242 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 382. 



nature with reverence, or even with respect, they will not 

 make such pretentious failures as they do whose first effort 

 is to obliterate everything that is native and natural be- 

 cause it is common, in order to make a lawn of such a 

 shape as they have seen in a map, and dress it in such exotic 

 finery as is usually named in the planting list which accom- 

 panies the ready-made plan. 



Are Forest Fires a Necessary Evil ? 



THE early outbreak this year of the natural phenom- 

 enon of the summers on the American continent, the 

 forest fires, with New Jersey, Minnesota and Pennsylvania 

 in the lead, suggests the inquiry whether nature could not 

 be induced to change her ways. The nature of man, to 

 be sure, is meant, for that is responsible for the phe- 

 nomenon. 



That this change is possible and that proper measures of 

 prevention or organization may reduce the amount of dan- 

 ger to forest-growth from fire to a minimum is evident 

 from the official figures of the forest-fire record in the Gov- 

 ernment forests of Prussia for 1S93-4, which have just 

 been published. The cisatlantic reader of the report will 

 receive a good impression of the efficiency of the measures 

 against forest fires when he reads in the introductory state- 

 ment that "the very dry weather during the months of 

 March, April and May was responsible for the occurrence 

 of a large number of forest fires, some of them extensive," 

 and afterward finds enumerated sixteen cases only of suf- 

 ficient extent to be mentioned, the smallest having covered 

 about twenty acres, the largest not over 220 acres. Alto- 

 gether, not more than 800 acres of forests were involved, 

 half of this being woods from twenty to forty years old. 



Since the Prussian Government forests comprise 6,coo,ooo 

 acres, what is characterized as a "large number of forest 

 fires, some of them extensive," means a little over one hun- 

 dredth of one per cent, of the forest area ; and we must 

 not overlook the fact that more than half of this forest is 

 coniferous growth, mostly Pine, and, therefore, especially 

 liable to fire. The cause in most cases is noted as neglect. 

 Locomotives are not mentioned, showing that railroading 

 may be carried on without the necessity of extra risks. 

 During the ten years, 1882-1891, there had occurred in 

 these forests i 56 larger conflagrations — 96 from negligence, 

 53 from ill-will, 3 from lightning, and only 4 from loco- 

 motives. Seven years out of ten are without any record 

 of fire due to this last cause. 



This record, which to us at least would appear like per- 

 fection, is due, of course, in the first place to the fact that 

 these forests are under a well-organized management, 

 which insures the constant patrolling of the same by offi- 

 cers in pursuit of their business. Regulations as to the 

 treatment of fires are, therefore, readily enforced, and any 

 incipient fire is soon discovered and put out. Besides 

 this, the method of dividing the forest into blocks of com- 

 partments by intersecting avenues, rectangular or other- 

 wise, atregulardistances, permits asmall force to readily pre- 

 vent the progress of fires and confine them within the block. 



Where railroads run through forest lands, especially in 

 the extensive pineries of the Baltic plain, additional precau- 

 tions are practiced. Of course, spark arresters are in com- 

 mon use, but the main reliance is laid on a "safety-strip" 

 running along the railroad, and more or less elaborate. 

 Often this is only a clearing, frequently cultivated by the 

 guards as a potato patch or for a field crop. The ideal and 

 most effective treatment is illustrated by a cut showing a 

 railroad embankment, which is, of course, kept clean of 

 inflammable matter by timely burning ; then a cleared 

 space about seven yards in width ; next a strip of forest 

 fifteen to eighteen yards wide, in which the ground is 

 kept as clean as practicable and free from dry wood, 

 and which acts as a screen for flying cinders ; beyond 

 this is a ditch ten to twelve inches deep and five to six 

 feet wide, the dirt of which is thrown to one side, mak- 

 ing a ridge which may be planted with broad-leaved 



trees. About every twenty rods a cross-ditch is made, so 

 that the whole combination safety-strip, which is about 

 thirty yards wide, is divided into smaller fields, within 

 which it is easy even for one man to confine an in- 

 cipient fire. 



In this country we would hardly need to go to so much 

 expense, but we might considerably reduce with small out- 

 lay much of the loss from locomotive fires. The Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad Company in New Jersey, from Camden to 

 Cape May, in preference to paying damages to the forest 

 owner, has plowed or scarified on either side of its road a 

 strip about a rod wide, and this is tolerably effective. A 

 ditch within thirty yards from the right of way in the 

 woods, and a timely burning over in spring of this space, 

 would be more effective, and I think any adjoining forest 

 owner would gladly permit such protective measure to be 

 taken by the railroad company on his land, and, indeed, 

 could atford to contribute to the expense. 



This cause of our forest fires, then, is largely avoidable; 

 and so would be the fires due to other carelessness, if we 

 should once set out in earnest to punish the offender. The 

 trouble with our laws, even when they are backed by pub- 

 lic sentiment, is mainly that the machinery to execute them 

 is absent or too weak. Minnesota, frightened into action 

 by the sad experiences of last year, this winter enacted a 

 fire law, with a commissioner to execute it, and as the ap- 

 pointee is General C. C. Andrews, long known as an earnest 

 forest reformer, good will, at least, is promised in its en- 

 forcement. 



Wisconsin, which has suffered almost as badly as her 

 neighbor, has also enacted a law, approved on April 17th, 

 in which the chief clerk of the State Land Office is made 

 the forest-warden, with the assistant chief clerk as his 

 deputy. In both cases an organization of existing town 

 officers as fire-wardens is attempted, but whether these 

 officers will be able to do their various duties without 

 neglecting the last one imposed remains to be seen, espe- 

 cially as the provisions for expenses are extremely scanty. 

 These laws, as well as the one so satisfactorily inaugurated 

 in Maine, are modeled more or less closely after the forest- 

 fire law of New York, which it was my privilege to draft in 

 1885 for the late Senator Low, who incorporated it in the 

 general legislation for the Adirondack forests inaugurated 

 that year. From the fact that it has been followed by 

 others, it may be judged that the principles underlying it 

 conform to the spirit of our institutions and to our condi- 

 tions, but it will probably take a few more years of terrible 

 loss of life and property before the practical application 

 will have become natural and necessary to our people, and 

 be extended to all states. 



Not all forest fires are avoidable, but most of them can 

 be prevented ; at least, they need not be allowed to spread 

 beyond control, provided the people will it. 

 Washington, D. c. -B. E. Fcrnow. 



Garden Herbariums. 



UNTIL within quite recent years the practice of pre- 

 serving dried specimens of plants has been monop- 

 olized by botanists. It has not seemed to occur to horti- 

 culturists, who, to a certain extent, shape and mould plants 

 to their wishes, that such a record would possess any value 

 to them. Botanists in their turn have acquired a feeling 

 akin to dislike for cultivated plants, or, at least, an idea 

 that they do not deserve systematic study. The man of 

 mere science finds among them too great variations to suit 

 his ideas of how plants ought to grow and deport them- 

 selves, and the result is that cultivated types have been 

 allowed to develop, run their course and pass into extinc- 

 tion, with scarcely a record of their existence. Who can 

 measure the value which would result in the interpretation 

 of many scientific problems, were it possible to gain access 

 to an abundance of material of this kind, which would 

 show in the plants themselves the history of such devel- 

 opments ? 



Professor Bailey, of Cornell University, has the credit of 



