November 20, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



461 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles — Seasonable Work Among the Trees 461 



Autumn Colors of Leaves 462 



The New York Cut Flower Company.— II 3/. B. C. ^62 



A New Hybrid Oak in the Indian Tei-ritory B. F. Bush. 463 



The Names ot some North American I'ree Willows C. S. S. 463 



Plant Notes 463 



New or Little-known Plants: — Chrysanthemum, William Simpson. (With 



fissure.) 464 



Cultural Department: — A Few Hardy Plants Robert Ciimcnvi. 464 



Chrysanthemums at Cornell University IV/lhehn, Miller. 406 



Notes on Palms N'. J. Rose. 466 



A Few Novelties - f-. O. Orpet. 467 



Oncidium vancosum Rogersii J N. G. 467 



Correspondence; — Is Young Timber Weaker than Old"! B. E. Fertiow. 467 



Ornamental Shrubs for Nebraslia Professor Fred IV, Card. 46S 



Exhibitions:— Autumn Flower Show in Chicago E. J. H. 46S 



American Institute Chrysanthemum Show 469 



Notes 470 



Illustration :— Chrysanthemum, William Simpson, Fig. 64 4115 



Seasonable Work Among the Trees. 



IT is not safe, as a rule, to plant trees asfar north as the 

 latitude of New York after this date. When young trees 

 are planted in early autumn while the ground is warm they 

 will be encouraged to throw out new roots to furnish them 

 with the needed supply of moisture through winter. If the 

 ground is firmly settled they may not be heaved by the 

 frost ; if they are properly staked and tied their roots will 

 not be loosened as the tree is swayed by winter winds, and 

 they will be ready to start into vigorous growth in the 

 spring. After this time, however, when the ground is cold, 

 fresh rootlets are slow to start, and a newly planted tree is 

 in danger. But, although it is too late for the safest plant- 

 ing, this is just the time of year to study planting plans 

 and to decide where each tree is to be set and what tree is 

 to be set there. If nursery stock is now selected and or- 

 dered, trees received before the ground freezes hard can be 

 heeled in carefully where no water can collect about the 

 roots, or, still better, if such facilities are available, they 

 can be wintered in a cold pit or cellar. Where the ground 

 has not already been prepared for the trees, large holes 

 should be dug at once and filled in with good soil, and this 

 will settle compactly in the winter and be in much better 

 condition for planting than if it were loose and open after 

 being freshly dug. After the position of each tree has been 

 decided upon and the ground prepared beforehand, the 

 mere planting is a comparatively short and easy operation, 

 and everything that is clone now in the way of preparation 

 will help to relieve the pressure of work in the spring. 

 This is a great advantage in our northern states, where 

 only a few days of good weather intervene between win- 

 terandsummer — days which are always crowded with work 

 of every sort. 



But, beyond preparing for next spring's planting, these 

 autumn days are the best of the year to study plantations 

 already made, with a view to determine which trees shall 

 be removed and how the remainder shall be pruned. It is 

 easy now, just after the leaves have fallen, to observe how 

 the individual trees of a group are affecting one another 

 When real winter weather comes it is much more difficult 

 to make a sufficiently careful examination and to decide 

 which ones should be cut down because they are interfering 



with their neighbors, and to see where there are any 

 limbs of those which remain that ought to be short- 

 ened. It is a good time, too, to inspect young trees and 

 prune them so that they can be kept properly shaped 

 and balanced. There is an unfortunate prejudice against 

 pruning trees as an unnatural process, but this conservative 

 surgery, which is only meant to force the young trees into 

 taking their normal form, is quite different from what is 

 called " clipping them into shape," as is sometimes prac- 

 ticed with conifers and is almost always to be deprecated. 



The thinning out of plantations, however, and not the 

 pruning of trees, is the work retpiiring the most intelligence 

 and determination. Many people have such a sentimental 

 or superstitious feeling toward trees that they will allow 

 them to stand even where not only their own health and 

 symmetry are sacrificed, but where they imperil the health 

 and symmetry of much more important trees. Light, air 

 and space for development are absolute essentials if we are 

 to have fine specimens. In a forest we take care to have 

 the trees stand so closely that they will be forced up into 

 long straight stems, for only such will make valuable tim- 

 ber; but for ornamental trees the requirements are entirely 

 different. Not one of a group of trees when too closely 

 massed can become a fine specimen which will live to a 

 vigorous old age. Of course, no hard-and-fast rule for 

 thinning can be made which will cover all cases, for the 

 varied wants of each difl'erent species must be provided 

 for. A Fir, or a Spruce, with its lower branches lost is an 

 unsightly object, but in a group of White Pines the naked 

 trunks have a nobility of their own. Some of our Oaks, 

 especially the White Oak, make a beautiful mass, and no 

 inconsiderable portion of this beauty is found in the tall, 

 sturdy, bare trunks of the trees with their ash-colored 

 bark, while the same tree as a single specimen is much 

 more impressive when it has low, wide-spreading, horizon- 

 tal branches. It requires as much judgment, therefore, to 

 cut a tree as to plant one, and it can only be properly done by 

 a person who is well acquainted with the characteristics of 

 each species and has a clear idea of the ultimate effect 

 which he aims at. This is the best time of the year for a 

 critical examination of trees and for deciding which ones 

 are to remain and which ones ought to be felled, and just 

 as soon as the time comes for removing one there should 

 be no delay. In a few years the damage will be beyond 

 repair, for after a tree has been forced out of shape by its 

 intruding neighbors it will remain unshapely ever after. 



Fortunately, there are obvious cases in which no remark- 

 able knowledge or judgment is necessary. Wherever a 

 good tree is cramped or marred by an inferior one, or 

 wherever a tree which will become a noble one if it only 

 has the chance is hindered from attaining its best estate by 

 another of less value, there should be no hesitation or un- 

 willingness to use the axe. Very often the superintendents 

 of public parks who do their duty in this respect are assailed 

 with popular clamor by short-sighted people who are horri- 

 fied to see the destruction of anything like a tree. This 

 outcry is often so serious that to escape it officers who 

 know better leave the trees in park-plantations to crowd 

 and starve each other until the)' become objects of com- 

 miseration ; whereas, if they had been thinned in time 

 with serious purpose, the remaining ones would continue 

 to be objects of the highest civic pride for generations to 

 come. 



All this is but the simplest elementary teaching. It is 

 what has been said over and over again year after year, 

 and yet we fear it^ will need to be repeated for years to 

 come before people are educated up to the point where they 

 will look at a badly placed tree as a weed which ought to 

 be exterminated as pitilessl)' as any other weed. There is 

 not one of the older parks in this country which does not 

 show examples of stunted and half-dead trees which, with 

 proper care, might have been full of sap and vigor and 

 endowed with the power to gain fresh beauty and increased 

 dignity for centuries. There are few proprietors of large 

 places who cannot now make a personal inspection of 



