278 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 385. 



makes an excellent subject for the rear line of the herbaceous 

 border. Its unbranched stems grow from four to five feet higli, 

 and are well covered with dark green ternate leaves. The 

 showy yellow flowers are in long terminal spikes, and they last 

 for two or three weeks in bloom. It likes a good deep rich 

 soil and a position where it is not shaded. When the plants are 

 about three feet high it is beneficial to them to be tied loosely 

 to a stake, for if the large spikes are wet with rain they are apt 

 to fall down, and are not so handsome afterward. This plant 

 can be increased in spring or fall by dividing the old roots, or 

 it can be raised from seed. It produces an abundance of seeds 

 annually, but they are slow to germinate and should be sown 

 soon after they are collected. The plant grows wild in great 

 alnmdance among the mountains of North Carolina. 



CEnothera Missouriensis. — This Evening Primrose attracts 

 more attention in the evening now than any plant in the mixed 

 border, where it occupies the front row. We have some 

 twenty plants, and each one measures a yard in diameter, and 

 the large yellow flowers are admired by every one who sees 

 them, dnothera Missouriensis is a prostrate plant with 

 nimierous stems a foot or more long, and lanceolate leaves. 

 It is well adapted in habit to the rock-garden, where its stems 

 can hang over stones or rocks and show to advantage its large 

 yellow flowers. The flowers are borne in the axils of the 

 leaves, and they are very large, measuring over four inches in 

 diameter, and the calyx is five inches long. Seeds are produced 

 here, and from them young plants are conveniently raised, 

 or from cuttings taken in May. Old-established plants should 

 not be disturbed often, or when they have to be transplanted 

 they should be taken up with a good ball of soil, so that the 

 roots will be broken as little as possiljle. 



Acanthus longiiolius. — We have always given this plant the 

 shelter of a cold frame during the winter, supposing that it 

 would not be hardy here. A year ago, however, we had some 

 strong plants set out in the border. Tliey made vigorous 

 growth during the summer and fall, and when frost set in 

 they were covered with a good coaling of Oak-leaves. To our 

 surprise every plant lived through the winter and is flower- 

 ing freely now. This large-leaved, stately plant, with its curi- 

 ous spikes of flowers, is very attractive. It grows three feet 

 high, with radical leaves four feet long. The sessile purple- 

 rose flowers, which are in the axils of the oval spiny bracts, are 

 produced in long crowded spikes. If this plant has a good, 

 light rich soil and a position where it will not be shaded in any 

 way, and covered over in winter with leaves, I think it can be 

 trusted as safely hardy. It is a native of Dalmatia and was 

 introduced in 1869. Acanthus mollis latifolius has also stood 

 the winter with the same care as the above species. It is just 

 beginning to push up its flower-spikes. We have some plants 

 of both the above species grown in a cold frame in a shady 

 position. Although they are much larger than those in 

 the border, they have not begun to bloom yet. This shows 

 that it is essential for their welfare to I^e planted where they 

 can get plenty of light. They are increased by division of the 

 roots in spring or by seeds. 



Lythrum Salicaria. — Near the margin of a small pond many 

 strong plants of this Loosestrife are carrying large showy 

 spikes of flowers. It is a British plant, although it is natural- 

 ized here, and is not rare in moist grounds, and it is an excel- 

 lent subject for planting near the margins of lakes and streams. 

 It grows about five feet high in good soil, and has large hand- 

 some spikes of rose-colored flowers. 



Harvard Bol.inic Gai den. ."• Cameron. 



Correspondence. 

 The Future of the Long-leaf Pine Belt. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — A few weeks ago when I was in the Pine district of the 

 south every evening the sky was illumined by a dull red glare, 

 and in the daytime the horizon was obscured by a thin veil of 

 smoky haze. The cause of this was the turpentine industry, 

 which has now reached its busiest season. 



Fewpeople who have not been in what is called " the Long-leaf 

 Pine belt " of the south can have any real idea of the extent of 

 the damage done to the country by the turpentine workers and 

 by the lumbermen, both of whom conduct their business on 

 what has been bluntly called "the robbing system." They 

 have left immense areas of land robbed not only of its natural 

 resources, but in a worse condition for clearing and culture 

 than before their invasion. Such is, without doubt, the case 

 of many square miles in the two Carolinas, in Georgia, in 

 Alabama and in Louisiana. 



