April i8, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



87 



varieties — tlie finest being the tall, white Japan Lily. The 

 florists' habit of removing- the anthers from Lilies as soon as 

 the buds open does indeed preserve the purity of the petals; 

 but this gain is somewhat dearly purchased by the lack of 

 their yellow accents when the flower unfolds. Ne.xt to the 

 Lilies should be named the Canary Broom, which was 

 grown — and very well grown — in much larger quantities 

 than ever before. Acacias were also for sale, but not in 

 large number. In two or three shops there was a com- 

 parative novelty in the shape of great sprays of purple Bour- 

 gainvillea. The European Bladder-Nut — a shrulj with white 

 flowers — had also not been so often seen in previous years. 

 Lilacs were poor — nor are they ever so good in this coun- 

 try at this season as in Paris, where they are so admirably 

 and profusely forced. Hydrangeas, on the other hand, were 

 excellent and seemed to contest with Lilies the first place in 

 popular favor. Azaleas were very poor — usually both small 

 and badly grown. Spireeas and Deutziaswere fairly good. 

 In one shop at least there were a number of ftlahernias, not 

 very attractive to look at, but of delicious odor. Orchids, 

 both cut and growing, were conspicuous, and m some cases 

 very good. Daffodils could be had in quantities — not of the 

 first quality — but no other variety of Narcissus. Lilies-of- 

 the-Valley and iNIignonette were abundant and excellent, 

 Carnations abundant but not fine, and Roses by no means 

 up to the standard of former years. Smilax was every- 

 where in quantities and excellent in quality. 



Dangers threaten the Adirondack forests from every di- 

 rection. On the 20th of March Mr. Hadley introduced into 

 the Assembly, and, by the unanimous consent of that body, 

 passed to a third reading, a bill authorizing the Commis- 

 sioners of the Land Office to release and convey to Charles 

 W. Durant, Jr., a tract of land on Racquette Lake one hun- 

 dred and sixty acres in extent. This piece of land contains 

 some of the most beautiful building sites in all the North 

 Woods, and has a large market value. Mr. Durant entered 

 and took possession of the land, and, without right or title 

 to it, erected permanent, and. probably, expensive im- 

 provements, ''in contemplation of purchase," the bill ex- 

 plains. Mr. Hadley's bill should be defeated, and Mr. 

 Durant and every other person unlawfully occupying State 

 forest-lands should be compelled to vacate them forthwith. 

 The tract of land which Mr. Durant seeks to obtain by this 

 piece of special legislation is situated within the forest-pre- 

 serve. The forest-preserve was created and is maintained 

 to protect the rivers and regulate the s mitary conditions of 

 this State, and not to supply homes to-wealthy citizens who 

 may take a fancy to pass a few weeks in the woods during 

 the summer months. We have already pointed out in an 

 earlier issue the dangers that menace the forests through 

 the probable enactment of a law giving the Forest Com- 

 mission authority to lease parts of the preserve for build- 

 ing purposes. The fact that a bill authorizing the sale of 

 a part of the forest to Mr. Durant can be hurried to a third 

 reading in the Assembly without exciting public attention 

 and alarm, shows how great the danger of giving such re- 

 markable and unusual powers to the Commrssioners really 

 is. Every one who takes a lease of a piece of land in the 

 forest and makes improvements on it, and then becomes 

 dissatisfied with the terms of his lease, or is unable to re- 

 new it, or takes a fancy to own the land upon which he 

 has built, will go to the Legislature to get authority to buy. 

 And in nine cases out often the application, if it is backed 

 with sufficient money, or political influence, or social 

 standing, will succeed. 



The Forest Commissioners are opposed, it is reported, 

 to the passage of the Durant bill, although it is not ap- 

 parent that they have taken any very active steps to defeat 

 it or to warn the public of this new danger to the forests. 

