but he was also for years 

 director of an institution for the scientific training of gar- 

 deners, and, therefore, in preparing his book he not only 

 aims to describe the various organs of plants, with their 

 functions, but to show how these scientific principles can 

 be put to practical application. Of course, general stu- 

 dents of botany will finct in the book what is to be expected 

 in a treatise on vegetable physiology, but its primary value 

 lies in the fact that it has been written expressly for stu- 

 dents of horticulture, and it constantly sets forth the scien- 

 tific reasons for the best practice in propagating and culti- 

 vating plants. The opening paragraph of the book states 

 that a gardener should not look upon a plant as unchange- 

 able and restricted to a definite form, but as a plastic 

 organism, capable of modification in all its parts. He 

 should, therefore, be acquainted with the various functions 

 of the plant, so that he may know how to regulate the con- 

 ditions of its life in order to effect such changes as will 

 adapt it most successfully to specific use. He must know 

 the processes and the reasons for them which cause hard 

 roots to become thick and succulent, as in the case of 

 beets, and hard fruits to become large and juicy by an in- 

 crease of their softer tissue, as in the case of apples and 

 pears, and, in general, how to modify and change, where 

 it is necessary, the normal development of a plant, as well 

 as to cultivate it in its natural form. 



Professor Weiss, who translates the book, after undertak- 

 ing a course of lectures on vegetable physiology at the 

 Botanical Institute in Manchester, England, reali/;ed the 

 need of some work which combined science and practice 

 ill this natural way, and as there was no such work in 

 the English language he translated Professor Sorauer's 

 book, and thus has laid English students of horticulture 

 under obligations. Now and then we find an apparent 

 lack of familiarity with the very latest discoveries of 

 science. The book, however, may be trusted as substan- 

 tially accurate, and it has a special value because the prac- 

 tical use of this scientific truth is constantly borne in mind. 

 For example, the author does not simply show what nutri- 

 tive substances are needed by a plant, but he sets forth in 

 detail the ways in which these should be prepared and 

 administered to serve the best purpose. When it is ex- 

 plained that the roots of plants need air, it is also explained 

 how the soil should be handled to meet this requirement. 

 When the student is told how roots should be treated in 

 repotting and transplanting, the reason for every step is 

 added, and all the ordinary processes in horticultural prac- 

 tices are discussed in the same way. It would be difficult 

 even for a skilled horticulturist to read the chapter on the 

 Philosophy of Pruning, or the one on the Different Methods 

 of Propagating from Shoots, without obtaining some ideas 

 which would help him to do his work more intelligently 

 and efficiently. Altogether, the book can be commended 

 as a thoroughly useful one in a hitherto almost neglected 

 field. It is a matter of regret that Professor Weiss did not 

 go a little beyond mere translation and bring the science of 

 the book thoroughly up to date in every point. 



Notes. 



Trim plants of Boronia heleroi>hylla, with their bell-shaped 

 little flowers of brilliant carnu'ne or crimson, have become 

 quite common as plants for Easter decoration. It is an Aus- 

 tralian shrub, resembling B. elatior, but much neater in habit 

 and more floriferous. 



Among the cuk flowers now coming from Bermuda are 

 spikes of Gladiolus, most of them being those of the variety 

 Shakespeare. These flowers did not arrive in very good order, 

 but well-flowered spikes arriving in good condition at this sea- 

 son would, no doubt, have some depressing effect on the 

 flower market here. 



A dried plant of the new Sweet Pea, Cupid, seeds of which 

 are to be disseminated by Burpee, of Philadelphia, next year, 

 shows that the plant grows about ten inches high, and spreads 

 out into a close bushy headsome fifteen inches across and 



