February 2g, 



!•] 



Garden and Forest. 



II 



European Larch in Massachusetts. 



IN 1876 the Trustees of the Massachusetts Society for the 

 Promotion of Agriculture offered a premium for the 

 best plantations of not less than five acres of European 

 Larch. The conditions of the competition were that not less 

 than 2,700 trees should be planted to the acre, and that 

 only poor, worn-out land, or that unfit for agricultural pur- 

 poses, be used in these plantations. 



The prize was to be awarded at the end of ten years. 

 The committee appointed to award the prize were C. 

 S. Sargent and John Lowell. The ten years having ex- 

 pired, this Committee lately made the following report : 



Mr. James Lawrence, of Groton, and Mr. J. D. W. French, 

 of North Andover, made plantations during the spring of 1877 

 in competition for this prize. Mr. Lawrence, however, at the 

 end of one year withdrew from the contest, and Mr. French is 

 the only competitor. YourConnnittee have visited his planta- 

 tion at different times during the past ten years, and have now 

 made their final inspection. The plantation occupies a steep 

 slope facing the south and covered with a thin coating of grav- 

 elly loam largely mixed towards the bottom of the hill with 

 light sand. This field in 1877 was a fair sample of much of 

 the hillside pasture land of the eastern part of the State. It had 

 been early cleared, no doubt, of trees, and tlie light surface soil 

 practically exhausted by cultivation. It was then used as a 

 pasture, producing nothing but the scantiest growth of native 

 Grasses and Sedges with a few stunted Pitch Pines. Land of 

 this character has no value for tillage, and has practically little 

 value for pasturage. Upon five acres of this land Mr. French 

 planted fifteen thousand European Larch. The trees were 

 one foot high, and were set in the sod four feet apart each 

 way, except along the boundary of the field, where the planta- 

 tion was made somewhat thicl^er. The cost of the plantation, 

 as furnished by Mr. French, has been as follows : 



15,000 Larch (imported) $108 50 



Fencing, . 20 81 



Surveying, ....... 6 00 



Labor, 104 69 



Total $240 00 



This, with compound interest at five per cent, for ten years, 

 makes the entire cost to date of the plantation of five acres, 

 $390.90. 



The Trees for several years grew slowly and not very satis- 

 factorily. Several lost their leaders, and in various parts of 

 the plantation small blocks failed entirely. The trees, how- 

 ever, have greatly improved during the last four years, and 

 the entire surface of the ground is now, with one or two insig- 

 nificant exceptions, sufficiently covered. There appear to be 

 from 10,000 to 12,000 larch trees now growing on the five 

 acres. The largest tree measured is 25 feet high, with a 

 trunk 26 inches in circumference at the ground. There are 

 several specimens of this size at least, and it is believed that 

 all the trees, including inany which have not yet commenced 

 to grow rapidly or which have been overcrowded and stunted 

 by their more vigorous neighbors, will average 12 feet in 

 height, with trunks 10 to 12 inches in circumference at the 

 ground. Many individuals have increased over four feet in 

 height during the present year. It is interesting to note as an 

 indication of what Massachusetts soil of poor quality is capa- 

 ble of producing, that various native trees have appeared 

 spontaneously in the plantation since animals were excluded 

 from this field. Among these are White Pines 6 to 8 feet high. 

 Pitch Pines 14 feet high, a White Oak 15 feet high and a Gray 

 Birch 17 feet high. The Trustees offered this prize in the be- 

 lief that it would cause a plantation to be made capable of de- 

 monstrating that unproductive lands in this State could be 

 cheaply covered with trees, and the result of Mr. French's 

 experiment seems to be conclusive in this respect. It has 

 shown that the European Larch .can be grown rapidly and 

 cheaply in this climate upon very poor soil, but it seems to us 

 to have failed to show that this tree has advantages for gen- 

 eral economic planting ir. this State which are not possessed 

 in an equal degree by some of our native trees. Land which 

 will produce a crop of Larch will produce in the same time at 

 least a crop of white pine. There can be no comparison in 

 the value of these two trees in Massachusetts. The White 

 Pine is more easily transplanted than the Larch, it grows with 

 equal and perhaps greater rapidity, and it produces material 

 for which there is an assured and increasing demand. The 

 White Pine, moreover, has so far escaped serious attacks of 

 insects and dangerous fungoid diseases which now threaten to 



exterminate in different parts of Europe extensive plantations 

 of Larch. 



