370 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 232. 



cultivated. Scotland has a large extent of land of this kind, 

 which could be planted up without detriment to the sporting- 

 interests ; and there seems no reason why this country should 

 not be able to produce as fine and valuable timber as is ob- 

 tained from the shores of the Baltic and from other parts of 

 northern Europe. There is, then, plenty of work before 

 Scottish foresters, both in the way of making the most of ex- 

 isting woodlands and of planting up new areas ; and the ob- 

 ject of the present course of lectures is to impart to the younger 

 aspirants after fame in this direction some of the leading prin-. 

 ciples that should guide their endeavors. 



" It seems, at first sight, marvelous that the United King- 

 dom should, until very recently, have been without the means 

 of imparting any regular instruction in this important science ; 

 but the fact appears less remarkable when we consider how 

 far cultivated land and pasture have with us taken the place 

 of forest, the large extent to which we have drawn our sup- 

 plies of timber from abroad, and the comparatively small 

 amount of wood we consume as fuel. There is, however, no 

 doubt another reason why progress in this direction has been 

 so long delayed, and that is the very small area of forest-land in 

 these islands which is owned by the state. In countries where ex- 

 tensive forests are state property, forest-schools were long ago 

 established. I will instance the case of France, with the for- 

 ests of which country I am better acquainted than I am with 

 those of any other. The forests of France are thus owned : 



Square miles. 



By the state, 3,734=10.7 per cent. 



" communes or parishes, and pub- 

 lic institutions under state con- 

 trol, 8,073=22.7 



" private proprietors, 23,657^66.6 " 



Total 35,464 



" Although the state and the communes or parishes together 

 possess only one-third of the total forest-area, the extent of 

 their property is very large, amounting in all to 11,807 square 

 miles. To carry on the management of these large domains, 

 the state maintains a body of highly skilled foresters, who, 

 before their appointment, have received two years' training 

 at the National Forest School at Nancy, at which institution, 

 until a few years ago, candidates for the Indian Forest Ser- 

 vice also received their professional education. But it is a 

 remarkable fact, that although private proprietors own no less 

 than 23,657 square miles of forest, or double the amount 

 owned by the state and the parishes together, there is not a 

 single private forest school or class throughout the country ; 

 and further than this, although the lectures at the State Forest 

 School are open to the public, advantage is very rarely taken 

 of this privilege by private proprietors. This fact is doubtless 

 due in a large measure to the succession laws of France, 

 which tend to form very small properties ; but there are still 

 many large properties with valuable forests upon them, and the 

 explanation of the abstention of private proprietors from any at- 

 tempt to avail themselves of the means of instruction in for- 

 estry which are afforded to them and to their wood-managers 

 is said to be that, as the state forests and the officials in charge 

 of them are scattered about the country, the art of forest-man- 

 agement is more or less popularly known ; that private own- 

 ers have before them the state forests, which serve as models 

 for the management of their own timber estates ; and that 

 they can get a certain amount of advice and assistance from 

 state officials, who are occasionally permitted to render aid in 

 this way. But in many localities the private woods are too 

 distant from state or parish forests to permit of their owners 

 obtaining any assistance from the government officials ; and 

 they are then thrown entirely on their own resources, with 

 the result that although, speaking generally, the principal pri- 

 vate forests are well managed, mistakes, and grave ones, are 

 frequently made. 



" I may perhaps here mention that in France private pro- 

 prietors cannot clear any wooded area without notifying their 

 intention to do so at least four months beforehand ; and the 

 government officials can, with certain exceptions, successfully 

 oppose the clearance, if the continued maintenance of the 

 wood is considered advisable on any of the following grounds, 

 viz.: 



1. To protect mountain slopes. 



2. To protect the soil from erosion, and to hinder encroach- 



ments by rivers, streams or torrents. 



3. To preserve springs and watercourses. 



4. To protect coasts against erosion by the sea, and against 



the encroachments of moving sand. 



