August 24, 1892. 



Garden and Forest. 



397 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Officb: Tribune Building, Naw York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTBRBD AS SECOND-CLASS MATTKR AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAr.F. 



Editorial Article : — A National Forest-policy 397 



Ttie Temperate House at Kew. (With figure.) IV. 39S 



Overland in the Cayuga Country. — I Professor L. //. Bailey. 39S 



In the Woods of Eastern Texas E, N, P. 399 



Climbing Plants in the Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 400 



New or Littlk-known Plants : — New Orchids R. A. Rol/e. 400 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. IVatson. 400 



Cultural Department: — Notes on Shrubs y. G. JacJ^-, 402 



The Wild Garden in August.— I M. Barker. 403 



The Water-garden IVm. Tricker. 404 



Francoa iamosa, Melianthus major E. O. Orpet. 404 



Tradescantia Warscewicziana, Costus igneus R. Cameron. 404 



Correspondence : — Some Questions About Taste Mrs. J. H. Robbitis. 405 



Plant-labels C. B. W. 405 



Meetings of Societies : — The Florists at Washington : The President's Address. 406 



Fungous and Other Rose Troubles Professor Byron D. Halsted. 406 



Floriculture for Children Robert Farquhar.. 407 



Notes ^ 40S 



Illustration : — Central Walk in the Temperate House at Kew, Fig. 67 401 



A National Forest-policy. 



IN the closing days of the last session of Congress, 

 Senator Paddock's bill "to provide for the establish- 

 ment, protection and administration of public forest-reser- 

 vations and for other purposes" was reported favorably to 

 the Senate, and although it was impossible at that late 

 hour to secure any action upon it, the bill was placed on 

 the calendar ready to be called up at the beginning of the 

 next session. In the executive machinery authorized by 

 this act there may be some details about which opinions 

 will differ, but this could be said of any act devised for 

 this purpose, for it is hardly possible that a complete and 

 entirely satisfactory forest-policy could be inaugurated at 

 once. A perfect policy can only be developed after years 

 of careful experience ; but, inasmuch as we have no policy 

 whatever, what is now needed is a measure which will se- 

 cure some comprehensive preliminary work with the 

 broad outlines of a general system, and these requirements 

 are fairly met by the present bill. 



We have said that the country has no forest-policy, and 

 we are reminded by the very interesting report which has 

 been printed with the bill that the Government does not 

 know with any accuracy how much forest-land still re- 

 mains in the public domain, and it knows even less about 

 the quality and quantity of the timber which is now stand- 

 ing on that land. The most accurate statement which can 

 be made now is that the United States Government holds 

 an area of something less than seventy million acres desig- 

 nated as woodland, and mostly situated on the slopes and 

 crests of western mountain-ranges, and no more definite 

 knowledge can be had without long and laborious investiga- 

 tion. This property of unknown extent and value is left with- 

 out any proper administration, to be ravaged every year by 

 fires and b)' illegal and wasteful cutting. Some special 

 measures for managing these forests have been enacted, it 

 is true, but they have proved rather detrimental than other- 



wise, and it is confessed in a public document that the 

 impossibility of securing, in a straightforward and honest 

 way from the Government, either timber or timber-bear- 

 ing lands, has compelled the citizens of nine states and 

 territories to become criminals if they take the timber 

 which is necessary to enable them to exist It has been 

 asserted that more timber has been burned in a single year 

 than has been legitimately used since the settlement of 

 the country, but even if this is an exaggeration it is true 

 beyond question that we are squandering our inheritance 

 at a ruinous rate, and that unless this reckless destruction 

 is arrested we shall, in a short time, not only be without a 

 sufficient amount of timber for the economical uses of the 

 country, but we shall suffer a long series of ever-increasing 

 disasters which, as experience has demonstrated over and 

 over again, will certainly follow if the forest-cover is re- 

 moved from the sources of our great rivers. 



Now, whatever is true as to the influence of the forest- 

 area upon climate and meteorological phenomena, it is 

 agreed by all authorities that a forest-cover exerts a salu- 

 tary influence upon the water drainage and soil conditions. 

 The French Government has already spent $35,000,000, 

 and expects to spend still more than this amount in the 

 future, to repair the damages done b)' deforesting the moun- 

 tains of that country, and it certainly is the part of wisdom 

 to be warned by such an example. Fortunately, a forest 

 need not become unproductive because it is held perma- 

 nently to preserve the conditions of soil and water, which 

 make agriculture and even existence possible over large 

 areas. Under proper management our present forest-re- 

 sources can be maintained and even grow in productive- 

 ness every year, but this is not possible so long as the 

 forest is under private ownership. The fact that a crop 

 of timber requires, at least, half a century for its develop- 

 ment shows the necessity of stable ownership and a con- 

 servative system of management. A forest-policy worthy 

 of the name must be organized and administered in the 

 interest of coming generations, and the state, which never 

 dies, can alone be trusted with interests in the distant 

 future. Beyond all dispute, then, the forests on non- 

 agricultural lands of the national domain should be held 

 as the property of the whole people forever. 



The new law provides, in the first place, for a survey, 

 to determine the extent and location of all forest-lands, 

 after which the President is to withdraw from sale and en- 

 try all such lands except those that are found to be more 

 valuable for agriculture than for forest-reservation. These 

 non-agricultural timber-lands are to be transferred from the 

 Department of the Interior, where lands are held only for 

 disposal, to the Department of Agriculture, which is de- 

 signed to look after cultural matters, and where a bureau 

 in charge of forestry-matters exists. To save expense at 

 the beginning, and to create as quickly as possible an effi- 

 cient protective service, the army may be employed for 

 this dut)'', as it has already been used in the Yellowstone 

 and California parks. There is no occasion here to explain 

 the provisions for cutting timber under license, or for the 

 creation of a force of officers to attend to the business of 

 forest-administration proper. It is only necessary to add 

 that the system proposes a separate and complete admin- 

 istration, to be carried on by competent men under expert 

 advice, and the principle is steadily kept in view that while 

 the service of protecting water-sheds is of sufficient national 

 importance to warrant expenditure out of other funds, nev- 

 ertheless this service should be made to pay for itself by 

 the sale of surplus forest-material. 



In short, the immediate effect of the bill will be to ascer- 

 tain just how much timber-land the Government has and 

 where it is situated, the withdrawal from sale by the 

 General Government of all such land and its protection 

 by the army until a complete and effective forest-service 

 can be organized. It is to be hoped that the meetings of 

 the various scientific associations during this summer and 

 autumn, as well as the conventions representing the various 

 branches of horticultural and agricultural effort, will bring 