 Indeed, the favorite measure of the Commissioners, author- 

 izing the lease of State lands for a term of years and with 

 privilege of renewal, practically empowers them to do for 

 a thousand squatters what this bill does for one. 



Landscape Gardcnino- as a Profession. 



MUCH has been written of laic with regard to the 

 opening for young men of ability and taste in 

 landscape gardenmg. While it is true that the need exists 

 for men of artistic taste and skill in this profession, it is 

 not so clear that there is suflicient encouragement for such 

 men to enter it. The greatest need is for the education of 

 public taste in garden matters, so that the demand for men 

 of trained hand and a correct knowledge of beautiful forms 

 and comliinations of flower, shrub and tree may be created. 

 So long as the public are satisfied with ])arks constructed 

 by engineers, and with terraces and embankments like 

 those of railways or fortifications, and are content to have 

 their private grounds filled with meaningless " sarpentine " 

 walks, by some Irish laborer ; so long as the denizens of 

 our cities give annual emplo)'ment to a crowd of i)eripa- 

 tetic tree-butchers in lopping off the heads of beautiful 

 trees, just so long will men of taste avoid a profession in 

 which they would starve, while the ignorant pretender and 

 the mathematical park-maker waxed fat. In one of our 

 large Atlantic cities, a recently founded public institution 

 stands at the junction of two wide avenues with ample 

 grounds and grand old trees. The grounds were beautiful 

 and natural before the erection of the mstitution, but it was 

 thought necessary to "improve" them. And the improver 

 went to work with transit and level, spade, pick and 

 shovel, and he terraced the place on all its public sides 

 with banks one above the other in diminishing perspec- 

 tive, building stone walls around trees from which he dug 

 the earth, until now quite a respectable fort appears, and 

 the passer-by involuntarily looks for the barbette guns 

 on top. And yet the pubhc think it beautiful, and the news- 

 paper men praise the ingenuity in sa\ing the trees. In all 

 our wide and wealthy land the men of true skill in land- 

 scape art who meet with encouragement in their profes- 

 sion, can be almost counted on the fingers of one hand, while 

 railroad engineers, architects and hod-carriers are the land- 

 scape gardeners for the masses. Political favoritism also 

 operates largely against true landscape art. No matter how 

 correctly some public ground may be designed by its pro- 

 jector, the mutations of politics surely bring in some 

 pig-headed fellows, who either prevent the design being 

 completed, or let some ignoramus spoil it. One has only 

 to go to the public grounds in Washington to see plenty of 

 such examples. The work of A. J. Downing is being 

 allowed to grow into a jungle because no one has had 

 backbone enough to cut away trees which Downing planted 

 as "nurse" trees, while his design was grov^'ing. And in 

 the grounds of the Agricultural Department, well laid out 

 originally, and planted as an arboretum, a straight avenue 

 of asphalt has been cut through the original design, and 

 bordered by two lines of wretched Ginkgo trees, looking like 

 foreign tramps in rags and tatters on dress-parade. So long 

 as public taste demands that every little spot of greenery 

 must have all the repose driven out of it by obtrusive beds 

 of Coleus and Geraniums, and the construction of carpet- 

 beds is considered the highest style of garden art, it will 

 be hard to get young men of education and taste to enter 

 into competition with the crowd which suffices for the 

 public demand. Of course, there are exceptions to all 

 this, for we have some good landscape gardeners, and 

 some men who are employing them, but I fear that the 

 few who do really good work can easily do all the good 

 work called for. Horticol.\. 



[" Horticola " is certainly justified in feeling discontented 

 and even indignant with the present condition in our 

 country of public taste in regard to landscape gardening. 

 It is only too true that natural beauty is often, desecrated 

 and existent works of landscape art destroyed by ignorant 

 remodeling, and that the engineer on the one hand or the 

 laborer on the other, is often intrusted with work which 

 demands an artist's eye and touch. We believe, how- 

 ever, that there has recently been an awakening of 

 intelligent public interest in the subject. The fact seems 