5. For the defense of the national frontier. 



6. For sanitary reasons. 



"But although private proprietors in our country are not 

 subjected to any such interference with the disposal of their 

 property, they have none of the advantages which the exist- 

 ence of extensive state forests, and the presence among them 

 of state forest-officials, gives to private proprietors in France ; 

 and in these islands the science of forestry is almost unknown 

 outside a small circle of professional men, who, to their credit 

 be it spoken, have acquired the valuable practical knowledge 

 they possess without any of the advantages afforded by a pre- 

 vious study of the principles evolved by experience in coun- 

 tries where systematic forest-management lias been long 

 practised. 



" But, in spite of these disadvantages, Scotland can show 

 numerous well-managed forest-estates — such, for example, as 

 those of the Duke of Athole, of the Earls of Mansfield and 

 Seafield, of Lord Lovat, and of other proprietors who might 

 be mentioned ; and it is universally admitted that the art of 

 raising nursery plants, of establishing plantations, and of rear- 

 ing park trees is here carried out with a Success unsurpassed 

 by the foresters of any other country. Our Forest-class has 

 thus the great advantage that excellent practical instruction in 

 work of this kind can conveniently be given to it. 



" It is impossible to mention the Duke of Athole's forests 

 without alluding to the loss we have recently sustained by the 

 death of Mr. John Macgregor, a representative Scotfish for- 

 ester, who has done much to forward the progress of forestry 

 in this country, and whose well-known figure will be missed 

 from among us for many a year to come. 



"But I believe I am justified in saying that certain branches 

 of the science have unavoidably received less attention than 

 is desirable. I allude principally to regeneration by natural 

 means (that is, felling in such a manner that the old trees may 

 be caused to produce their successors in the form of self- 

 sown seedlings), and to the preparation of working plans or 

 schemes of management, by means of which continuity in 

 the system of treatment is secured, the forest is made to yield 

 the maximum quantity of the most paying kind of produce, 

 and provision is made for the removal of a regular annual or 

 other periodical yield ; at the same time the owner is enabled 

 to realize the full yield with confidence, and his forest is se- 

 cured against damage by overfelling." 



Correspondence. 



Orchard Spraying. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have read with interest the comments of Professor 

 Bailey upon my observations on the question of insecticide 

 and fungicide spraying. On some points I quite coincide with 

 what he says. On others I remain in doubt, and the subject 

 will bear more and fuller discussion before we lay it aside. 

 Without doubt, the spraying will go on. I would be among the 

 last to favor its prohibition. Its immediate benefits are manifestly 

 important. Some crops would be prompt and utter failures 

 without it. For years I have sprayed for the currant-worm, 

 the cabbage-worm and the potato-bug, and have tried to de- 

 stroy the onion-maggot by scalding, with considerable success. 

 Squashes, melons and cucumbers I have "bugged" sedu- 

 lously ; but all the time I have been thinking how it was that 

 the world got along in this matter before hellebore and Paris- 

 green made their advent on the farm and in the garden. 



When I began farming in northern Vermont, of all these 

 pests only the squash "bug" (striped) was known here; but 

 as the currant and cabbage worms were both imported to this 

 continent by the way of Canadian seaports, I made their ac- 

 quaintance some years before their moths had fluttered their 

 way down to the vicinity of New York. The only great insect 

 pest on the farm I had before known was the wheat-midge 

 (misnamed " weevil " by the farmers), which, in two or three 

 years, abolished the leading commercial crop of northern New 

 England. For near thirty years wheat was a blank in the crop 

 returns of this section ; but we are now growing it with as 

 good success as of old. Of fungous attacks, the only serious 

 one in those days was the potato-rot. But the wheat-midge 

 and the potato-rot were severe blows to New England agricul- 

 ture, and became determining factors in the great western 

 emigration which has kept the rural population of northern 

 New England stationary for the last four decades. 



The most noteworthy fact in all this is, perhaps, that both the 

 insect and the fungous plagues abated, and practically ceased 

 to be prohibitory to the cultivator, without other than natural 

 aids. It is a most interesting question, whether, in availing 

 ourselves of poisons, we are not at the same time prolonging 

 the evils, or, perhaps, making them persistent. No one can 



