434 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 238. 



orig-inal value is undertaken, and shows the thorough way 

 in which these problems are solved by an artist with con- 

 science and skill. Since then we have published much to 

 illustrate what we consider good practice and bad in the 

 planning and planting of grounds, and we have added 

 much detailed instruction as to the specific character of 

 various trees, shrubs and vines — that is, the material with 

 which an ideal picture is to be realized in actual scenery. 

 We can think of no better way to help on the novice than 

 by continuing to furnish examples and instruction of the 

 same sort, although well aware that published directions 

 alone will never make an artist. They will realize a wor- 

 thy purpose, however, if they encourage any one to study 

 these questions for himself, and especially to study nature, 

 where he will be sure to find, if he has a reverent spirit, 

 perfect models and true inspiration. 



Promising Grasses. 



AT the meeting of the Society for the Promotion of 

 Agricultural Science, held last month in Rochester, 

 Dr. W. J. Beal read a paper entitled "Some Selections of 

 Grasses promising for Field and Lawn." The paper was 

 in the main an instructive record of some experiments made 

 at the Michigan Agricultural College, and our readers will, 

 no doubt, appreciate the practical value of the abstract 

 which follows : 



Some seedlings of a glaucous variety of Elymus Virginicus 

 were reported to have come very true to the parent plants. 

 When grown for three years beside some of the common or 

 type specimens, they were not only all glaucous, but were 

 more vigorous, averaging one foot higher. This grass is 

 probably not very valuable for fodder, but the point here 

 illustrated is a broad hint to all who are interested in pastures 

 and meadows to be on the alert in selecting forms, varieties 

 or races of grasses which exhibit some merits over others of 

 the same species. 



For fifteen years or more Dr. Beal has been raising a se- 

 lected variety of Festuca elatior. The seed came from Kew, 

 England, and seems to be the true variety arundinacea of this 

 species. When compared with the type usually. grown in this 

 country, the roots are longer and stouter, the culms taller and 

 larger, the leaves much longer, broader, thicker, the panicle 

 more erect and flowering a little later. Plants were exhibited. 



Four or five years ago, after careful search, three types of 

 Poa pratensis were selected, a very small one with narrow 

 leaves, one of medium size, and a large tall one with very 

 broad leaves. These seedlings come very true to the parents. 

 The smallest one seems best for lawn, the largest for meadows 

 and pastures. A plant of the largest was on exhibition and 

 was three feet and a half high where it had been grown in a 

 crowded condition on stilTclay land. 



A better grass to grow in the shade of trees, especially on 

 thin soil for a lawn, is a great desideratum. At the Agricul- 

 tural College, Michigan, has been such a lawn for twenty-five 

 years or more, seeded with a variety of grasses, among which 

 are several varieties of Sheep's Fescue, probably from Europe. 

 Three years ago Dr. Beal selected pieces of sods from what 

 seemed to be three different plants, all the best for lawn. 

 These have since been grown more extensively. In the 

 original lawn there was much variation and the Fescues were 

 considerably scattered. In such places few of them stuck up 

 in bunches, so disagreeable in a lawn, but most of them had 

 slowly spread till one plant had not infrequently covered a 

 space two feet or more in diameter. A sample of the turf 

 was shown, a foot square, where it had formed a fine light 

 green turf, in a shade so dense and on land so thin and cold 

 that June Grass could scarcely grow at all. The sample was 

 not a dense mat of leaves, such as is seen on good soil in 

 the open sun of a well-tended lawn, but was very satisfactory. 



For twelve years or more Bermuda Grass has been spread- 

 ing more or less in a lawn on sandy land of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College. June Grass, some White Clover and 

 Couch Grass have usually been the mainstays when the 

 weather was favorable, but ten days or two weeks of dry, hot 

 weather have turned the green to brown and yellow. Patches 

 of Crab Grass, Pigeon Grass (Setaria) and numerous other 

 dry-weather weeds rendered the surface very unsightly. In 

 several places the Bermuda Grass has spread on the lawn. 

 In spring, and always when the weather is naoist and warm 

 enough, June Grass keeps green and makes a fine lawn, the 



Bermuda Grass lying low and making little display. On the 

 arrival of a drought, June Grass retires and Bermuda Grass 

 thrives, thus covering the soil throughout the growing season. 

