3IO 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 22, 18 



barren soil, and is the smallest of the American species, rarely 

 rising to a height of more than ten or twelve feet. There is a 

 variety of this species (var. laciniata) now frecjuently seen in 

 gardens, in which the leaflets are deeply laciniately cut and 

 divided. It was discovered many years ago in the woods in 

 Chester County, Pennsylvania. 



The flowers of the Smooth Sumach will be followed in ten 

 or twelve days by those of the so-called Dwarf Sumach {R. 

 copaUina), which may be distinguished from the other Ameri- 

 can species by the winged margins of the leaf-stalks, and by 

 the brightly shining upper surface of the leaflets. This plant 

 is dwarf only in name, or rather only at the North, where it 

 sometimes covers extensive tracts of sterile, gravelly soil; but 

 at the South, and especially west of the Mississippi River, the 

 Dwarf Sumach becomes a considerable tree, surpassing the 

 other species in height and in the size of its stout trunk. 'This 

 is a variable species, especially in Texas towards the south- 

 western limits of its distribution, where botanists recognize one 

 or two well-marked varieties. 



The Button Bush {Cephalanthiis occidcntalis) is in flower. It 

 is a stout shrub with erect branches, eight or ten feet high, 

 with ovate or lanceolate, pointed, pale yellow-green leaves, and 

 conspicuous spherical pedunculate heads of small, white 

 fragrant flowers which remain in bloom for a long time. This 

 is a widely distributed plant, from the Atlantic t"o the Pacific, 

 and in Eastern Asia, growing in low wet ground, often sub- 

 merged, along the borders of streams and ponds. It grows 

 well, however, inc ommon garden soil, although it will be 

 found most useful when it becomes necessary "to plant low, 

 wet and undrained pieces of ground, where it will harmonize 

 well with Alders, dwarf Willows and other water-loving plants. 



The last of the Spirgeas in flower is the Hardback or Steeple 

 Bush (5. iomeniosd), familiar to all northern eyes. It is a 

 handsome plant, which, were it not so common, would be 

 more often seen in gardens. S. tomentosa has erect stems, 

 twenty or thirty inches high, covered, as well as the lower sur- 

 face of the ovate serrate leaves, with a dense brown tomentum, 

 and terminated by a dense panicle of short, crowded racemes 

 of small, bright rose-colored orrarely white flowers. It is found 

 in low, swampy groimd, where it spreads rapidly by under- 

 ground shoots ; it is not particular, however, about soil, and 

 thrives as well when transplanted to the garden or to dry up- 

 lands as in wet ground. 



The flowering of Spiraa tomentosa is preceded by only a few 

 days by that of a white-flowered form of .5'. Japonica, often 

 met with in gardens under the names, 5. callosa alba and 5. 

 callosa Indira. It is a useful dwarf hardy shrub, remaining 

 many weeks m flower and probably of Japanese or north 

 China origin. It has erect or slightly spreading, somewhat 

 grooved and angled, dark chestnut-brown stems, twenty to 

 thirty inches high, lanceolate, sharply pointed, deeply serrate 

 reticulately veined leaves, dark green above, pale and quite 

 glabrous below. The rather small corymbs of small white 

 flowers on the extremities of lateral branches form a wide and 

 somewhat racemose corymb, often a foot or more across. 



The late and long continued blooming period of this plant 

 makes it a valuable addition to the list of hardy summer 

 flowering shrubs. 



August 6th. y. 



The Forest. 



Farmers and Forestry. 



IN no branch of agriculture, perhaps, do the people of 

 the United States so need instruction now as in all 

 matters relating to the care and improvement of the 

 woods and woodlands connected with farms. It is almost 

 a universal custom with American farmers to neglect this 

 part of their property, and to be satistied if the wood lot 

 furnishes a little pasturage to their stock and a scanty- 

 supply of half rotten or worm eaten wood for the kitchen 

 stove. The following article upon this subject, which is 

 reprinted from a recent issue of the Canadian Horticul- 

 turist, is full of wise suggestions, as valuable to the 

 farmers of the United States as they are to those of Canada : 

 " The study of forestry for the purpose of preserving those 

 small remains of our wild woods now left on most farms will 

 probably be the first practical attention given to the suliject. 

 When so little is known of forestry it is not surprising that 

 every farm owner has a different theory, not distinct enough, 

 however, to make many of them take any real care of their 

 wood lots, or to say anything about it unless applied to. 



