January 6, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



II 



restful, but not dull or tame. For people who want sea-air 

 our country has no better region, and in a few years it will be 

 thronged and crowded by summer dwellers, from Province- 

 town to the shores of Buzzard's Bay. It will be a paradise for 

 women and children while the wildness and freedom remain 

 unspoiled. Unless great areas here are made public holdings, 

 free for the people's enjoyment forever, the time will come 

 when the tired dwellers in the cities, and in the vast interior 

 of our country, who are driven by the heat of summer to seek 

 rest and new life by the sea, will find here the city over again, 

 and be "cribbed, cabined and confined" in conditions very 

 like those from which they are trying to escape. That would 

 be a sad sight for thoughtful men. 

 Franklin Falls, N. H. 7- -^- Harrison. 



Rare Varieties of Apples. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In regard to the difficulties attending the attempt 

 of N. D. to obtain other than the ordinary varieties of Apple- 

 trees, I would say that nurserymen must be largely governed 

 by the law of supply and demand, and nursery stock, unlike 

 many other articles of trade, soon deteriorates in quality and 

 salability by keeping. Planters of orchards for commercial 

 purposes, whose sole object is profit, confine their planting to 

 few varieties, and those well-tested sorts that promise to serve 

 their purpose. Novices and experimenters, who seek only 

 their family supply, indulge in a larger range of varieties, but 

 they naturally find that the leading sorts receive most attention 

 from nurserymen. It requires a good deal of boom to dis- 

 pose of much stock of any new thing, and generally at a much 

 higher price on account of this increased expense. The very 

 limited call for some old and once valuable sorts makes it un- 

 profitable to grow them, and even a few trees would exceed 

 the demand till they outgrew a salable size. I am a little sur- 

 prised, however, that Coggswell and Baily Sweet, and even 

 the Winesap, proved hard to find. These are all old and good 

 kinds, and ought to be on sale in limited quantities in some of 

 the eastern nurseries. Stephen Hoyt's Sons, of New Canaan, 

 Connecticut, ought to have them, especially the first, as it is a 

 Connecticut fruit. Arkansas Black is a western Apple, and 

 probably has not made any reputation east as yet. Stark 

 Brothers, of Louisiana, Missouri, propagate it largely. Wine- 

 sap could doubtless be had of them in any quantity desired. 

 William J. Heikes, of Huntsville, Alabama, could also proba- 

 bly supply them. These firms make more of a specialty of 

 new fruits than some of our eastern growers. Princess Louise 

 is a new Apple of Canadian origin, and probably has not yet 

 acquired American citizenship. L. Wolverton, of Grimsby, 

 Ontario, could probably furnish your correspondent with trees 

 or cions. 



The only mention of Palouse I have seen was in the Rural 

 New Yorker, where this Apple is said to have originated in 

 Washington from Illinois seed, and it is doubtless too young 

 yet to have attracted much notice east. 



My advice to N. D., if he fails to secure what he wants after 

 reasonable effort, would be to take good thrifty trees, irrespec- 

 tive of variety, preferably of one kind if straight and of vigor- 

 ous growth, so as to make a uniform foundation for my 

 orchard. After setting them I would secure grafts of the va- 

 rieties I wanted from those who have fruiting trees. Get a 

 few grafts and bud or graft the young trees with them. There 

 are in many sections of our country excellent old varieties that 

 are well worth growing in localities suited to them that can be 

 had in no other way, as they are not known and recognized 

 in general pomological society. Many such will be lost unless 

 some appreciative friend saves them in this way. The pro- 

 cess is simple and the expense is light. The mail could de- 

 liver a few cions of Palouse from Washington at one-tenth the 

 cost of a tree, probably one-fiftieth, and with more safety. 



Montclair, N.J. E. Williams. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In reply to the inquiries of your correspondent, N. D., 

 in a recent issue, let me say that the Arkansas Black Apple 

 can be procured from Mr. W. G. Vincenheller, Springdale, 

 Arkansas. Many of the other western nurserymen are propa- 

 gating it. I think all of the other Apples mentioned by your 

 correspondent can be procured from nearly any of the large 

 western nurseries except Princess Louise and Palouse. The 

 latter I have carefully tested, as far as the fruit is concerned, 

 and find it to be a very good apple. It is medium of size and 

 beautifully colored, red striped and yellow. The quality is 

 very good, and I think it will keep quite well through the 



Departmentof Agriculture. Washington. H. E. Van Deman. 



