July 20, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



345 



very careful cultivation, and should be kept in warmth near the 

 glass. In such conditions it puts forth very liigh-colored 

 leaves, with veins of yellow, scarlet, green and cream of the 

 most vivid tints. The stems of the plant are white, and a well- 

 grown specimen is a charming thing, besides being a credit 

 to a very skillful cultivator. 



Lmaria cymbalaria.— The Kenilworth Ivy is not usually known 

 as a hardy plant, but, like many others, if grown outside under 

 proper conditions, it will live through an ordinary winter. Tlie 

 conditions seem to be that it shall have a sheltered place en- 

 tirely free from wet. Some plants under an overhanging 

 south wall lived over last winter, and f have several times seen 

 this fact noted by others. If any one had an old wall to fur- 

 nish with plants it would be well to try this, as it is easily 

 established in summer, and probably if the plants were killed 

 in a severe winter there would be seeds scattered in the re- 

 cesses which would rapidly germinate and keep up the stock. 



Berteroa mutabilis (Alyssum mutabile) is an herbaceous per- 

 ennial introduced by Thorburn & Co. last year, which is just 

 now in Hower. It proves to be perfectly hardy, and forms low 

 spreading plants one and a half feet high, many-branched, and 

 furnished sparsely with white Alyssum-like flowers. The fo- 

 liage is dull and not especially attractive, and from scarcity of 

 flowers the plants have a weedy look, and do not seem a de- 

 sirable addition to the garden. 



IpomcEa Bronsoni, another introduction of Messrs. Thorburn 

 & Co. of last season, is said to be a Cuban Ipomcea, and is a 

 most wonderfully rapid-growing vine. A strong plant last 

 season covered a great number of square feet of space, and it 

 is doubtful if there is in cultivation an annual vine which 

 makes more rapid growth. The plants are white-stemmed 

 and gouty at the base, but the season was not long enough for 

 the production of flowers. This is probably of little disadvan- 

 tage where such a plant would be most useful, as most of the 

 quick-growing vines are apt to produce seeds which stock the 

 garden with plants to be weeded out. tv nr /" 



Elizabeth, N.J. . /• ^- "■• 



The Forest. 

 Our Land Office System. 



A FEW weeks ago we quoted part of an interesting 

 chapter on the Forests of Minnesota, which had 

 been prepared by Mr. H. B. Ayres for the Nineteenth 

 Annual Report of the Geological Survey of that state. In 

 the same chapter Mr. Ayres makes some excellent obser- 

 vations on our Land Office System, which we reproduce 

 below : 



While the giving of from 300,000 to 4,000,000 feet of standing 

 Pine to a poor pioneer seems a paternal act on the part of the 

 Government, the actual result is putting nearly all the value of 

 the timber into the pocket of the lumberman, to whose plant 

 the tract may be tributary. 



The settler, even when honest, can, as a rule, afford to live 

 on a Pine claim merely long enough to comply with the home- 

 stead or preemption law, and when he sells his Pine, often 

 gives title to the land also, when it starts upon the routine by 

 which it is, eventually, advertised for ta.xes, non-productive, 

 idle, worthless. 



If we continue, as we have done, the 17,000 men now em- 

 ployed in reaping the great natural harvest will soon leave the 

 country, as they have left the older lumber states ; for the 

 lumberman, under the present system of disposing of public 

 lands, cannot think of waiting for a second growth, while he 

 can acquire new forests of standing Pine at a nominal figure. 

 His only sensible course, as far as his own interests are con- 

 cerned, is to strip off the lumber and abandon the land. 



The time to decide upon the use to which timbered lands 

 should be put is, undoubtedly, before they pass into the hands 

 of individuals. They should be examined, and the question 

 decided, whether they should be thrown open for settlement 

 as farm-lands, or whether it would be best for the general 

 welfare to have them kept in timber. 



There are still in the state some 6,000,000 acres of more or 

 less wooded land belonging to the Federal Government. To 

 one looking the situation fairly in the face, would it not seem 

 best to have all this area withheld from settlement until the 

 soil be examined, and its adaptability determined ? 