The result is that the most bare and barren places in all the 

 south are those that have been visited by the army of turpen- 

 tine gatherers. Every northern visitor familiar with well- 

 ordered and cultivated farm lands and houses is struck by the 

 great tracts of southern country on which there is no vegeta- 

 tion of any value. These wastes are deserted and uninhabited, 

 except here and there by the negro's lonely cabin. 



The loss from fires is enormous. The turpentine workers 

 are so careless and indifferent as to allow fires to run through 

 the tracts in which they have worked. The resin on the scari- 

 fied surface of the trees burns like kerosene ; a spark, a blaze, 

 and all at once a disastrous conflagration is sweeping through 

 the Pine-forests with great fury, destroying millions of feet of 

 marketable timber, and leaving hundreds of acres a scene of 

 awful ruin. 



This is no highly colored story, Ijut a plain statement of 

 what has been going on in the Pine belt for years. Now and 

 then protests have been raised against the reckless manner in 

 which these forests are being destroyed, and yet very little 

 has been done either by private or by public action to protect 

 one of the greatest resources of the southern states. 



This is the more remarkable when we consider the enor- 

 mous wealth represented ljy the Long-leaf I'ine belt. There 

 is a strip of Pine-forest about one hundred miles wide that 

 begins in North Carolina and follows the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coast plain to Texas, crossing six states and covering an area of 

 about 130,000 square miles. At a rough estimate, there may 

 be 50,000,000,000 feet standing in this area ; and if we take the 

 values of timber and turpentine, the annual product of the 

 forests of the south will approach in value the product of her 

 Cotton-fields. 



The pineries of the south now yield naval stores worth nearly 

 $10,000,000 a year. The total production amounts to 340,000 

 casks of spirits of turpentine and 1,490,000 barrels of resin. In 

 order to produce this enormous yield some 2,500,000 acres 

 of Pine-forest are being worked, and nearly one million acres 

 of virgin forest are invaded annually. Now, no one will claim 

 that these pineries are inexhaustible, for there has actually 

 been a decline in the production of naval stores within the 

 past eight or ten years. The reckless cutting and tapping of 

 trees have made great inroads into the magnificent stretch of 

 Pine. Railroads have opened up many new tracts of timber, 

 the old water mills have been replaced by steam saw-mills, 

 and when the supply in the neighborhood was exhausted 

 tramroads have been built or the steam mills taken to new ter- 

 ritory. Thus, the work of consumption and denudation has 

 been carried on to such an extent that fears are just now be- 

 ginning to be entertained that these invaluable forests will be 

 sacrificed to the greed for immediate and temporary gain. 



The truth is, the Long-leaf Pine belt is the backbone of the 

 south Atlantic states. For a hundred and fifty years it has 

 been the chief resource of the people who dwell in the belt. 

 The production of pitch and tar was begun in North Carolina 

 during colonial days, and as the state took the lead in the in- 

 dustry its people were called " tar heels." There has been a 

 heavy decline in the production of naval stores in North Caro- 

 lina. This decline, amounting to fully forty per cent., is due 

 simply to the exhaustion of the Pine-forests. Of course, much 

 has been written on the destructive agency of the turpentine 

 industry, and many suggestions have been made regarding 

 changes and improvements wdiich are necessary. It is agreed 

 that the turpentine industry, as carried on in the United States, 

 results in great loss and damage, directly and indirectly. Com- 

 pared with the way in which the Frenchgather turpentine, our 

 methods seem crude, wasteful and almost irrational. 



The American turpentine workers still continue to follow the 

 old-time methods of tapping the trees for their sap. They have 

 made few changes or have adopted few improvements. They 

 cut a deep, broad " box " at the base of the tree, and then the 

 surface above the box is laid bare. The trees are worked for 

 four or five seasons, when they become practically exhausted 

 of their sap. The forest is then abandoned to the elements, 

 to the bark-beetles and pine-borers, and finally the splendid 

 trees are blown, burned or cut down. The French turpentine 

 worker cuts no deep box into the tree, but uses a pail, into 

 which the resin or crude turpentine is conducted by a gutter. 

 He makes only a small chip about three or four inches wide, 

 and this is enlarged from time to time. After five seasons' 

 working the trees are given a rest of several years, and so, by 

 alternating periods of tapping and of rest, a tree can be profit- 

 aljly worked for fully fifty years. The French also take 

 measures to regenerate their Pine-forests and to keep the 

 trees strong and uniform. 



If our turpentine workers understood the first principles of 

 forestry they would modify their destructive metliods. With 



