January 13, 18 



Garden and Forest. 



21 



expected to be included in railroad grants. In fact, to make a 

 success of this movement and to establish a thorougli-going 

 forest-policy, it will in the end become necessary, not only to 

 reserve all the remainingtiniber-lands, but also to buy up such 

 interspersed parcels held by private owners as destroy the 

 compactness of the reserves, and thereby impede their eco- 

 nomical management. 



It is an old experience that the greatest diftlculty in breaking 

 up old and introducing new methods comes from the momen- 

 tum of habit and established usage, and the resistance of the 

 momentum to a change of direction increases with the in- 

 crease of friction. Hence, to make innovations successful, 

 they must not be made abruptly, but must adjust themselves 

 as much as possible to existing conditions, and l)e allowed to 

 develop gradually into new systems. The s|>irit, then, which 

 will oppose any new policy that smacks of restriction, must 

 \>e overcome by judiciously legalizing such uses as are per- 

 missible, and controlling their exercise with the least friction. 



To make such a control possible, officers of discretion, tact 

 and, at the same time, strong administrative capacity are nec- 

 essary, and legislation, devising management, must be content 

 to indicate general principles only, leaving the details to the 

 administrative officers. 



The management must provide, (i) proper organization of 

 an efficient service ; (2) protection against theft, fire or other 

 damage of the property ; (3) regulation of the occupancy and 

 the use of the reservation by citizens ; (4) a system tor cutting 

 the crop and marketing it according to the needs of the popu- 

 lation ; (5) reproduction of the crops and maintenance of 

 proper forest-conditions. 



The principles which should underlie such management 

 have found expression in Senate Bill No. 1779 of the Fiftietli 

 Congress, and may well serve as a pattern tor an administra- 

 tion of less general character. 



The modifications, which are necessitated by only a partial 

 reservation of wood-lands ;into single detached reserves, will 

 suggest themselves. One point needs to be constantly and 

 strenuously insisted upon, which is, that no management can 

 be successful unless it be properly provided with machinery. 

 Without managers there is no management, and without guards 

 there is no protection. Hence a weil-orgaifized force of 

 officers is a conditio sine qua non. As usual, it is the question 

 of men, not of measures, that [jresents the real difficulty. 



Mr. Fernow then proposed a system of administration of 

 which we only have space to give a mere outline. The reserva- 

 tions should be under a central bureau co-ordinale with the 

 General Lantl Office and under the Department of the Inte- 

 rior. Each reservation shouldjje controlled by a responsible 

 superintendent, assisted by an adequate force of rangers, each 

 of whom is responsible for a district. Management of forest- 

 property especially requires permanence, and therefore su- 

 perintendents should have positions during good behavior, 

 and the rangers siiould be appointed with their approval. As 

 an additional safeguard, inspectors should be appointed, each 

 of whom should have a number of reservations under his 

 charge, and, by visits and otherwise, keep the central admin- 

 istration advised of local needs. In the matter of regulations, 

 provision should be made for restoring agricultural lands to 

 settlers; for giving opportunities to prospect for minerals ; for 

 issinng permits for lumting and fishing ; and licenses for tim- 

 ber-cutting under proper restrictions. But whatever scheme 

 of administration is devised it must be simple, tentative, capa- 

 ble of development into a more comprehensive system, with 

 the application of finer methods of forestry added as expe- 

 rience shall teach them. Mr. Fernow concluded with the hope 

 that there would be no need of inaugurating a government for 

 detached reservations, but that Congress would pass a bill 

 for the withdrawal of all timber-lands from entry and for their 

 general administration, since nothing short of such a measure 

 would satisfy the needs of sound forest-policy. 



Correspondence. 





Do Varieties Run Out? 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have read with interest Dr. Hoskin's article (see vol. 

 iv., p. 593), but I can hardly endorse his view that the weak 

 varieties may run out even under favorable conditions. The 

 decision of this question seems to hang upon the influence of 

 propagation by different methods. In the economy of nature 

 there are several methods of multiplication, that by seeds 

 being more nearly imiversal, but 1 cannot see why it is more 

 natural than increase by runners, as in the case of the Straw- 

 berry and some other plants. If we lay aside the great changes 



which have occurred in climate and other conditions during 

 the past ages of the world, and which are likely to occur 

 again, 1 suppose that no one will hold that seedlings of a 

 Chestnut or an Oak or any other tree will have their longevity 

 dinfinished on account of the old age of the |)areut tree. What 

 is the ground for su]iposing that a plant, produced at the end 

 of a runner, is more likely to feel the effect of the wearing out 

 of the original plant than is a seedling ? 



