122 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 9, 1888. 



which exist between ourselves and the French and 

 Germans. In France and Germany women of the 

 middle class go daily to the markets themselves, and 

 women of the upper class send their cooks or housemaids ; 

 and neither the mistress nor the honne is ashamed to be 

 seen carrying home her big market-basket and her white- 

 papered plant. But with us the master of the house does 

 the marketing on his wa)^ to business ; or orders are given 

 in writing ; or, if the mistress makes marketing a part of 

 lier daily shopping-task, she is neither in the dress nor the 

 mood to carry home even the smallest flower-pot. More- 

 over, while abroad the commissionaire stands waiting on 

 every street-corner to take home for a few cents any- 

 thing one wants to send, such transportation is much more 

 difficult to get in American cities, and is much more expen- 

 sive even if it can be obtained. Undoubtedly it is largely 

 for these reasons that, while cut flowers are bought in such 

 quantities on our streets by persons of moderate means, 

 growing plants are seldom purchased by them. 



But, it may be said, plants are sold abroad not only in the 

 markets, but from house to house. In London, for example, 

 the wagon of the flower-vender is as familiar a sight as is the 

 wagon of the fruit-seller with us ; from him flowering plants 

 may be almost if not quite as cheaply purchased as from 

 the market-man ; and the result appears not only inside 

 the London house, but outside. Every balcony in the long, 

 dingy perspective of a London street is ablaze in spring and 

 summer with Roses and Petunias, with Calceolarias and 

 Geraniums ; and the visitor thinks with dissatisfaction of 

 the contrast presented by our own streets at the same 

 season, when a few hotels and club-houses show laudable 

 attempts to enliven the prospect with greenery and flowers, 

 but when private houses are almost altogether devoid of 

 such adornment. 



Here again, however, the customs of domestic life ex- 

 plain the contrast, at least to some extent. The wealthy 

 Englishman goes to town just when the wealthy American 

 is going to the country; and he wants to make his home at- 

 tractive just when the American is drawing down his blinds, 

 boarding up his front-door, and doing his best to give the 

 city the aspect of a plague-stricken, abandoned place. And 

 although, naturally, the majority of people pass almost all 

 the weeks of the year in town, whether the wealthy neigh- 

 bor is at home or away, just as naturally he follows this 

 neighbor's example. It is "the season" for all New 

 Yorkers when it is the season for the rich to be 

 at home ; and they care most to make their homes beautiful 

 in winter just as the middle-class Londoner cares most to 

 make his beautiful in summer. No doubt a good deal of 

 enthusiastic amateur gardening goes on for pri\-ate gratifi- 

 cation in the American city back-yard in summer ; but to 

 adorn the front of his home from public-spiiited motives 

 would seem to an American a futile act when there was 

 no one in town to be gratified by it. This feeling, we 

 allow, is natural. But, like many natural feelings, it is mis- 

 taken and unfortunate. The time when "nobody" is in 

 town is just the time when the multitudinous individuals 

 who are in town are in the mood to enjoy every bit of 

 greenness, every hint and suggestion of natural beaut)^, 

 which may present itself. Such individuals should then be 

 especially bent upon doing their best to gratify each other. 

 And the richer folk who are out of town, living in their own 

 gardens and among great Nature's greater gardens by the 

 seashore or upon the hills — it is surely the time when these 

 should think a little of what they can do for human beings 

 less favored than themselves. Few city homes are left 

 without a care-taker in summer, and few are un visited from 

 time to time by the master himself. It would cost very 

 little to fill the lower window-sills of such houses with boxes 

 of vines and flowering plants, and it would take very little 

 trouble to keep them fresh and brilliant all summer. And 

 if every absent householder spent this little, how great would 

 be the increase of pleasure for the multitudes of weary 

 spirits to whom a week's outing must represent a sum- 

 mer vacation ! The little money spent in this way would 



be Init a small mite spent on true charity as set against the 

 great sums which the giver annually expends upon his own 

 and his family's pleasure. And if any one doubts whether 

 a really beautiful result can be accomplished with window- 

 b(3xes filled with simple hardy plants, there are fortunately 

 one or two New York houses to which he may look to con- 

 vict him of error. Let him look, for instance, this coming 

 summer, at the great house on the south-west corner of 

 Madison Avenue and Thirty-eighth Street — closed and 

 barred like its neighbors, but beautiful, and we may truly 

 say, charitable, with wreathing vines and flowers — and, if 

 it is what it has been in former seasons, he will be willing 

 to make a considerable detour in his walks down-town 

 for the delight of daily passing it. 



To the Owners of Woodlands. 



THE Pennsylvania Forestry Association is doing good 

 and valuable work in teaching the people of that 

 State to take care of their forests. Forest Leaves, the organ 

 of the Association, is full of information about forests, 

 trees and tree-culture, and with more frequent and regular 

 publication would be a model of its kind. 



The clear and forcible recommendations which this As- 

 sociation makes in one of its recent circulars are applicable 

 to every owner of a forest or of a piece of woodland ; 

 and we are glad of the opportunity to reproduce them 

 for the benefit of our readers. The Association "wants 

 every farmer, every owner of woodland, to know — 



"That his wood-lot contains a valuable crop, which it 

 will pay him, not only to cut down and slaughter, but to 

 manage and utilize judiciously ; 



' ' That it is possible to utilize the old trees in such a man- 

 ner that a new, valuable crop is produced instead of the in- 

 ferior crop, which now so often takes the place of the virgin 

 forest after indiscriminate cutting ; 



"That as an intelligent manager and husbandman, he 

 would do better to see to a natural reproduction of his wood- 

 lot, to cut with regard to the spontaneous young growth, 

 rather than to clear indiscriminately ; 



"That the time has come when forest .destruction must 

 give way to forest management ; for timber is becoming 

 more valuable every year, as it grows scarcer in the coun- 

 try at large ; 



"That in the woodlands in jirojier proportion lie, to a 

 large extent, the conditions of a favorable climate and 

 successful agriculture ; 



"That upon forest growth depend healthfulness and 

 equableness of climate ; 



"That the forest breaks the force and tempers the fury of 

 the northern, and cools and moistens the breath of the 

 southern wind ; 



"That by its own cooler and moister atmosphere in 

 summer and warmer atmosphere in winter, it tends to 

 equalize temperature and humidity over the intervening 

 fields ; 



"That while the open, treeless, heated prairie prevents 

 the fall of rain, allowing moisture-laden clouds to pass over 

 it undrained, we must thank our forest-clad hills and moun- 

 tains for our more frequent, more gentle, more useful 

 showers ; and, above all, 



"That the forest cover of the mountains preserves the 

 even water flow in our springs, brooks and rivers, while 

 its destruction, or even deterioration, increases the danger 

 of floods, washes off the fertile soil, and then brings down 

 unfertile soil into fertile valleys, lowers the -water level, 

 and, in general, throws out of balance the favorable con- 

 ditions for agriculture ; 



"That while we advocate the cutting and using of the 

 wood crop as we need it, we must not any longer, as we 

 have done, squander and waste it; we must not clear where 

 clearing produces danger to the surrounding country." 



