4o6 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 17, 1S8S. 



forests are common to all for entry, pasturage, etc. No forest 

 officer has any control over them, except to arrest for setting fires 

 in the woods, and even in this the circumstances are so adverse 

 to fixing the responsibility for these fires, that, with the utmost 

 efforts, few arrests can be made, and fewer convictions had. 



The state sells its land without any reference to the timber 

 upon it. Practically all the school-lands in timber in Cali- 

 fornia are mountainous, and are unsuited to agriculture. 

 Where timber-land is bought in this state the timber is all that 

 it is bought for, and after this is cut it is usually abandoned for 

 taxes, if, happily, all the school payments due the state have 

 been made. On the school-timber sections, in many cases, 

 wood and lumber has Iiitherto been taken without so much as 

 a by-your-leave from any one. 



This Board is, as far as we know, the first official body to 

 ask for an accounting for the school from the wealthy firms 

 who have taken such timber. We have a special agent and 

 assistants now in the field collecting evidence in these and 

 other forestry cases by affidavits. The amount of money in- 

 volved is very considerable, and belongs to the schools. We 

 are obliged to proceed through the Attorney-General of the 

 state, and hope to secure his co-opieration in our work. 



The United States land-system only allows a man to acqinre 

 160 acres of forest-land. This is far too little to warrant the 

 building of a modern saw-mill, consequently lumbermen have 

 either cut timber without title to the lands, or used "dummies " 

 to obtain by fraud and perjury what they required. There are 

 doubtless cases in which lumbermen have good titles. 



The government has for some time had special agents on 

 the coast to secure evidence against illegal cutters of timber. 

 These officers now have a great numl)er of cases on hand, for 

 the practice of robljing the government lands has been 

 general. One case, that of the United States vs. The Sierra 

 Lumber Company, for $2,000,000 worth of stolen timber, is 

 now on trial, and another involving 600 fraudulent land entries 

 in Mendocino County, in the interest of one foreign firm, is 

 liefore the courts. These are the leading cases of each kind. 

 These lands are almost all worthless except for the timber on 

 them. 



At present there is no management over pasturage here. 

 Robbed and burned everywhere. This is our forest-land 

 system. A few special agents report, a prosecution or two is 

 started, but the government attorneys, from some cause, bring 

 few to trial. Fraud and illegality is at a premium in the lum- 

 ber industry, and the honest man can hardly tell what to do in 

 it to live and follow the law. Such a system, with such results, 

 must be bad. A vast property is being squandered, the 

 country endangered, and the citizens tempted to violate the law. 



What the timbermen want is the timber, not the land. 

 What the people in general need is that the water-holding 

 power of the mountains shall be preserved. A sensible forest- 

 system can sell the timber, while preserving the reproductive 

 power of the forests and the forest itself as to its water- 

 liolding capacity, just as is now done in South Australia, India 

 and in Europe. The forest-land ought not to be sold ; not 

 another foot of it sho\dd lie sold liy the state or by the federal 

 government. 



Sania B.irbaia, Cal. Abbot KilllU'V. 



Correspondence. 

 Hardy Trees. 



THE introduction of ornamental trees from Japan during 

 the last ten or fifteen years has claimed so much atten- 

 tion, that it is a matter of interest to determine what limitations 

 of growth are imposed by the often severe climate of the 

 northern United States and Canada. In the vicinity of Mon- 

 treal the species specially worthy of note at this time are 

 Ginkgo bi/oba, Circidiphylluin JapO)iicuin, Actinidia polvgaiiia 

 and Paulownia iinperialis. With the exception of Actinidia, 

 these are all growing in the grounds of McGill University. 

 The situation is directly at the foot of the Mount Royal slope, 

 and opens out on the east, but is well sheltered on the west. 

 The adjacent buildings alTord a somewhat additional shelter 

 on the south, while the surrounding trees seem to break the 

 force of the wind from all quarters. 



In October, 1881, aGinkgo was broughtfrom Rochester. For 

 a few years the growth was slow, but it has gained steadily. 

 After eight summers and seven winters the tree now shows 

 an increased strength, which promises well for its future 

 growth, and gives assurance of its probable hardiness. 

 Although the rate of growth has probal)ly been much 

 slower than in its native country, the tree has attained a 

 height of fourteen feet six inches, with a girth of seven inches 



at one foot from the ground. During the past summer the 

 main shoot made a growth of four feet four inches — much in 

 excess of the growth of former years. 



