November 7, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



443 



they are injurious as well as disagreeable. . As it burns at 

 a temperature of 107° Fahrenheit, it should be kept away 

 from fire. — Ed.] 



Recent Piil)lications. 



Annual Report of the Division of Forestry , Department of 

 Agriculture, for 1887: B. E. Fernoiv, Washington, /SSS. 



Tlie Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture 

 was organized eliietly as a bureau of information, and tliu 

 report before us, while giving an account of tire metliods l)y 

 which tliis educational work has been carried on during the 

 year, contains much liesides that will afford instruction, pro- 

 voke inquiry and stimulate interest. Like its predecessor, 

 tills report contains few statistics, for the g'ood reason that the 

 department has not at command the elaborate machinery 

 needed to secure accurate figures. Some imperfect data in 

 regard to the amount of forest planting in the West are given, 

 and Mr. Fernow takes occasion to note that many reports of 

 tree-planting in the prairie states are misleading exaggera- 

 tions. Even when the number of trees planted is accurately 

 given, they often include those set by the roadside and aljout 

 dwellings for ornament and for shelter belts, as well as those 

 in forest masses. But scattered trees can never make'a forest, 

 and it is unfair to divide the whole numlier of trees planted 

 by the number re{iuired to the acre under the Timber Ctdture 

 Act, and consider the result cis the acreage of artificial forest. 

 And even if the acreage planted under this act were con-eclly 

 stated, we have no knowledge of the present condition of the 

 trees, or what per cent, of them will be likely to live and 

 thrive. Mr. Fernow rightly insists that we are using up our 

 wood crop more rapidly than it reproduce- itself. Those who 

 doubt this swift reduction of our supplies because of our still 

 aljounding forest wealth and because it is true that in some 

 parts of the coimtry the wooded area is increasing on aban- 

 doned farm land, should remember that even where there is 

 no al)solute denudation the forest may deteriorate in qualilx', 

 and that the new crop that is springing up on the old fields is 

 quite inferior to the original growth. 



This report deals mainly with a different class of sidijeets 

 from those treated last year. The chief value of the last 

 year's report was in the section which set forth the principles 

 of forestry proper. The most interesting portion of the 

 present report is that in which is outlined a system of study 

 and original investigation with a view to place the practice of 

 forestry in America on a rational basis. It is argued that if 

 the Division of Forestry is to accomplish the most worthy 

 results, it is time that it took a step in advance of its old work 

 of compiling doul)tful statistics, of recounting what has been 

 clone in the Old World, and of exhorting our ])eople not to 

 squander the forest wealth of tlie country. All of this was 

 needed, perha]is ; but what Mr. Fernow calls " missionarv 

 work " can safely be left to the public press and to the forestrv 

 associations of the different states. What is now needed is 

 exact knowledge — such knowledge as can only be gained by 

 careful experiment and study. It is to suggest the lines upon 

 which such inquiry should proceed, and to make a proper 

 co-ordination and subordination of the various fields of investi- 

 gation that the topics have been grouped into systematic 

 arrangement. 



It may be that experience in studying and teaching will 

 suggest some modification of this schedule, but as it stands it 

 serves a good purpose in presenting to readers, who have not 

 given serious and continued thought to the matter, an ad- 

 equate conception of the wide range of subjects to which the 

 American student of forestry can profitably direct his attention. 

 And x'ery plainly it would be to the general advantage if 

 the Department, of Forestry, the ag'ricultural colleges, the ex- 

 periment stations and private investigators should devote 

 themselves, according to their several lights and abilities, to 

 researches of the kind here indicated. It is true that forests 

 hax'e been and will be successfully planted and managed, and 

 forest crops profitably harvested by men who know little, in a 

 scientific way, of the life history of the trees they plant and 

 fell, and still less of the general distribution of our forest 

 fiora or of the technological properties oE different woods. It 

 is equally true that there have been entire generations of fairly 

 successful farmers who have had little or no exact knowledge 

 of the sciences which underlie the practice of agriculture. 

 But no one will contend that our agriculture has not been im- 

 proved materially in recent years liy the published results of 

 scientific research. Farmei's now talk inlelligentiv of nutri- 

 tive ratios and of the proper ])roportioiisof nitroicen, potash ami 

 phosphoric acid in their fertilizers, and it is this knowledge 

 which makes our agriculture progressive and full of prom- 



ise. It is not too early to begin the systematic study of for- 

 estry with the same purpose. It will be years, indeed, before 

 the same care will |je given to the production of forest crops 

 here that is used in some countries of Europe. Our time for 

 strictly scientific forestry has not yet arrived. But years will 

 be required before we shall be able to collect the facts and 

 experience we shall need, when the refinements of forestry, 

 with its close calculations and intensive methods, can be 

 practiced to advantage. 



