July 13, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



325 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUrLISHED 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, JULY 13, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PACK. 



Editorial Artklfs :— A Suggestion 3=5 



The Terrace at Haddiin Hall. (With figure.) 326 



Good Roads at the Columbian Fair 326 



The Grafting of the Chestnut on Quercus MirbecUii HI. Nauih'n. 326 



Fairmount Park, Pliiladelphia Mrs. J. IF. Rohbiiis. 326 



Midsummer Shrubbery in Nortli Carolina Professor W. F.Massey. 32S 



Some Interesting Plants Mrs. Danske Daiidridgc. 320 



Foreign Correspondence ;— London Letter W. IVatson. 329 



Cultural Department :— Notes on Shrubs J. G. Jack. 330 



Garden Carnations ..V. C. 331 



Hardv Herljaccous Plants T. D. H. 332 



The Water Garden J. N. Gerard. 33= 



Armcria vulgaris V. C. 333 



Correspondence: — Roan Mountain — A Summer Resort S. 333 



Periodical Literature :— The Forms of Trees. — 11 Gustav Eiscn. 334 



Notes 335 



Illustration :— The Terrace at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, England, Fig. 58 329 



A SusTsrestion. 



A CORRESPONDENT, in describing in another column 

 the beauties of Roan Mountain, in North Carolina 

 anti Tennessee, refers to the destruction of the forest in the 

 valley of the Doe River, in the latter state. More than 

 once in these columns we have alluded to the wealth and 

 beauty of the southern mountain-forest, which no other 

 forest of -deciduous trees equals in variety, attractiveness 

 and splendor. It is as wonderful in its way as the Sequoia 

 and the Redwood-forests in California are in their way, 

 and far more beautiful and interesting. On the slopes of 

 the high mountains of Carolina and Tennessee the prin- 

 cipal trees of the Appalachian forests attain their greatest 

 size and perfection, and in a ride of a few hours, covering 

 a rise in elevation of 4,000 or 5,000 feet, one may see grow- 

 ing in their supreme perfection the trees of the south, like 

 the Magnolias, the trees of the middle states, like the Ashes, 

 the Oaks, the Maples and the Lindens, then the Birches, 

 the Pines, the Mountain Ashes and the Spruces of the ex- 

 treme north. In these forests the Chestnut grows to its 

 greatest size. The Wild Cherry produces trunks six feet in 

 diameter, and the Tulip-trees send up stems still more 

 massive. The White Oak, the Red Oak, the Black Oak, 

 the Chestnut Oak and the Scarlet Oak attain here their 

 greatest height and girth of stem ; here the Snowdrop-tree, 

 or Halesia, the shrubby ornament of our northern gardens, 

 develops a great trunk free of branches for a hundred feet 

 above the ground ; here are the greatest Ash-trees on the 

 continent, the noblest Hickories and the tallest and state- 

 liest Hemlocks. In this wonderful region the Kalmiagrows 

 to the dimensions of a good-sized Apple-tree, the Tupelo is 

 a forest-giant and the Rhododendrons are tree-like in size 

 and habit. The Sweet Birch of the Smokies dwarfs the 

 biggest Birch-trees of the north, and the Sugar Maples of 

 New England are as pigmies in comparison with the Maple- 



ticcs o( the south. In early spring the floor of the forest is 

 lighted up by the fiery heads of Azalea calendulacea, which 

 decks for miles the upper mountain-slopes with solid 

 masses of bloom, wJiile Azalea arborescens dips its pure 

 white fragrant flowers into every mountain-brook. 



What has happened to the forests of the Doe River valley 

 will happen to the forests of every other valley of the Ap- 

 palachian Mountains, which sooner or later must give up 

 their stores of timber to supply the wants of a nation which 

 for more than a century has been wasting its fairest herit- 

 age. The best Walnut-trees and the best Cherry-trees in 

 all the mountain-region have been bought up singly by 

 speculators and converted into lumber. It is now almost 

 impossible to find a large individual of either. Many of 

 the remotest and most inaccessible valleys of the Smoky 

 Mountains have already lost their best Tulip-trees, and as 

 the demand for timber increases the wood-chopper will 

 penetrate deeper and deeper into the recesses of these 

 mountain-forests. 



- The destruction of all the large trees is now only a mat- 

 ter of comparatively a few years, and unless some measure 

 can be adopted for the preservation of a block of this forest 

 the inhabitants of America born fifty years from now vi'ill 

 go to their graves without the opportunity of seeing the 

 character of the trees their country produced when all con- 

 ditions favored forest-growth. 



The nation has decided to hold forever, for the instruc- 

 tion and enjoyment of the people, a portion of the Sequoia- 

 forest in California ; the civilized world has applauded this 

 action. Not less important is the preservation, for all 

 time, of a portion of the southern deciduous forest. This 

 can only be accomplished by the nation, as any adequate 

 forest-reservation in the southern Alleghanies would extend 

 beyond the borders of a single state, and there is certainly 

 nothing within the power of Congress to accomplish that 

 would afford a more useful object-lesson or indicate a 

 higher degree of civilization than the purchase and protec- 

 tion of a good example of this forest, that future gener- 

 ations of men may see and understand the capacity of 

 American soil, and the beauty and majesty of its supreme 

 products. It would not be difficult to select an area of mod- 

 erate extent which should serve this purpose, and the first 

 cost and subsequent care of such a reservation would not 

 be large in proportion to the material benefits to be derived 

 from it. Roan Mountain itself, on many accounts, would 

 make the best reservation ; the summit is exceptionally 

 beautiful, and may be used by the public without injury 

 to the forest ; the peculiar position of the mountain makes 

 the view from it more varied and extended than that from 

 any other peak of eastern North America, while the rail- 

 road brings this mountain almost to the doors of a large 

 population. These advantages, and the fact that the sum- 

 mit of the Roan is already occupied by a large and pros- 

 perous hotel, which is soon to be extended, would greatly 

 add to the cost of the property, while the value of the 

 mountain, as a forest-reservation, intended to illustrate the 

 character and quality of the southern forest, is lessened by 

 the removal of large trees of several varieties. A cheaper 

 reservation, and one that would be more desirable, so far 

 as relates to the actual condition of the forest, could be 

 found in the Big Smoky Mountains, or in one of the cross- 

 ranges which connect them with the Blue Ridge. Here a 

 forest almost primeval and of unapproachable grandeur 

 can be found, although a reservation made here would for 

 many years at least be difficult of access, and would lack 

 the extended view and open Rhododendron-crowned sum- 

 mit of the Roan. 



The subject is one of importance to all Americans inter- 

 ested in the prosperity and future of the country, and Con- 

 gress cannot do better than appoint a commission of ex- 

 perts to investigate the matter of a forest-reservation in the 

 southern Alleghanies, and, if such a reservation is found 

 practicable, to devise means for securing and maintaining 

 it. If such a reservation can be made, and a few square 

 miles of the Redwood-forests of the California coast can 