In the instance of a Strawberry the plant that forms at the 

 end of a runner and roots in the soil is soon capable of sus- 

 taining an independent life, as a new edition of the original 

 variety, and ready in turn to throw out another runner for suc- 

 cessive editions ; and I can see no reason why the plant at the 

 hundredth thousandth remove from the original differs in 

 vigor or longevity from seedlings at a later removal. Some 

 plants increase by throwing up suckers, others from bulbs 

 and rhizomes, others from the ti|:)s, and these plants seem to 

 have the same vigor as seedlings. Now, vvliy should multi- 

 plication by cuttings or grafting differ in vigor from individ- 

 uals produced in any other way ? The entire practice of hor- 

 ticulture is based on the theory that these cuttings produce 

 new plants, which are essentially individuals, with a life of 

 their own and with no dependence on the parent. 



As to the practical bearing of the question Dr. Hoskins says 

 that the Fameuse Apple is not doing as well now around Mon- 

 treal as it formerly did, and leaves us to infer that this may be 

 the possible result of the running out of a weak variety. It 

 may be that local causes produce the difference, for tlie 

 Fameuse here is more vigorous, and quite as productive, and 

 gives larger fruit than it did in Massachusetts thirty years ago. 

 The trees standing in nur~ery-rows show no inherent weak- 

 ness. Wilson's Albany Seedling Strawberry has often been 

 quoted as an example of running out, but it is still grown in 

 many places, and wherever it is said of the Wilson that "it 

 does not do as vs'ell as it used to," there may be sufficient rea- 

 son for the change. Strawberry rust was unknown in this 

 section a few years ago, and the Wilson is peculiarly liable to 

 its effects. We are, therefore, growing varieties which are less 

 susceptible to injury from this pest. Whenever a fresh im- 

 portation of plants is made from some distant place where this 

 rust does not prevail they show all their early vigor. On the 

 other hand, the Pearl, which has only been in existence a few 

 years, and which is a vigorous variety under favorable cir- 

 cumstances, rusis so badly that it is a total failure in four cases 

 out of five. 



Dr. Hoskins and many others seem to think that a variety 

 with a weak constitution is liable to run out. Of course, if 

 naturally weak, it would be more susceptible to unfavora- 

 ble conditions, but only so far as these conditions extend, and 

 this is no proof that any given variety has a term of existence, 

 and when the destined time for its death comes that the va- 

 riety will cease. I have never yet seen any proof that any good 

 variety with sufficient vigor to carry it through a course of 

 propagation up to maturity could not be made to live indefi- 

 nitely, if the siuTounding conditions are in all respects equally 

 good with those under which it was produced. 



Ha.nmo.iton, N.J. William F. Biissett. 



[This is one of the mooted questions in' horticulture, but 

 facts which seem to have weight on one side or the other 

 are always interesting. It is argued by some that since 

 every seed has two parents, seedhngs are more likely to 

 inherit the pov\'er of adaptnig themselves to a wider range 

 of conditions than plants propagated by other methods. 

 On the contrary, many plants, like Horse Radish and the 

 Banana, have been cultivated for generations without the 

 use of seed. — Ed.] 



Winter Vegetation on Florida Sand-dunes. ' 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — On the sand-dunes at Pablo beach, seventeen miles 

 east of Jacksonville, the Water Oaks and Live Oaks are shrubs 

 of from two to four feet in height, their dark greenness being em- 

 phasized and enlivened by the pale and radiantly forked fin- 

 gers of the omnipresent Saw Palm. Around clumps of these 

 three. Black Nightshade and a Ground Cherry, Physalis vis- 

 cosa, were, with the very common Heterotheca scabra, mildly 

 llowering this mid-December day. 



Under the Saw Palm's leaves the brown and dead stems of 

 a Eupatorium were observed at many points, and where the 

 Sim lias fairer play a pale, brownish gray Croton, C. mariti- 

 mum, a prostrate Rock Rose, Helianthemum Arenicola, and 

 an equally low but grayer evening Primrose were evidently 