The direct profits that may be expected from forestry are 

 not large after the virgin timber has been cut. In Europe, 

 seldom over 5 per cent, is realized, and the American lumber- 



man cannot be expected to act contrary to his notable common 

 sense and shrewdness and stay and do a liusiness that brings 

 in 5 per cent., wliile he may by entering a new field, under the 

 present land office system, get from 10 to 200 per cent. Only 

 in exceptional cases, most favorable to growtli and conveni- 

 ence to market, is forestry profitable to the individual. To a 

 corporation of woodworkers the profits may be greater, but it 

 is only the state or the General Government that will be able to 

 reap all those other benefits, such as permanency of indus- 

 tries, support of greatest population, etc., which, added to the 

 direct profits possible to the individual, would bring the sum 

 of gains well within the percentage of fair business profits. 



Forest-lands should, therefore, as a rule, be managed by the 

 state or by the Federal Government. 



In Minnesota, the federal lands now vacant, 



and more or less wooded, amount to some 6,000,000 acres. 



The state lands 600,000 



The imiversity lands 470,000 



The school lands 231,000 



■ ■ 1,301,000 



Total public forest-lands 



7,301,000 acres. 



The question as to what would be the best management of 

 these lands has been studied, and studied faithfully, by many, 

 if not by all the men upon whom their care devolved, and, no 

 doubt, they have found the difficulties that they, single- 

 handed, were unable to overcome. It is necessary that all the 

 people be so well informed that they may, at least, be able 

 to appreciate the efforts their chosen representatives in the 

 local, state or Federal Government may make in their behalf ; 

 and while it is the plain duty of these representatives to study 

 all the ciuestions bearing upon the welfare of their constituent 

 regions, these questions are so numerous tlxat they cannot be 

 expected to master them all, luiless those who have made 

 special study aid them by digests of their work. 



Correspondence. 

 Plant Diseases in West Virginia. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the southern portion of this state, especially in Mercer 

 County, this season, the indigenous Juniper, and particularly 

 those in yards, have much the appearance of fruiting Orange- 

 trees, so thickly are they dotted with the large cedar-apple 

 (Gymnosporangium macropus) in its fruiting stage. The 

 orchards of this district plainly show the predominance of this 

 fungus by the prevalence of the second stage (Roestelia pyrata) 

 on the leaves of the apple. The farmers ciuestioned state 

 that the disease has been noticed particularly upon the 

 Juniper-trees during the last three years. Previous to my 

 visit, no attempt whatever had been made to cut out the cedar- 

 apples and burn them. 



The leaves of the wild Blackberries, especially those of 

 pasture and meadow lands, are being destroyed in all sections 

 of the state by the Uredo, Creonia luminatum, which is so 

 common this season that I have yet to see a field in which the 

 briers were not more or less affected by this fungus, while 

 many present the appearance of being covered with an orange 

 fabrii;. In this state, where these briers are considered one 

 of the worst of our weeds, the benefit of such widespread affec- 

 tion can be readily realized. 



I have been watching with considerable interest for the ap- 

 pearance of Puccinia suaveolens among our few stations 

 of Canada Thistles, but have so far failed to notice it. Once 

 only have I found the disease, and then on the Boar 

 Thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus); even this was so far from any 

 known patch of Canada Thistles that I was unable to transfer 

 the spores, much as I desired to do so. I feel confident that 

 this would be the onlv true measure of eradication to practice 

 effectively against this Thistle. I was glad to be able to prove 

 last season that the seeds produced by Canada Thistles in this 

 state were incapable of germination, owing to improper fer- 

 tilization of the ovaries. There remains, therefore, only the 

 root-spreading for our farmers to contend with. 



In the Pine-forests of the Alleghany region great damage is 

 being done by a beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), which girdles 

 the inner bark, thus cutting off the flow of sap. Hundreds of 

 trees are perishing through the destructive action of this in- 

 sect. In searching- for some method of checking its ravages, 

 our entomologist, Mr. A. D. Hopkins, found large numbers 

 of the larvae of this beetle dead and covered with a new fun- 

 gus disease which Professor Peck has named Cylindrocalla 