Meetings of Societies. 

 American Forestry Association. 



'X'HE tenth annual meeting of this society, held in Washing- 

 J- ton last week, was more interesting and encouraging than 

 any which has preceded it. 



On the forenoon of the first day of the meeting the report 

 of the Executive Committee was read, showing that the special 

 effort of the year has been to secure Reservations of public tim- 

 ber-lands under the Act of Congress of March last, which author- 

 izes the President, " by public proclamation, to declare theestal)- 

 lishment of svtch reservations and the limits thereof." Encour- 

 aged by this law, the Association liasgathered and laid before the 

 President facts and arguments to induce him to make certain 

 reservations. The recommendations have been favorably re- 

 ceived by the President, the Secretary of the Interior and the 

 Commissioner of the General Land Office. Surveyors from the 

 Land Office have been sent to examine the tracts. Several res- 

 ervations have been made already, while others are under 

 examination. 



A meeting for discussing this subject was held on Tuesday 

 afternoon, when the Executive Committee presented the fol- 

 lowing declarations : 



" I. Reservations in detached localities, while perhaps pref- 

 erable to none, will not satisfy the needs of forest-protection 

 unless their number is sufficiently large to embrace practically 

 all the remaining public woodlands. 



" 2. The all-important problem is that of the management 

 of these reservations, made or to be made, which should be 

 solved at once and simultaneously with the making of the 

 reservations. 



" 3. The principles upon which such management must pro- 

 ceed are laid down in a draft of suggestions for a bill, in which 

 are provided safeguards to protect prior rights ; return of agri- 

 cultural lands to entry ; licenses to prospect for minerals, to 

 camp, fish, hunt and otherwise use the reservations legiti- 

 mately ; licenses to cut timber under regulations adapted to 

 the necessities of the locality ; protection against fire and theft, 

 and such organization as will secure, with the co-operation of 

 state authorities, the objects of the reservations, and at the 

 same time offer as little friction as possible to existing condi- 

 tions." 



Secretary Noble was present, and declared himself heartily 

 in sympathy with the aims and purposes of the Association. 

 He invited the Association to present to him its recommenda- 

 tions, and promised to do all in his power to further its desires. 



The Commissioner of the Land Oifice was prevented from 

 attending by sickness in his family, but a paper from him was 

 read by Mr. Jecko, an agent of the office, expressive of his 

 sympathy with the purposes of the Association. Senator 

 Dawes, in speaking of the inroads made on the forests by in- 

 vaders, said that the ingenuity of the law-maker has not yet 

 equaled that of the spoliator. He believed the sentiment of 

 Congress and the country was to preserve the forests and pro- 

 tect them from the invasions of the unscrupulous on all hands. 

 An effort should be made, he thought, to convince Congress 

 of the need of action, and in that body he thought there was an 

 excellent field for missionary work. The active interest mani- 

 fested by the President, the Secretary of the Interior and the 

 Commissioner of the Land Office was regarded by the Associa- 

 tion as a most encouraging fact. 



The following is a portion of the memorial presented to 

 the President : • 



That these reservations are for the good of all is not 

 yet understood by large numbers of worthy but unin- 

 formed citizens. This is apparent from the protests made 

 against these reservations. The basis of such protests is that 

 these large areas are to be permanently withdrawn from the 

 use and enjoyment of the people. Such is not our purpose, 

 but the very opposite. The object of such reservations is to 

 increase the sum total of the productiveness of our territory, 

 making each acre do its utmost for the benefit of our people. 

 The lands within these reservations are not fit for agriculture, 

 but are capable under wise managementof producinga greatly 

 increased amount of forest-products annually. While it is our 

 wish to permanently reserve the land, it is equally our wish 

 that its products may year by year, under a competent forest- 

 administration, be used by the people under equal and just 

 laws. Especially do we wish to minintize the destruction of 

 forest-areas by fires and the wasteful and erroneous methods 

 of forest-use now prevalent. 



If it is once understood that by these reservations neither 

 the bona fide settlement of agricultural lands nor the right of 

 prospecting for and opening of mines is to be interfered with, 



