September 26, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



361 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New Yokk. 



Conducted by 



Professor C. S. Sargf,nt. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 18 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles: — The Forests of California. — Tlie Proper Use of Herba- 

 ceous Plants 361 



August in the Pines A/rs. Mary Treat. 362 



Foreign CoKRESfONDENCE : — London Letter ll'in. Goldrtng. 363 



New or Little Known Plants : — Deutzia parviflora (with illustration).. . C. 5. 5. 363 



Cultural Department : — The Species of Gladiolus IV. E. Endicott. 363 



The Ve,e;etable Garden Win. Falconer. 366 



Orchids — Ranunculus — Roses — Quinces on Apple Stocks — The Peach 

 Yellows 366 



Plant Notes ; — Nympha^a tuberosa (with illustrations) C. S. S. 36S 



The Forest : — Forestry in California. 1 369 



Correspondence 370 



Recent Publications 37:. 



Periodical Liter.\ture 371 



Notes 372 



Illustrations : — Deutzia parviflora, Fiij. 57 365 



Root-stock of NympliK-a tuberosa, Fig. 58 366 



NynipIiEea tuberosa, Fi^. 59 , 367 



The Forests of California. 



WE begin this week the publication of a series of arti- 

 cles upon forestry, in its relation, principall)r, to 

 the natural conditions of our Pacific coast. They are from 

 the pen of Mr. Abbot Kinney, the President of the For- 

 estry Commission of the State of California, whose oppor- 

 tunities for studying- the actual condition of the California 

 forests and the attitude of the people of that State towards 

 them have been exceptional. 



Perhaps nowhere in the world — certainly nowhere on 

 this continent — is the preservation of the forests so import- 

 ant to the welfare of the entire popukition as it is in Cali- 

 fornia. The ph)'sical conditions of the State are pecu- 

 liar. It is made up of two mountain ranges running 

 parallel with the coast, and inclosing a long, narrow val- 

 ley, with many smaller, lateral valleys. The rainfall of 

 the year is irregularly distributed, and is entirely wanting 

 during the summer months, so that artificial irrigation is 

 essential for many crops of the field, the orchard and the 

 garden. The water for artificial irrigation must be brought 

 from the mountains, where the snows of the previous win- 

 ter, melting slowly under the protecting shadows of the 

 forest, afford a constant and sufficient supply. If the for- 

 ests which cover the mountains are destroyed the snow 

 will melt more rapidly than it does at present, and the 

 water will seek the valleys, not gradually, but suddenly 

 and rapidly. The result will be that the water essential 

 for irrigation will be wasted, and that the short rivers of 

 California, with their precipitous beds, will be converted 

 into torrents every spring and summer, and will gradually 

 carry the soil and the rocks from high mountain-slopes 

 down into the valleys, which, sooner or later, will be 

 buried past redemption. 



The future prosperity of California — the very existence 

 of the State — is dependent, therefore, upon the forests 

 which clothe her mountain-sides. These forests are still, 

 in large measure, the property of the general government, 

 and if is within the power of Congress to take measures 

 for their protection. The disregard of the people of Cali- 

 fornia for the property of the national government in that 

 state, and for their own future prosperity, is a matter of 



notoriety. Year after year vast herds of sheep and cattle 

 and horses have been driven from the valleys at the begin- 

 ning of the dr)' season to feed in the mountain forests. 

 Long ago they stripped the forest-floor bare of every par- 

 ticle of vegetation, except the thorny chapparal bushes, 

 and devoured every seedling tree. The sharp hoofs of 

 sheep and goats have cut out the roots of perennial plants 

 and worn deep, narrow paths across the mountain-sides, 

 down which water can pour unchecked to the rivers. But 

 this is not the only danger which the pasturage of the na- 

 tion's forests in California has inflicted. As grass and bushes 

 disappear from over-feeding, the shepherds set fires in 

 the woods to burn away the trees, and so increase the pas- 

 turage area. The smoke of hundreds of fires may now be 

 seen from any of the high Sierra summits, and it is merely 

 a question of time, under existing conditions, when these 

 forests will have disappeared forever. For forests do not 

 reproduce themselves as easily in the dry climate of west- 

 ern America as the)' do in all the Eastern States ; and if 

 these mountains are once stripped of their tree covering, 

 and the soil is allowed to wash away, their restoration will 

 be the affair of centuries. 



The commercial value of the California forests, although 

 secondary to their mechanical value as reservoirs of 

 moisture, is still very considerable. The Redwood for- 

 ests, to be sure, are doomed, and no action of the gen- 

 eral government or of the state government can be made 

 operative soon enough to save them from extermination. 

 The quantity of redwood which remains is comparatively 

 small, the forests are too easy of access, and their product 

 too valuable to make preservation possible, even if the 

 people of California could be made to see the necessity for 

 action in this matter. The Redwood belt of California 

 contained, for its size, thirty years ago, by far the most 

 valuable body of soft timber in the world ; in less than 

 thirty years more. Redwood trees of large size will be as 

 rare and as great curiosities as the giant Sequoias are to- 

 day, and California will have lost her most valuable 

 inheritance. 



High up on the slopes of the Sierras, however, there are 

 immense quantities, in the aggregate, of sugar pine still 

 remote and inaccessible, which the general govern- 

 ment might well attempt to save for future use when the 

 white pine of the east, the cypress of the south, and the 

 redwood of California have all disappeared before the 

 recklessness of American methods. For in the Sugar Pine 

 belt of the Sierras will then be found their only substitute, 

 not in quantity, t)ut in the quality of the material it can 

 furnish. 



If the general government of the United States ever 

 makes the attempt to protect the forests which are found 

 upon the natiimal domain, it is in California that the experi- 

 ment shoLild be begun, because in California the forests 

 are more essential to the welfare and development of the 

 state than in any other part of the country. 



The proper use of herbaceous plants, with more or less 

 showy and conspicuous flowers, in the adornment of parks 

 or of lawns — that is, outside of the flower-garden proper, in 

 which such plants are the most useful and attractive feature 

 — is a matter requiring much judgment and skill in the selec- 

 tion and in the use of material. Indeed, there is no form of 

 planting, perhaps, which is more difficult to master, and 

 which is, within certain limits, at least, more disastrous 

 in effect when it is not well done. That this is not an ex- 

 aggerated statement, an examination of the attempts which 

 have been made in recent years to introduce these plants 

 into the Central Park in this city, or in the F'ens in Boston, 

 will show. Clumps of the Funkia or Day Lily, in itself a 

 beautiful plant, well suited to the flower-border, for which 

 its round and formal mass of foliage well adapts it, placed 

 in front and in connection with loose masses of deciduous 

 shrubs in the Central Park, produce the worst effect, de- 

 stroying simple sweeps of turf and all idea of naturalness, 

 while the spotting about of single plants of Pteony and 