To this exposition of a plan of comprehensive stud\-, Mr. 

 Fernow adds some suggestive paragraphs on experimentation 

 in the forest, the nursery and the laboratory, together with 

 observations meteorological and climatic. The successful 

 practice of the future must be based upon methodical experi-' 

 meiits conducted persistently by men of scientific training.- 

 In no other way can data be furnished that will enable us to 

 answer with confidence such elementary questions as : What 

 is the best time to thin.? At what period of growth can the 

 forest crop be most profitably utilized ? How do the finan- 

 cial results of natural reforestation and artificial planting 

 compare? Mr. Fernow indicates the lines which these inves- 

 tigations are to follow, and illustrates, by examples, the kind of 

 knowledge that is to be gained in this way. The entire 

 section is most valualile as affording popular instruction 

 upon points to which general attention has not been directed. 



The report also contains a l.irief summary of the condition 

 of the forests in the several states, notes on a few timber trees, 

 certain liulletins which the division has issued during the year 

 and much miscellaneous matter. .Altogether, it admirably 

 accomplishes its purpose to disseminate information, and it 

 cannot fail to instruct the class of readers which it will reach 

 and give them a clearer conception of the importance of the 

 problems in forestry which now confront the countrv and of 

 the proper means to employ if they are to be satisfactorily 

 solved. 



Recent Plant lV)rtraits. 



I'TERfjCAUVA FRAXINIFOI.IA, Giiriloners' Chronicle, Octolier 

 6th ; a hardy tree belonging to the Walnut family, bearing in 

 long, graceful racemes small haril nuts with broad, niem- 

 braiious wings. The finest specimen of this tree in the 

 United States is lielieved to lie in the Harvard liotanie (iarden 

 in Cambridge. There is a second species, a native of kqian, 

 P. stenoptera, now sometimes cultivated, and of very con- 

 siderable promise as an ornamental tree. 



JUdLANS Mandshukica, Gardeners' Chronicle, Octolier 6ih ; 

 a hardy Walnut from Amurland, closely related to the North 

 American Butternut (f. eineria). This interesting" species has 

 been an inhabitant of the Arnold Arboretum for a number of 

 years, ripening large crops of fruit there every year. It is a 

 tree of compact and handsome habit, of considerable orna- 

 mental value, and the nuts are of a sufficiently good qualitv 

 to make it quite possible that this species mav in time become 

 of value as a fruit tree in the Northern States, and in other 

 regions where the Englisli Walnut cannot be grown suc- 

 cessfullv. 



PSEUDOPHcJiXlx Sarc;enti, Gardeners' Chronicle, October 

 13th. 



LiLlUM NepaLENSE, Gardeners' Chronicle, October I3tli ; a 

 handsome Lily from the Central Himalayas, requiring green- 

 house cultivation. The flowers are descrifieil as greenish on 

 the outside, with the interior of the perianth an intense red- 

 crimson color, with litrht ereenish tiiis. 



Notes. 



The Chrysanthemum Show of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society will be held in Boston on 14th, 15th and l6th of 

 November. 



No less than 150 species of Primrose, divided into sixteen 

 sections, are recognized by the German botanist. Pax, in his 

 recent monograph of this genus. 



Tlie Forestry Congress in .Mlanta will meet on December 

 5th, and not, as previously announced, on November 29th. 

 «hich is Thanksgiving Day. The Southern l'assent;ei' .Asso- 

 ciation, which embraces all the raih'oads south of the Poto- 

 mac, and, on this occasion, the Pennsylvania system, so far as 

 New York, has arrangetl for round-trip tickets to the great 

 National Exposition in .August;i, Georgia, at one fare, and will 

 .^rant stop-over tickcis to attend llie Forestrv Coui^ress in 

 Atlanta. .As tin: noiihern and southern societies will be con- 

 solidated in .Athinl.i. ,-\ hui^c dek'j^alion is evpecti'd on De- 

 cember 5th. Full pai'ticulars can be h.id by addressing Mr. 

 Sidney Root, Atlanta. 



