202 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 20, 18 



(5. JioIaiuUri) has not yet been introduced into cultivation ; 

 and tlie ^S". Eiiiodi is not in tlnis collection. 



The earliest Elaeagnus in fiower is the Japanese E. liuigiprs. 

 a handsome shruti, six or eight feet higii, with pale green, oval 

 punctate leaves, stellate pubescent on the upper side and 

 covered on the silvery under side, when young, as are the 

 new shoots, peduncles and corolla, with small ferrugineous 

 scales. The orange-colored tlowers are long-stalked, with a 

 long, slender tube and spreading limb, half an inch in diame- 

 ter when expanded. The handsome, transparent, orange-col- 

 ored, punctate fruit has an agreeable sub-acid flavor. Tliis is 

 a very hardy, free-growing plant well worth cultivation. 



None of the evergreen Barberries (Mahonia) are very hardy 

 in this climate, and they can only be grown when carefully pro- 

 tected in winter. The liardiest is B. nervosa, now flowering 

 here for the first time. It is a dwarf everg'reea slirub, with a 

 smooth stem only a few inches high, producing from a termi- 

 nal bud pinnate leaves one or two feet long the numerous 

 acuminate leaflets palmately nerved, and elongated racemes of 

 handsome yellow flowers. The oblong, blue fruit is a quarter 

 to a third of an inch in diameter. Bcrberis nervosa is a native 

 of the north-west coast. 



May 30th. /■ 



The Forest. 



Forest Tree Planting on the Prairies. 



AMONG the various methods of planting trees on the 

 prairies, two have fieen recommended as more 

 expeditious than digging holes for the roots and covering 

 with the spade. One is to mark off the ground both ways 

 as for a corn crop, and at the intersection of the lines to 

 strike the spade down vertically, and then push the handle 

 forward and backward, leaving a slit in the ground. Into 

 this the tree is then inserted, the earth is pressed with the 

 foot and the tree is planted. This method may do for in- 

 serting cuttings, or such trees as will readily root from the 

 stems, but the roots will be cramped into an unnatural 

 position, and aside from this, as the ground dries it will 

 shrink, allowing the air to penetrate and destroy the 

 crowded roots. I have examined many plantations made 

 in this way, and never saw one — except in the case of 

 Poplars — where there were not more dead trees than living 

 ones at the end of the season. 



Another method often recommended, is to mark the 

 ground one way and plow furrows the opposite way, and 

 then place a tree in the furrow at every cross mark, and 

 plow the earth back over the roots. 1 his is also an ob- 

 jectionable method, for it is not possible to plant all the 

 trees at the proper depth, nor to tighten the roots properly. 

 And even if that is attempted it will occupy more time 

 than it Avould require to plant them with the spade. I 

 never saw a plantation treated in this way that did not 

 show many failures, and an unevenness in the growth of 

 the frees, aside from being more troublesome to cultivate 

 than if properly planted. All that is claimed in favor of 

 either of these methods is that it is more expeditious than 

 planting with the spade. 



I will now describe fully, the method which long ex- 

 perience has convinced me is not only the best, but, all 

 things considered, the most expeditious way, and the only 

 way in which a great numlier of inexperienced vvorkmen 

 can lie handled to advantage. 



As many land owners who are not farmers plant forests 

 on the prairies, I will commence with the prairie in its 

 natural condition. It is very important that the prairie sod 

 should be "broken" at the proper time, otherv\'ise the 

 planting will be delayed at least one year, and even then 

 will not be in as good condition as if liroken at the proper 

 time. 



