278 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 8, 188S. 



The study of irrigation methods should be a leading and 

 particular feature of those agricultural experiment-stations 

 established by the aid of the national government in 

 the arid states and territories. For the most part the prc- 

 vading systems are characterized by great extravagance 

 in the use of water, so that with proper economy the 

 present supplies could be made to irrigate a much 

 greater area ; in some instances probably even twice as 

 much. The best means for the prevention of waste can 

 be studied and pointed out at these stations, and, when 

 ascertained, their adoption should, in the interest of the 

 public, be made compulsory. The products most suitable 

 to irrigation can also be determined at these stations. Ir- 

 rigation is particularly adapted to horticultural operations. 

 Fruit trees, for instance, require a very much less quantity 

 of water than either grain or grass crops, and while yield- 

 ing a greater return of profit to the acre, a much greater 

 area may be cultivated from a given supply of water. It 

 is probable that some method of sub-irrigation can be ef- 

 fectively adapted to fruit-culture, since the economy of 

 water would repay the increased cost, while the large re- 

 turns from fruit-culture in those regions would warrant the 

 considerable expense of preparing the land. Sub-irrigation 

 would almost entirely prevent the loss by evaporation, 

 which is enormous in those regions, and, moreover, it 

 would probably offer a remedy for the malarious condi- 

 tions so apt to accompany irrigation, for the water 

 would be absorbed beneath the surface, instead of generat- 

 ing malarial germs or gases through the deca)^ of vege- 

 table matter in surface-evaporation under a hot sun. The 

 best means for preventing evaporation in the storage-basins 

 and in the flow of distributing canals, should also be 

 studied thoroughly at these experiment-stations. 



With the entire subject considered, and the results car- 

 ried into practice in the way we have indicated, "we shall 

 see an agricultural development in the arid portions of our 

 country that will give them rank in fertilit}^ wealth and 

 high civilization with the famous old cultures once de- 

 veloped under similar conditions in the valleys of the 

 Euijhrates and the Nile. 



Occasionally some uninstructed person speaks of ine.x- 

 haustible forests, but by this time it should be pretty gen- 

 erally understood that a forest can be made to jdeld in- 

 definitely only by restricting its average annual production 

 to its annual increase. The forest products of Maine, for 

 example, diminished alarmingly after the White Pine and 

 Spruce in that State had been recklessly destroyed for many 

 years, and the entire extinction of its most important in- 

 dustry was threatened. But the peo]3le of Maine have 

 learned a dearly bought lesson, and realize now that forests 

 can be destroyed, even though they may have appeared 

 inexhaustible, durmg the lives of one or two generations 

 of men. The Maine forests are not managed in accordance 

 with the rules of scientific forestry as these are understood 

 in European countries, and beyond question the practice 

 could be improvedupon. Nevertheless, this practice is based 

 upon the laws of nature and the necessities which arise 

 from existing conditions, and it is upon these that any sys- 

 tem of forest management, however elaborately its details 

 may be worked out, must rest primarily. The Maine lum- 

 berman has learned that excessive and vmrestrained cut- 

 ting, supplemented by fire, will destroy any forest, and that 

 a forest from which only the ripe trees are cut at stated 

 periods, while the remainder are carefully protected and 

 allowed in their turn to reach maturity, will continue to 

 produce indefinitely, and to pay handsomer returns in the 

 long run than it would under the usual American custom 

 of indiscriminate cutting without regard to future produc- 

 tion. The changes which have been gradually taking 

 place for a number of years in the management of the 

 Maine forests have already borne fruit in their improved 

 condition and increased output. They restore to the Pine 

 Tree State its position as one of the most important of the 



lumber producing states, not in the actual product of the 

 mills to-day, but in the promise offered by more intelli- 

 gent forest management of a steady and constant sup- 

 ply of logs in the future. If the present ruinous practice 

 continues to prevail in Michigan, in Wisconsin and Minne- 

 sota, it will not be many years before the annual timber 

 crop of those three great states will fall below that of 

 Maine, and perhaps of some of the other New England 

 States. It is not easy to overstate the importance of the 

 system of forest management which is now being worked 

 out in the Maine woods, and which is all the more likely 

 to succeed because it is based upon experience. Its 

 eventual success means prosperity for the State ; its 

 failure practical ruin for a large part of it. Other States 

 can learn much from Maine ; and especially that by the 

 patient application of a few sensible rules — rules which 

 nature herself teaches — and by the use of a little Tore- 

 thought and a little conrmon sense, a forest can be 

 made more surely and permanently productive than 

 property of any other description. 



As we said some weeks ago, there is a growing love 

 among the people of our cities for cut flowers of every 

 description and every grade of costliness. For every 

 variety of flower sold in the shops ten years ago, a dozen 

 varieties may now be counted, and for every street vender 

 who could then be seen, a whole troop may be seen to- 

 day. At first it seemed as though the street vender merely 

 sold at a lower price the stale or refuse stock of the florist 

 — little button-hole bouquets or half-withered bunches of 

 Roses. But he has enlarged his field of enterprise with the 

 growth of patronage, and numberless hands must now be 

 at work for him in suburban gardens and meadows. The 

 Lilacs shown on the street this year were remarkable for 

 quality as well as for quantity, and an especially welcome 

 fact has been the advent of wild flowers in unprecedented 

 quantities. The first to appear were " Pussy Willows," and 

 then Marsh-]\Iarigolds, which abounded at every step and 

 were sold in large bunches for five cents. Since then we 

 have had Buttercups, Field Daisies and Laurel in quanti- 

 ties, and, a greater novelty, the False Spikenard {Smilacina 

 /■acemosa). Pitcher Plants and Magnolias have been offered, 

 and e\'ery wild flower which may easily be procured will 

 follow in due season until big bunches of Black Alder ber- 

 ries take the place of flowers. In addition to \\ild flowers, 

 common garden flowers — Pinks, Pfeonies, Roses, Sweet 

 Peas, Corn Flowers and a host besides — began to appear 

 in profusion as soon as the Lilacs were past, so that the 

 New Yorker, even of slenderest purse, has been able to 

 enjoy, almost as well as his country brother, nature's 

 pleasant tokens of the passage of the months. 



The Exhibition of Wild Flowers. 



I HAVE frequently exhibited a small collection of wild 

 flowers at fairs. They always excited an unexpected 

 interest, however rude the collection may have been. At 

 first I used herbarium specimens, placed in bundles ac- 

 cording to their orders or genera, with cards attached con- 

 taining the botanical as well as common names. But in 

 this ■way they required constant watching to prevent dis- 

 placement and destruction by careless visitors. 



Recentl)^ ho-\vever, I have resorted to the woods and 

 other places for wild flowers, and have exhibited them, 

 generally with much satisfaction, in their fresh state. 



My conclusion is that the following method is not only 

 neat, showy and simple, but calculated to stimulate a de- 

 sire in many persons to study the names and botanical 

 arrangement of our native flora: 



Take an ordinary table two or three feet wide, and as 

 long as you please — say six to twenty feet. Tack a green 

 or red colored muslin strip around the table to form a cur- 

 tain, reaching to the floor. Cover the top with white 

 paper. Then at a crockery store you can usually borrow 