A second specimen, i-eceived from Mr. Charles Gibb, from 

 a locality about forty miles south-east from Montreal, was set 

 in May, 1884, and has now attained a height of seven feet six 

 inches and a circumference of 3.25 inches at one foot from the 

 ground. In each of these cases there has been no winter- 

 killing, and the trees appear to be well established. 



The Circidiphyllum was planted in May, 1882. In seven 

 seasons of growth it has reached a height of twelve feet four 

 inches, and a girth of seven and a half inches at one toot from 

 the ground. In this case, also, there has been no winter-killing, 

 and the tree appears well established and hardy. 



The Paulownia was planted in Octoljer, 1881. The stems 

 have been killed to the ground each year, but the growth of 

 each season has proved larger than that of the preceding, and 

 this year reached a height of ten feet. The roots, which are quite 

 liarcly, appear to be gaining strength each year, and the plant 

 is quite as well established as the one growing in the Botanic 

 Garden at Cambridge. 



The Actinidia referred to was imported from Amherst, 

 Massachusetts, three years ago, and planted by Mr. Gibb at 

 Abbotsford. The situation is at the foot of Tamaska Moun- 

 tain, having a south-eastern aspect. The soil is an open 

 gravel. A slow growth the first year has been followed by a 

 luxuriant grosvth for the last two seasons, and there is every 

 reason to consider the plant quite hardy. 



These facts may derive additional interest from the follow- 

 ing considerations : 



Montreal is situatetl in north latitude 45° 30' 17", and as 

 shown by the records of the College Observatory, based upon 

 observations for the last tliirteen years, the mean annual 

 temperature is 41.72° F. ; relative humidity, 74.3 ; rainfall^ 

 26.90 inches ; and snowfall, 125.3 inches. The lowest temper- 

 ature recorded since 1880 was -26° F., which occurred in the 

 years 1882 and 1S87. It will thus be noted that all of the 

 plants under consideration have, once at least, been brought 

 under the influence of a temperature many degrees below 

 that to which they are subjected in their native country. 



Paulownia is a species essentially belonging to central and 

 southern Japan, and therefore to a much lower latitude than 

 this. Ginkgo is common throughout the empire with the ex- 

 ception of Yeso, where it is rarely seen in the southern ex- 

 tremity. It may be regarded as not extending above the 

 forty-first parallel. Circidiphyllum is abundant through 

 northern Yeddo.and is everywhere found in the woods among 

 the foot-hills of Yeso. Actinidia also abounds in the same 

 region, so that both of these species extend northward 

 to the latitude of Montreal. Yet it must be borne in 

 mind that the insular climate of Japan, even so far north 

 as 45°, is much less severe and far more ec]uable than here, 

 while the snowfall is practically the same — the meteorological 

 records for Sapporo, latitude 43'' 3' 57" N., for the last six 

 years, giving a mean of 156 inches. 



M.inlreal, ( lctot>er ist, i8S3. 



D. P. Penh allow. 



Ostrowskya magnifica. 

 To the Editor of G.A.RDEN and Forest : 



Sir. — Allow me to correct, for the sake of history, a slight 

 error in one of your late London Letters. This plant flowered 

 for the first time in Europe in 1887, in my little garden at Baden- 

 Baden, from whence the big plants have passed into the 

 hands of Messrs, Veitch & Sons. It is as hardy as any weed, 

 and, though pushing early, the young shoots are not harmed 

 bv frost ; it is not particular as to soil, but prefers sandy loam, 

 which in any case must be deeply worked, as the root, when 

 reaching full size, descends to a depth of two feet in the 

 ground. Great care must be taken in handling the roots, be- 

 cause they are exceedingly brittle and a rough touch may 

 cause them to decav. ^ . , ,. 



Baden-Baden. ' Max LeichtlUl. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Is there any better wav to rid squash vines of those 

 ugly white worms than to hunt for them and destroy 

 them ? My gardener says that if the seeds were planted later 

 the worms would not trouble them. But, in that case, we run 

 the risk of the frost, which caught my vines this year before 

 the squashes were ripe. What shall I do — take the chances of 

 frost, or fight ? A. ]V. 



Concord, Mass. 



[Plant when the ground is warm enough, sa}' the mid- 

 dle of May, and cover the hills with boxes over which 

 mosquito netting has been tacked. Leave the boxes on 