"It is generally admitted that the forests ought not to be 

 pastured, and there may be a few lots from which cattle are 

 excluded ; but I have not heard of anything more being done, 

 and it would be hard to say what should be the next advice to 

 farmers or forest owners. I notice in the last report on prize 

 farms in Ontario, it is said that on one of the best of them the 

 wood lot was cleaned up and carefully seeded to grass, and 

 that, since the farm has been drained, the black Ash trees are 

 dying. This is a management which seems contrary to all 

 principle of forestry, as far as concerns the growth and life of 

 the trees ; for the first requisite in forest life is to keep the 

 ground fully shaded — so much so that grass cannot grow — 

 to keep it moist and free from packing, or the tracking of cat- 

 tle, and to encourage such a growth that drying winds may 

 not enter. 



" It seems tome that as soon as a wood gets so thin that 

 grass is seen its effectual growth is done, and it would pay 

 better to cut off one or more acres and convert into good 

 meadow land, and if need be to plant out an acre of old field 

 with seedlings from the same or other forests. 



"I do not find in the best forests more than fifty large trees 

 per acre, and we know that Maples or other trees at eight feet 

 apart (680 to the acre) can be grown till they will make half 

 a cord of wood each ; and if they are thinned judiciously, 

 or, in any case, if really in vigorous life, they will increase 

 faster than any old forest. 



" To preserve a wood lot, if the trees are only of a fair size, 

 thick enough, and few or no dead tops showing, I think it will 

 answer the purpose if it is fenced into one of the ordinary cul- 

 tivated fields ; what pasturing with cattle may occur in a 

 rotation will not likely injure it as they will not touch trees if 

 they can get anything else to eat. 



" If very open and exposed to winds it would be well to en- 

 close the liush with a fast-growing hedge, and in any really 

 open place put in seedlings tfll the ground is properly covered. 

 Any enclosed wood I have seen soon gets such a growth of 

 young trees about the margin that it is hard work to get 

 into it, and if the main trees are not too old, will, in time, 

 make a heavy bush. 



" But I have no intenfion of doing this, unless, on a careful 

 survey, the bush turns out better than it appears at a glance. 

 After counting out the large dead tops, the swamp Elms, hol- 

 low Basswoods, and short-lived Ironwoods and Balsams, there 

 will hardly be enough worth saving, and these woods have 

 been overrun with stock so long that the undergrowth 

 amtiunts to little. I intend, therefore, to close off the old brush 

 gradually (keeping stock out in the meantime) one or more 

 acres at a time, as may be needed for fuel, etc., and then in 

 proper place for forest and shelter, or on the land inconvenient 

 to cultivate, begin a new forest by planting out regularly just 

 such trees as I want for fuel, manufacturing or protection, to 

 be ready by the time the old forest has been cut away. 



" If the growing trees are of a valuable kind, and the owner 

 has skill and patience to begin and carry on a judicious thin- 

 ning, an old forest can be rapidly improved, but I fancy most 

 proprietors will leave to a thoughtless employee to do the 

 wood cutting; and it often happens that to pick out inferior or 

 dying scattered trees will make the wood dearer than to buy it, 

 and it may do serious injury. I find it stated in a late Ontario 

 report that an owner removed the worthless Elms from a lot 

 and soon after found that he had done too much thinning, for 

 tlie other, and, what be thought, valuable trees, ceased grow- 

 ing and soon began to fail, and, as a rule, it will be safer to 

 depend on the new planting for the future forest, at least on 

 such small lots as our farms will retain. 



" To me it is much more encoiu'aging, for in laying out the 

 forest, the various trees, the Maple for fuel ; the Hickory, Ash 

 and Oak for the factory ; the Cherry, Basswood and Walnut 

 for indoor use ; the Pine and Cedar for outside, I feel as if I 

 were furnishing the property with an attraction for myself 

 and future owners, more than by the biggest castle I could 

 find room for on the highest hill." 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In an upland sink-hole, more than a mile distant from 

 the river, I have recently found the Golden-club [Orontiiun 

 aquatiiuni). A careful examination of the spot showed that 

 Indians had once lived on the margin of the little pond ; and 

 the question arises, did these people plant the Golden-club 

 in the shallow waters before their wigwam doors ? It is, I be- 

 lieve, strictly a tide- water plant, and the chances are slight that 

 birds could have transported the seeds from the river or 



