412 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 399. 



It will be of service to him in his immediate work, and, 

 best of all, it will inspire him with a desire to learn more. 



Improvement in forest practice will only come with 

 increased knowledge, and these scattered bits of wood- 

 land, which would make a forest much larger than many 

 of our states, will never approach their real value as a 

 national resource until their owners have been educated 

 to give them more intelligent treatment. Let us hope that 

 this increase in knowledge will be speedily brought about, 

 not only for the good of the farms and the timber on the 

 farms, but as an assurance for a rational system of treat- 

 ment for forests of the nation. If every wood lot on the 

 farms of the country were now an object-lesson in good 

 forest practice, it would be easy enough to secure proper 

 legislation for the forests on the national domain. 



Seacoast Planting. 



AT the late meeting of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion, in Springfield, Massachusetts, Mr. Leonard W. 

 Ross, of Boston, delivered an address on the subject 

 of seacoast-planting as practiced on the Province lands 

 of Cape Cod, where an effort is made to prevent the shift- 

 ing sands at the extremity of the Cape from injuring settle- 

 ments and the harbor. Mr. Ross has kindly sent us an 

 abstract of his address, which we herewith publish : 



The first work in connection with seashore planting sliould 

 be a careful study of the individual case to be treated, as no 

 two instances will be found to carry identical or even parallel 

 conditions. Specific instruction to apply in every case is, 

 therefore, out of the question, and only general suggestions 

 can be made forsolving such problems. The material for plant- 

 ing should in all cases be in the best possible condition. The 

 area to be covered should be carefully prepared before actual 

 planting begins. Of course, the results which might follow 

 an equal effort inland, or in sheltered situations, or in better 

 soil, need not be expected. The soil to be planted is usually 

 thin and sterile, if, indeed, it is anything better than sand. In 

 nearly all cases it is best to make thick border plantations on 

 the water side of rapid-growing trees and shrubs which have 

 resistant power against salt and wind, and among these may be 

 planted longer-lived and more sturdy-growing kinds, the 

 former acting as a nurse or protection to the latter in their 

 earliest days. When this has become established, other plant- 

 ings may be made behind it with some certainty of success. 



It is generally supposed that the number of species adapted 

 to this use is extremely limited, but experience shows that 

 such is not the case. It becomes not so much a question of 

 what to plant, but rather how to plant. In preliminary plant- 

 ings the plants should always be set very closely, that one 

 may protect the other. A good mulch should then be placed 

 over the entire area and loaded down with stones such as may 

 be usually found on the shore; the stones not only hold the 

 mulch in place, but assist materially in retaining moisture dur- 

 ing the dry season. Spring planting is safer than fall planting. 

 It notinfrequently happens, however, that plants set in early 

 spring break into growdi at once ; then late spring storms fol- 

 low, the tendergrowth is killed off and a secondary growth 

 follows. This weakens the plants, and only such kinds as can 

 endure these conditions should be used, especially for pre- 

 liminary work. This may be avoided in a great measure by 

 holding back the growth of the plants, by frequent transplant- 

 ings in the nursery until the season is well advanced. Deep 

 planting is found to be the safest in nearly all shore work, as 

 the drainage is usually excessive. 



Planting on the Province lands of Massachusetts, although 

 still in its infancy, so far as the work under the present admin- 

 istration has gone, has now passed the experimental state and 

 is being developed into a system at once conservative, thorough 

 and energetic. The entire area (over 3,000 acres) consists 

 only of sand. A considerable portion of this is covered with a 

 surprisingly luxuriant growth of trees and shrubs, deciduous, 

 evergreen and coniferous, together with many creepers and 

 climbers. On the outer or ocean side are many hundreds of 

 acres of wildly drifting sand-dunes or areas covered to a 

 greater or less degree by Beach Grass, Ammophila arundi- 

 nacea, and in the hollows and low places with other grasses. 



Many thousands of dollars have been expended in Beach 

 Grass planting, and, while this has not been wholly in vain, it 

 has failed to liold the sand securely in place. If properly 

 watched, and all breaks attended to when first started, the 



Beach Grass might hold the sand in check, but it would re- 

 quire constant attention. It is thought safest to cover the area 

 with a growth of woody plants and trees. There is abundant 

 evidence that this outer area was formerly covered by forest- 

 growth, principally of Pine ; the original layer of mold, with 

 portions of stumps and pitchy heart-wood, is now frequently 

 uncovered as the sand-hills recede inland. 



