June 6, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



169 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office i Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted bv Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, li 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — The Rainfall on the Plains. — Forma] Flower Beds. — 



Note 169 



Terrace and Veranda — Back and Front F. L. Olmsted. 170 



The Court- yard of Charlecote Hall (with illustl'ation) 171 



Entomological : — The Work of a Timber Borer Professor A. S. Packard. 172 



New or Little Known Plants : — Camassia Cusickii (with illustration), 



Sereno Watson. 172 



Plant Notes : — The Ginkgo Tree (with illustration) 173 



Old Lombardy Poplar at the Trianon. — Sugar Maple.— Ginkgo biloba. — 



Actinidia voluoilis 174 



Cultural Department: — The Green-house 175 



Hardiness of Perennials T. D. Hatfield. 176 



Forget-me-nots. — Onosnia stellulatuni, var. Tauricium. — Mackya bella. — 

 "Fragrant Herbs for Edging Plants. — Strawberries and Birds. — Cut- 

 worms 1 76 



The Rock-Garden in Spring C. 177 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum J. 178 



The Forest : — Tree Notes Robert Dong-las. 1 79 



Correspondence 179 



Notes 180 



Retail Flower INIarkets : — New York, Philadelpliia, Boston 180 



Illustr.ations : — The Court-yard of Charlecote Hall 173 



Camassia Cusickii, Fig. 32 174 



The Ginkgo Tree, Fig. 33 175 



The Rainfall on the Plains. 



SEVERAL weeks ago, in discussing tlie question of 

 water supply on the Great Plains, it was stated in 

 these columns that no data could be found to justify the 

 belief that any increase of rainfall had followed the move- 

 ment of emigration towards the Rocky Mountains. On the 

 contrar)', the calculations made by Rfr. Gannett seemed to 

 establish the fact that there hati been no such increase. 

 This is opposed to the statement often made that the sim- 

 ple planting of scattered groves of trees in Kansas and Ne- 

 braska has materially changed the climate in this regard, 

 so that with more abundant rain, crops can now be 

 raised beyond what was the western limit of profitable 

 agriculture several years ago. It was added that if there 

 has been any modification in the agricultural condition of 

 the Plains which enables farmers to reap paying harvests 

 where it was once thought that crops could be produced 

 only by the aid of irrigation, this change could be ac- 

 counted for on other grounds than that of an increased 

 supply of water in the form of rain. It should be remem- 

 bered that crops are often raised with profit on lands 

 where the rainfall during the entire year, even if it could all 

 be utilized, is not sufficient to insure a maximum yield. 

 And in temperate climates it rarely happens that the rain 

 which falls during the growing period of a crop is suf- 

 ficient for its support. The water stored in the ground 

 during the remainder of the year must be drawn upon to 

 supply the enormous amounts given off by evaporation 

 from the surface and by transpiration from the leaves of the 

 plants. In estimating the value of any land for agricul- 

 tural purposes, it is therefore necessary to take into ac- 

 count its capacity for absorbing and holding moisture as 

 well as the amount of rain-water which annually falls upon 

 it. And it is not improbable that the breaking up of the 

 surface of the Plains has enabled the soil to receive and 

 retain a considerable amount of the rainfall which would 

 have flowed off into the streams from the hard, smooth 

 face of the unplowed land. 



These problems cannot be accurately solved until trust- 

 worthy data have been collected by years of patient inves- 

 tigation. Nevertheless the prevalent belief of intelligent 

 men in these western regions is of great value as an indi- 

 cation of the truth. If it were their united opinion that the 

 rainfall had increased, it would justify the supposition that 

 there M'as some climatic change in this direction, although 

 the extent and amount of such change would remain a 

 most uncertain quantity. 



This view of the case gives special interest to a chapter 

 in the last quarterly report of the Kansas State Board of 

 Agriculture which has just been received. Among the 

 papers read at the annual meeting of the Board was one by 

 the Secretary, in which the "improved condition of the 

 water-supply in the State " was mentioned as one of the 

 promising indications of a prosperous future for its agri- 

 culture. These improved conditions, the Secretary said, 

 cUd not come from an increased rainfall, but probably 

 from the loosening by tillage of the almost impervious 

 crust of the prairie, and the consequent detention of the 

 water which had formerly flowed off swiftly into the 

 streams. A general discussion followed the reading of 

 this paper, in which men from all portions of the State took 

 part, and so far as the report shows, no one claimed that 

 there had been the slightest increase in the rainfall. One 

 member of the Board expressed the belief that " the State 

 had been seriously injured by spreading abroad the impres- 

 sion that a wonderful climatic change was going on 

 whereby the dry prairies were to be made to blossom as 

 the Rose," and many others declared that long and careful 

 observation had convinced them that no more rain fell 

 now than when the prairies were trampled by immense 

 herds of buffaloes. The opinion, however, was very 

 general that the condition of the soil, as regards moisture, 

 had been improved by cultivation, that there was more 

 dew, that springs had appeared in places where none ex- 

 isted in earlier days, and that after heavy rains the streams 

 did not rise as rapidly, nor to as great a height as formerly. 



It was suggested in the discussion that Kansas farmers 

 had learned to overcome, in a measure, adverse climatic 

 conditions, by deeper and more thorough tillage and better 

 cultivation. This may help to account for paying crops 

 beyond the ninet)^-eighth meridian, and may modify the 

 opinion that successful agriculture there is due alone to the 

 increased storage of water in the soil. However that may 

 be, the alert farmers of the frontier are wise in basing 

 their hopes of success on something more substantial than 

 the opinion that trees will call down more abundant 

 rains upon their fields. That forests exert an important 

 influence in conserving the moisture in the soil is an 

 established fact, and the planting of trees where they 

 will grow in the west, ma)^, in time, render important 

 service to agriculture. But the coming of this time will 

 not be hastened by claiming ad\-antages from forest 

 planting which cannot be justified by any recorded ex- 

 perience or by scientific argument. 



Formal Flower Beds. 



NO question affecting the art of gardening is more fre- 

 quently discussed than the question whether the 

 formal flower bed is a thing to praise or to condemn, a 

 thing which gratifies a cultivated taste or one which merely 

 panders to the taste that delights in -^'ivid chromos and in 

 pinchbeck personal adornments. 



About a hundred and thirty years ago the formal, ''arch- 

 itectural style" of gardening — which had ruled in Europe 

 for many centuries, and had found its most conspicuous 

 expression at Versailles — was superseded by the " natural 

 style," the style for which the distinctive name of land- 

 scape gardening was soon invented. Then for a long 

 time the use of formal flower beds was almost as entirely 

 abandoned as the use of clipped trees and straight-lined 

 terraces. Even in small gardens given up entirely to the 