Your Committee find that Mr. French has complied wifii all 

 the requirements of the compefifion ; they recommend that 

 the premium of one thousand dollars be paid to him. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



When the woods are cut clean in Southern New Hampshire 

 White Pine comes in very, very thickly. Is it best to thin out 

 the growth or allow die trees to crowd and shade the feebler 

 ones slowly to death ? J. D. L. 



It is better to thin such over-crowded seedlings early, if 

 serviceable timber is wanted in the shortest time. The state- 

 ment that close growth is needed to produce long, clean tim- 

 ber, needs some limitation. No plant can develop satisfac- 

 torily without sufficient light, air and feeding room. When 

 trees are too thickly crowded the vigor of every one is impaired, 

 and the process of establishing supremacy of individuals is 

 prolonged, to the detriment even of those which are ultimately 

 victorious. The length is drawn out disproportionately to 

 the diameter, and all the trees remain weak. 



Experience has proved that plantations where space is given 

 for proper growth in their earlier years, yield more and better 

 wood than do Nature's dense sowings. Two records are 

 added in confirmation of this statement, and many others 

 could be given : 



1. A pine plantation of twelve acres was made, one half by 

 sowing, the other half by planting at proper distances. In 

 twenty-four years the first section had yielded, including the 

 material obtained in thinnings, 1,998 cubic feet, and the latter, 

 3,495 culjic feet of wood. The thinnings had been made, 

 when appearing necessary, at ten, fifteen and eighteen years 

 in the planted section, yielding altogether ten and three-quar- 

 ter cords of round firewood and seven cords of brush ; and at 

 eight, ten and twenty years in the sowed section, with a yield 

 of only three and one-fifth cords of round firewood at the 

 last thinning and seven and four-fifths cords of brush wood. 



2. A spruce growth seeded after thirty-three years was still 

 so dense as to be impenetrable, with scarcely any increase, 

 and the trees were covered with lichens. It was then thinned 

 out when thirty-five, and again when forty-two years old. The 

 appearance greatly improved, and the accretion in seven j'ears 

 after thinning showed 160 per cent, increase, or more than 

 26 per cent, every year. 



The density of growth which will give the best results in all 

 directions depends upon the kind of timber and soil condi- 

 tions. — B. E. Fernow. 

 Washington, D. C. 



Book Reviews. 



Gray's Elements of Botany. 



"PIFTY-ONE years ago, Asa Gray, then only twenty-six 

 -'■ years of age, published a treatise on botany adapted to 

 the use of schools and colleges. It was entitled " The Ele- 

 ments of Botany." Its method of arrangement was so ad- 

 mirably adapted to its purpose, and the treatment of all the 

 subjects so mature and thorough, that the work served as a 

 model for a large work which soon followed, ^the well-known 

 Botanical Text-book, and the same general plan has been fol- 

 lowed in all the editions of the latter treatise. About twenty- 

 five years after the appearance of the Elements, Dr. Gray pre- 

 pared a more elementary work for the use of schools, since 

 the Text-book had become rather too advanced and exhaus- 

 tive for convenient use. This work was the " Lessons in Bot- 

 any," a book which has been a great aid throughout the coun- 

 try, in introducing students to a knowledge of the principles of 

 the science. Without referring to other educational works 

 prepared by Dr. Gray, such as " How Plants Grow," etc., it suf- 

 fices now to say that for two or three years, he had been con- 

 vinced that there was need of a hand-book, different in essen- 

 tial particulars from any of its predecessors. When we re- 

 member that all of these had been very successful from an 

 educational point of view, as well as from the more exacting 

 one of the publishers, we can understand how strong must 

 have been the motive which impelled the venerable but still 

 active botanist to give a portion of his fast-flying time to the 

 preparation of another elementary work. In answer to re- 

 monstrances from those who believed that the remnant of his 

 days should be wholly given to the completion of the " Synop- 

 tical Flora," he was wont to say pleasantly, " Oh, I give only my 

 nienings to the ' Elements.' " And, so, after a day's work, in 

 which "he had utilized every available moment of sunlight, he 