Experimental plantings were first made by us in April, 1894. 

 Of the plants not blown out, or buried many feet deep \>y 

 drifting sand, a fair proportion lived and made a satisfactory 

 growth, but most of them were so cut by the drifting sand the 

 tollowing winter as to die to the surface of the ground. We 

 have this year established a nursery on the lands for the propa- 

 gation of stock to be used in future work, in preference to using 

 imported plants, and shall extend it as our needs demand. 

 We have now growing in the nursery over 250,000 young 

 trees and shrubs, mostly raised from seed. Our stock of trees 

 consists mainly of Pines (P. rigida, P. Austriaca, P. sylvestris, 

 P. Strobus, P. insignis and P. Pinaster), Alder, Birch, Horn- 

 beam, Ailanthus, Oaks, Silver Maple and several varieties of 

 strong-growing Willows and Silver Poplar. Of shrubs, we 

 have Privets, Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) in large quan- 

 tity, Myrica cerifera and a few others, intending to put in next 

 year several other kinds of native growth, as well as Tamarix 

 Gallica and such others as may promise to be of service in this 

 work. 



We make a preliminary planting of Beach Grass, setting 

 strong clumps eighteen to twenty-four inches apart. This 

 makes sufficient growth the first year to nearly cover the 

 ground and to reach a height of aljout two feet. The follow- 

 ing season we plant among this such woody plants as Genista 

 scoparia. My rica cerifera, A malanchier Canadensis, Rosalucida, 

 etc. Among these we intend to plant at the same time a con- 

 siderable quantity of acorns of our native Oaks, to be followed 

 in a year or two with the several varieties of Pine and other 

 trees. Outside and to the windward of this we are making 

 thick wind-break plantations of strong Willows, Silver Poplars, 

 Locust, etc. 



It is expected that in time this entire area may be covered 

 with a forest-growth which will not only serve to pre- 

 vent the sand from drifting inland toward the town of 

 Provincetown, and eventually filling and destroying a useful 

 harbor, but will at the same time furnish a practical example 

 of reforesting waste and useless land, of which our state has 

 many thousands of acres now producing nothing of value. 



A Season with the Native Orchids. — L 



TWENTY-EIGHT species of Orchids, representing 

 eleven genera, have been found indigenous to the 

 vicinity of Chicago. Orchis spectabilis, the Showy Orchis, 

 opens the flowering season the latter part of April, and con- 

 tinues until late in May. It is a plant of the rich damp 

 woods, rooting in the mold of decayed leaves and wood, 

 and often growing in little patches. It makes a pretty pic- 

 ture amid the dry leaves and fresh verdure with its two 

 shining, rich green leaves near the surface of the ground, 

 and its pink or purplish flowers with white oval lips 

 on the short stem between them. It is one of the hand- 

 somest of the Orchids, its showy flowers well entitling it to 

 precede the others of the family. 



Before the flowering season of Orchis spectabilis is over, 

 that of Aplectrum hyemale begins. This is a plant more 

 curious than handsome. Its single oval leaf, strongly 

 ribbed or plaited, persists through the winter, and frequently 

 leads to the destruction of the plant by children, who 

 know there is a white savory bulb from which it grows, 

 and sometimes an older one not so shrunken as to be un- 

 palatable. One or two more shriveled bulbs, remain 

 attached, and their sticky nature has given the plant the 

 name of Putty- root. The largest and freshest of these 

 bulbs sends up a vigorous stem in May a foot or more 

 tall, which bears several large dingy greem'sh or brownish 

 flowers, their lips sprinkled with purple dots. The leaf at 

 the base of the stem is now dying or dead, and the purple 

 flower-stem may be the sole reminder of the presence of 

 the plant. Like the Showy Orchis, it loves the rich shady 

 woods, but is quite rare outside of the Beech and Maple 

 woods east of the sand region. 



Closely following the Ptitty-root are four species of 



