34 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 14, iSJSS. 



layed much longer the flower buds will become so prominent 

 that the least rub against them will break them off. Put on 

 the leaves six or eight inches deep all over the bed, and scat- 

 ter a little fern, sea thatch, sedge or salt hay over the leaves 

 to keep them from being blown about. Although this may 

 seem to be a heavy mulcliing, it is none too much, ami by 

 next October it will rot down and not be an inch deep. 



Summer mulching is far more important than winter mulch- 

 ing. By it we are enabled to grow with fair success shallow- 

 rooting plants and many evergreens that without it could 

 hardly survive our hot, dry weather. Mulch lieavily if at all, 

 for this is the only way to accomplish the desired result. 



We use leaves only on large beds, and where we can sprin- 

 kle a little thatch over them ; for small beds and individual 

 specimens we use rough manure or thatch or salt hay alone. 

 But in mulching trees and shrubs judgment must be used. 

 There is no use in describing a circle 6 or 10 feet wide around 

 the trunk of a big tree, removing the sod therefrom and mulch- 

 ing the ground, because the feeding' roots have gone beyond 

 that circle, and hence are not under the inflvience of the 

 mulching. The way to reach them is to top-dress the grountl 

 in fall with manure and rake it off level in spring. Some 

 writers argue that if we keep the surface of the ground well 

 stirred by means of the hoe or cidti\-ator in summer this 

 answers everv purpose and is lietter than middling. That is 

 well enough so far as nursery stock is concerned, but in per- 

 manent plantings, for instance in the case of isolated trees and 

 shrubs, and shrubbery Ijeds, loosening the surface of the 

 ground should be avoided and mulching adopted. 



I have no patience with the people who call out about tlie 

 unsightliness of mulching. Mulching is repugnant only to 

 the uneducated eye. The person who understa)ids and ap- 

 preciates the benefit to the plants to lie derived from this care 

 regards its presence with special fa\or. But. of course, it 

 must be neatly applied and kept. 



The mulching of trees and shruljs in summer is more ex- 

 tensively practiced in this garden, tlian, so far as I know, in 

 any other in the country, and we are, year after year, becom- 

 ing more alive to its beneficial effects. ]l'i/liaiii Falconer. 



Clfii Cwp. N. Y. 



Grapes for Home U.se. 



IN response to the inquiry of yoiu' correspondent in North- 

 ern New Jersev as to the liest lialf-dozen varieties of grapes 

 to plant for familv use to the extent of about twenty vines, I 

 name the following and add some reasons why I rt-C(immend 

 them. 



Moore's Earlv — two \'ines — the earliest good l)lack Grape we 

 have. The berries are large ; vines hardy, he:dthy, and pro- 

 ductive. The Cottage would pro\'e its best substitute. 



Ladv — two x'ines — the earliest good white Grape ; very sweet 

 and generally liked. The vine is hardy and healthy, but not as 

 vigorous as manv others. Tlie lierries are of good size ; 

 clusters small, and its season short because of its liabilit\- to 

 crack on approaching maturity ; liut 1 name it liecause an early 

 grape of this color is desirable. 



Worden — four vines — the fiest early Idack Grajie ; tlie clus- 

 ters and berries are large, and the vine is vigorous, healthv, 

 hardy and productive. The above are all of Concord parent- 

 age, and like it tender-skinned, cracking easily when ripe. 



Brighton — four vines — the best early red grape we have, all 

 things considered. The clusters are large and handsome, 

 berries medium, vine vigorous and |)roductive. 



Dela\vare — two vines — among Grapes what the SecKel and 

 Dana's Hovey are among pears. The small clusters of small 

 red berries ripen early. "The vine though healthy and hardy is 

 not a strong grower and does not always lind a congenial soil. 

 It is worthy of special care till it gets established and its c^ualit\' 

 atones for its lack of size. 



Wilder — four vines — a large, late black Grape of excellent 

 C|uality. The clusters arc large and handsume ; vine vigorous 

 and productive. 



Niag'ara — two vines — the largest and finest white Grape yet 

 tested. Berries and clusters are large and handsome ; quality 

 fully as good as that of the Concord — Mr. 13owning said lietter 

 — and the vine is very vigorous and productive. 



Empire State — two vines — a white grape of excellent ciuality, 

 better in this respect than the Niagara, but not so large or 

 attractive in cluster or berry. The vine is fairly vigorous and 

 productive. 