Break the prairie in June or at the time the grass is in the 

 most thrifty condition. Break quite shallow, not deeper 

 than two, or, at most, three inches, as the greater the suc- 

 culent growth and the shallower the breaking, the more 

 surely will the sod be killed during the summer. Late in 

 August and during September of the same year, turn the 

 i>od over lengthwise of the furrow, and deep enough to 



bury the sod and leave two or three inches of earth over 

 the entire surface. If it is not to be planted in the autumn 

 leave the ground in this condition until the following 

 spring, when the harrow and roller will put the land in ex- 

 cellent condition for planting. If planted in the fall run 

 the harrow and roller after the plowing is finished, mark 

 off the ground both ways for planting, strip the leaves 

 from off the young trees, if frost has not already done so, 

 then gauge the tree digger so as to cut the roots to the 

 length required — six to eight inches, according to the 

 depth and quality of the land — and commence planting. 



The workmen are divided off into companies of three 

 each, or two men and one boy, the two men with spades, 

 the boy with a bundle of trees — the trees having previously 

 been tied in bundles of 100 each. The two men with 

 spades plant on adjoining rows, the tree holder walking 

 between them. The planter strikes his spade vertically 

 into the ground on the running line close up to the cross 

 mark, raises a spadeful of earth, the boy inserts the tree, 

 the earth is replaced, the planter places his foot close up 

 to the stem of the tree, bearing on it his full weight — and 

 passes on to the next mark. This tightening of the tree is 

 very essential, and must be insisted on. The boy is kept 

 quite busy attending two planters, but after a little ex- 

 perience he will learn to l>ring each tree out of his bundle 

 with a quick circular motion that will spread out the roots 

 when placed in the ground, about as evenly as they could 

 be placed with the hand. 



By this method the trees are planted in a straight line, 

 and all at the proper depth, the roots are spread and 

 the earth packed firmly over them. Two men and one 

 boy will plant 4,500 trees in a ten-hour day, being two 

 and one-half trees planted per minute for every man and 

 boy employed, and the land will be left perfectly smooth 

 and level for cultivating, making this not fnly the best, 

 but the most expeditious way to plant forest trees on the 

 prairie. Robert Douglas. 



Correspondence. 



Northern Range of the Western Service-berry. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — According to Sir John Richardson, the Service-berry 

 {Ainelanchier alnifolia), which was figured and described in 

 your last issue, produces fruit in the Mackenzie Valley as far 

 to the northward as lat. 65°. It appears to require not only a 

 considerable amount of summer heat, but also a climate not 

 very humid, and though present on Vancouver Island and 

 found by me in 1878 in the Queen Charlotte Islands, probably 

 attains its northern limit on the west coast at tlie last named 

 places, as it is there of rare occurrence and depauperated in 

 appearance. 



The examination of the basins of the Stikine and Liard 

 rivers and the head-waters of the Yukon, carried out last 

 summer, afford some information on the occurrence of this 

 species in the region between the west coast and the Mac- 

 kenzie Valley. The Amelanchier was found in abundance, 

 though as a small shrub only, near Glenora and Telegraph 

 Creek (lat. 58°), in the Stikine Valley, to the east of the Coast 

 Mountains, where the climate is dry and contrasts very re- 

 markably with that of the seaward side of the same range. It 

 was here in full flower about the 20th of May. It was again 

 seen in the autumn on Tagish Lake, near the head-waters of 

 the Lewes Branch of the Yukon, a few miles north of the sixtieth 

 parallel and at a height of 2,150 feet above the sea. This 

 locality holds a position similar to the last with respect to the 

 Coast Mountains, and it appears probable that the Amelanchier 

 may occur throughout tlie intervening country in favorable 

 situations, though evidently near its limit on Tagish Lake, 

 where the fruit seemed scarcely likely to ripen. 



The Amelanchier was again found, farther inland, in the 

 dry eastern lee of the Cassiar Mountains, growing on gravelly 

 terraces along the Dease River (lat 59'' 10', long. 129"). A line 

 drawn to the northward of the various localities above men- 

 tioned will, I believe, define with near approximation to ac- 

 curacy the nortli-western range of the Amelanchier, which is 

 not mentioned in Rothrock's list of Alaskan plants nor in that 

 ofDall. 



From facts observed in several districts in British Columbia,. 