 So far on the college lawn Dr. Beal is much pleased with this 

 experiment of mixing June Grass and Bermuda, but it may 

 not work equally well in some other portions of the northern 

 states. 



Indian Ridge — An Experiment. 



ONE of the public-spirited men of my acquaintance has 

 been carrying on an experiment in tree-planting and 

 farming on an unpromising lot of about a hundred acres, 

 lying about equidistant from two Massachusetts villages, with 

 the idea that if these towns ever become crowded and flourish- 

 ing manufacturing centres this estate may some day prove 

 valuable as a country park for both places. 



I have found it interesting to observe this place in its va- 

 rious stages during the half-dozen years that it has been under 

 cultivation, and some account of its gradual restoration from 

 barrenness to productiveness may prove of interest also to all 

 those who take an interest in reclaiming waste land. 



When ihe purchaser, whom I will call Mr. X., took up this 

 land it had been well-nigh shorn of its timber. There were 

 some small woods of Birch and Maple, some scattered Jimi- 

 pers, a fejv good Pine and Oak trees, and a belt of small sap- 

 lings growing along and in a stretch of low swampy ground 

 that was set down on the old town-maps as Sweet River. 

 Nothing that looked like a stream could, however, be discov- 

 ered there, its only suggestion was that the water-holes among 

 the peat-bog were a trifle deeper in some places than others. 



The first step in the restoration of these waste lands was to 

 provide a protection for these woods from fire, always a 

 menace to outlying timber-land, so in order to form a barrier 

 against the devouring element as well as to drain the marsh 

 it seemed desirable to recover the lost river. An intelligent 

 Irishman was accordingly instructed to re-establish the course 

 of the former stream by trenching, directions being given him 

 to avoid straight lines and to connect the deepest water-holes 

 with something like natural curves. 



For two or three summers the ditcher worked away, leaving, 

 at the conclusion of his labor, a winding stream varying from 

 eight to fourteen feet in width, with a dry walk constructed 

 from the peat dug in this manner and thrown on brush, 

 along one edge of it, backed by woods, and on the farther 

 bank a picturesque mass of natural shrubbery full of wild 

 beauty and fragrance. Other trenches connected with this 

 stream rendered the meadow lands available, so that the one 

 job established a good defense from fire, supplied a valuable 

 mass of peat for use upon the high dry uplands, and gave good 

 fields for raising grain or grass, by lowering the general level 

 of the water. This was effected by a system of water-gates 

 permitting the variation of its level at will. 



Through the woodlands, for still further protection, the leaves 

 were raked away and trenches cut to he! pin fighting the flames 

 by isolation, if by chance some of the trees should catch from 

 guns, burning brush on adjoining land, or from the sparks of 

 a locomotive. These precautions are still taken continuously 

 to protect the property from its most dangerous enemy. 

 The next step was to establish nurseries for trees, and to 

 plant them everywhere in great numbers. Mr. X. made the 

 mistake of beginning his plantations with one-year seedlings, 

 which perished in great numbers, but experience taught him 

 that trees somewhat older were of a more satisfactory size to 

 endure drought and the dislodging frosts of a New England 

 climate. 



This tract is one of very varied surface, consisting of valley, 

 bog and upland ; gravel hills, sand hills, clay hills are all to be 

 found upon it, and in the centre rises an eminence some 125 

 feet above the sea-level, which commands from its summit a 

 widely extended and beautiful inland view over the neighbor- 

 ing villages as far as the distant hills of Milton. 



There is a cu-rious intervale in one part of the place, which 

 has been known for the better part of a century as the dry 

 dock, from its resemblance in shape to one of these construc- 

 tions, the walls being represented by two steep moraines, or, 

 to speak more precisely, kames, evidently the deposit of some 

 break in an ancient glacier. The crest of these Indian ridges, 

 or horsebacks, as they are popularly called, is only wide 

 enough for a foot-path, and they are from two to three hun- 

 dred feet in length. Their steep slopes are covered with self- 

 sown Junipers. These singular formations are of much geo- 

 logical interest, and as such a double moraine is unknown in 

 this section of the country, this rare phenomenon cannot fail 

 to attract the attention of every scientific observer. 