This list is of course for a special locality, luit most of 

 the vines named flourish over a wide area. Brighton, 

 Wilder and Niagara have a little foreign blood in their 

 veins, and are therefore more liable to mildew and rot 



than the others which are pure natives, but in seasons 

 favorable to the development of the rot fungus all are suscep- 

 tible to its attack unless it be Delaware. From the abo\'e list 

 your inc|uirer should be al>le to choose six kinds, if he wishes 

 to confine himself to that number, but he can plant them all 

 with little risk of failure. They all thrive with me on lower 

 ground and nearer the sealioard, and therefore in a less favora- 

 ble locality. I do not name the Concord liecause the season is 

 covered effectually without it. Moore's Early is equally good 

 and two to three weeks earlier, and this is followed by Worden, 

 which is better than either. The season of the Concord is 

 with Wilder and Niagara. E. ]ViIlia)ns. 



M.mlrlair, N.J. 



The Forest. 



The Hardwood Forests of the South. 



'"PHE time seems rapidly approaching when the lower 

 -'- Southern Stales will furnish the greater part of the lum- 

 lier shipped from the Atlantic forest region to foreign and 

 home markets, and will take the lead in the various industries 

 which depend for their material upon the products of the 

 forests. From sixty to seventy-five per cent of the area of the 

 several States of the lower South are covered with forests 

 which have been liut little encroached upon by the axe. Well 

 timliered countries without the Tropics have at all times been 

 foremost in progressive and varied agriculture and industries. 

 The history of the Old and New World gives am])le support to 

 this statement. 



With the exhaustion of tlie forests of White Pine and the de- 

 nudation of the country north of the Ohio, from the Atlantic 

 border to tlie Mississip]")i, where stood a wealth of timber 

 once deemed inexfiaustible bv men still living, the lumber 

 interests of the country east of the Mississippi are steadily 

 gravitating southwards, and manufacturing enterprises con- 

 nected with them are seeking the same field. In some in- 

 vestigations made for the Census office in 1880 the writer 

 founcl the lumbering operations of the great coast Pine belt 

 confined almost solely to the larger streams and to a strip two 

 or three miles on either side of a few railroad lines traversing 

 the forests. A few tram-roads and canals were liringing lum- 

 ber from remoter parts. But now tram-roads equipped with 

 steam power are penetrating the depths of this forest belt in 

 every direction with astonishing rapidity and are stripping hun- 

 dreds of square miles of their merchantable timber, and thou- 

 sands of acres of primeval timber lands are made available In- 

 new railroad lines intersecting the forests and' helping the trans- 

 port of their products to the seaboards and the inland markets ot 

 tlie Middle States. The stroke of the axe is now heaixl from 

 the basin of one river to that of the other where but a short 

 while ago the forest solitude remained unbroken. The ship- 

 ment of timber and naval stores from the Pine forests of the 

 lower South have douliled in the last seven years, and industrial 

 enterprises based on timlier resources have increased many 

 fold in almost every one of the Southern States. Factories ot car- 

 riages and wagons, agricultural implenients, furniture, cooper- 

 age antl hollow ware, and large establishments for building rail- 

 road cars have sprung up with the increase of towns and cities 

 in the mineral districts. 'The development of the mines of coal 

 and iron has occasioned a great increase of the consuniption 

 of timlier and fuel. The causes which within a life-time have 

 deplete<l the timber wealth of many of the Northern States 

 are, at this moment, at work in the Soutli with an activity out- 

 stripping that of any former period. 



South-western Kentucky, western Tennessee, western 

 North and South Carolina, Arkansas, and the northern half of 

 tlie Gulf States to the Brazos River, must at present be con- 

 sidered as the great depositories of the timber wealth of the 

 hardwood forest. It is from these Southern forests that the con- 

 stantly increasing needs of die country are to be met. Ex- 

 i:ierience has proved that timber of southern g'rowth is not 

 surpassed in its essential qualities by that of higher latitudes. 

 In their fullest dimensions and their greatest variety, the most 

 valuafile hardwood trees are found in the alluvial bottomlands 

 of the larger rivers toward their lower courses, in thevalle\s of 

 a higher level, beyond the light silicious soils of the tertiary 

 formation, in the woods covering the lower flanks of bordering 

 ele\-ations and in the narrower defiles of the mountains. The 

 most extensix-e liodv of hardwood forests exists in the delta of 

 the Mississi]ipi and Yazoo Rivers in the State of Mississippi, 

 covering four millions of acres, of which one-fifth are in culti\'a- 

 tion, and in the alluvial land of the Mississippi and St. Francis 

 Rivers in Arkansas, extending over two millions of acres with 

 scarcely ten per cent, of cleared land. The individual trees 



