382 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 396. 



vho not only has respect for nature, but who is able 

 to cooperate with her in perfect sympathy. 



artist wl 



One of the speakers at the recent meeting of the Forestry 

 Association at Springfield, Massachusetts, was Baron Beno 

 Reinhardt von Herman, who is an attache of the German 

 Embassy at Washington. Baron von Herman has been 

 sent to this Government as an agricultural expert, and inas- 

 much as he holds in the Civil Service of Wurttemberg the 

 rank of Forest Assessor, it is evident that he is prepared to 

 send to his Government intelligent reports about our for- 

 ests, and to give our methods of managing them. It is to 

 be hoped that he will learn something of value from our 

 practice, but perhaps he can serve the interests of his coun- 

 try best by explaining the disasters that we are inviting by 

 the utter lack of forethought that has characterized our great 

 lumbering operations. Forestry has been practiced in an 

 intelligent way in Germany now for many years, and able 

 men are making it their life work to investigate subjects 

 relating to forestry as a science and an art. And yet the 

 German Government thinks it worth while to send experts 

 to various countries in order to acquire more knowledge 

 and present more facts for study and comparison. In our 

 own country, where there is no such thing as scientific 

 forestry, and very few persons give serious attention to this 

 subject, the general opinion of the people and of the Gov- 

 ernment is that we know quite enough, and that our woods 

 can take care of themselves. Congress cannot even be 

 induced to oppose any check to lawless depredations on 

 our wooded domain, and if it were suggested that we 

 should send some one to other countries to acquire some 

 knowledge in this matter the idea would be considered 

 preposterous. 



Notes on Western New York Woodlands. — II. 



THE tracts of timber which survived longest in large 

 bodies were the swamps of Tamarack and Cedar, or 

 those of flinty land covered with Oak, interspersed with 

 Pine. These lands were the least desirable for the plow. 

 Some of these tracts originally embraced several square 

 miles, but are now much reduced or nearly gone. The 

 straight, slender trunks of the Tamarack were in demand 

 for poles, for ladders, or for pump-logs and underground 

 conduits for water, since they were easy to bore and lasted 

 well. The White Cedar went for fence-posts and railway- 

 ties. When the land was drained the Tamarack died out, 

 and the peat soil, exposed to sun and frost, gradually 

 changed into good meadow-land, or provided a soil well 

 adapted to truck-farming. The White Cedar did not so 

 readily die out, since it frequently grows on higher lands. 



The most abundant trees of the upland woods are the 

 Beech and Hard Maple. On light soils, and where there is 

 a considerable mixture of sand or gravel with the clay 

 loam, the Oaks predominate, interspersed with Hickory, 

 and sometimes with the Chestnut. In colder and higher 

 tracts, or along the banks of streams, the Hemlock is fre- 

 quent, or even abundant. The Basswood is common in 

 the richer uplands, among Beeches and Maples. Here also 

 the White Ash is most often seen. As the Basswood is one 

 of the most desirable of the surviving trees for soft-wood 

 lumber, it has been much thinned out, and good trees are 

 becoming scarce. The larger trees are apt to be hollow at 

 the base, and easily break off under sudden stress of wind. 

 It has become a matter of common observation that it is 

 not now easy to find a sound Basswood two feet or more in 

 diameter, though this was not always the case. The trees, 

 for some reason, seem subject to an earlier decay than 

 formerly. 



Where the Beech and Maple abound the White Oak is 

 occasionally mixed with them, but is mostly confined to 

 the low land, where it is much more common than the 

 Swamp White Oak. The Red Oak is much more commonly 

 seen with the Beech and Maple. In flinty and gravelly 

 soils the most common Oaks are the White, Red and Black 



Oaks. Here also occurs the Chestnut Oak ; it is usually 

 less abundant than the other kinds and may also be found 

 in the wet lands. 



The changes that have been produced by clearing, ex- 

 posure to sun and wind, drainage and pasturage, furnish a 

 good opportunity to study trees in their powers of adapta- 

 tion. Those which can most readily change, or have a 

 greater range of conditions, or fruit most abundantly and 

 germinate most easily, soon gain the mastery and become 

 the predominating kinds. In the upland woods the Beech 

 and Maple, wherever they grow, prove to be among the 

 most aggressive and have increased in number of individ- 

 uals relatively to others. In woods not pastured, or but 

 little pastured, they spring up quickly, especially the Sugar 

 Maple, and soon make a dense undergrowth or cover the 

 more open spaces. So do the Oaks, Hickories and Chest- 

 nuts in their respective localities. 



The tree which seems to have fared worst in this strug- 

 gle for existence is the Black Ash. It was once very abun- 

 dant in the swamps, the trees frequently outnumbering all 

 other species combined. Now they are mostly dead or 

 dying, and it is rare to find one leafy to the top. It was 

 once the principal source of rail-timber in many localities. 

 The suppression of the Black Ash has been caused by the 

 drier conditions. Great changes have been made in the 

 swampy lands. Those in which water stood throughout 

 the year, except in very dry seasons, are now dry for the 

 greater part of summer and fall, and can often be traversed 

 dry-shod almost anywhere as early as the month of 

 May. In wet situations the tree once flourished, rooting 

 in the black swamp muck, the crowns of the roots rising 

 much above the surface. When the swamps are dry the 

 upper parts of the roots are exposed and they suffer like 

 those from which the soil has been removed or burned away. 

 When decay has gone far enough the trunks fall over. 

 Though this tree can be adapted to drier conditions when 

 young, seedlings do not successfully compete with those 

 of White Elm, the Red and the Silver Maples, the species 

 commonly associated with it in the swamps. These have 

 now become the prevailing trees in the low grounds, and 

 few young Black Ash trees can now be found in such woods. 

 The Elms and the soft Maples have gained the mastery, 

 and are also crowding the White Oaks. 



Another tree which is becoming scarce in many places 

 is the Black or Cherry Birch. It was once abundant in 

 wettish lands. Drier conditions alone have not overcome 

 it. More probably the young growth is destroyed by 

 browsing animals, which relish its foliage. Ths larger 

 trees have been used for cabinet-work, but there is little 

 prospect of their being replaced if left to the common 

 chances of the woods. 



The Black Cherry has a similar use, and holds its own 

 fairly well. Its seeds are widely scattered by birds, so that 

 it springs up by fence-rows or in other favorable situations. 

 Its bitter leaves and bark are not relished by cattle, and it 

 has a fair chance of surviving when once started. Prunus 

 Avium, or the Bird Cherry, which has escaped quite exten- 

 sively from cultivation, has become a common tree by road- 

 sides and the borders of wood-lots. It has invaded the 

 woods to some extent, and holds a place there beside the 

 Wild Cherry. I have seen it in the thick woods with a 

 trunk a foot and more in diameter and fifty or sixty feet 

 tall. It makes a forest-tree similar in habit to the wild 

 Black Cherry, with its trunk as free from limbs when in the 

 crowded woods. It may in time rival the Black Cherry in 

 abundance, should it thoroughly adapt itself to wild condi- 

 tions, since it is much less lialile to attacks of the black- 

 knot than the Black Cherry and Choke Cherry. 



Though so much of the forest covering of this good agri- 

 cultural region has been removed, a partial compensation 

 in the way of shaded ground is found in the increased area 

 of farm-land devoted to orchards. The land is in a measure 

 tree-covered, sometimes as effectually as in the more open 

 woods devoted to pasturage. 



One noticeable result of this deforestation is the greater 



