500 



Garden and Forest. 



[DiXEMBER 12, l8S8. 



yellow flowers solitary', or more rarely two or three to- 

 gether, are borne on long slender peduncles. 'Ihey are in- 

 conspicuous, but the fruit, which appears in our illustration 

 upon page 499, is exceedingly ornamental. It ripens in July, 

 and is oblong, half an inch or more long, bright red, and 

 covered with minute white dots. This plant may well 

 be grown for the beauty of its fruit alone, which, more- 

 over, is juicy and edible, with a sharp, rather pungent, 

 agreeable flavor. Both the size and the flavor can doubt- 

 less be improved by careful selection, and it is quite within 

 the range of possibility that it may become a highly es- 

 teemed and popular dessert and culinary fruit. To some 

 persons, even in its present state, the flavor is far prefer- 

 able to that of the Currant or the Gooseberry. The plants 

 are very productive, as our illustration shows, and they are 

 easily raised and perfectly hardy. The)^ possess, moreover, 

 the merit of carrying their leaves bris^ht and fresh well into 

 winter. " C. S. S. 



The P'orest. 

 Forest Planting in Virginia. 



AT the recent annual meeting of the Pennsylvania 

 Forestry Association, the President, Mr. Burnet 

 Landreth, delivered an instructive address, from which 

 we are permitted to make the following e.xtracts. Other 

 portions of the address will be published in subsequent 

 issues of this journal : 



In 1870 the senior member of my firm, who had been for a 

 long life a collector and planter of trees for ornamental 

 purposes, till he had established a noted collection, decided 

 to plant a forest on a large area of old farm land in eastern 

 Virginia, on the lower Chesapeake, where we held about 

 5,000 acres. The annual rainfall there is forty-nine inches; 

 the relative humidity ."Ijoth during summer and winter, sev- 

 enty-three; the maximum temperature, 103", the minimum, 

 1°, above zero. Tlie wind in summer, south-west; in winter, 

 from the north. 



Of this tract, about two-thirds were in original and second 

 growth Pine, with some hard wood interspersed. fie 

 decided to plant the open farm fields, and follow upon the 

 stump-land, as the forest was cut off. E-xperience had made 

 clear to us the wonderful reproductive capacity of the soil of 

 tide-water Virginia, in reclothing itself with the natural Pine 

 of that region — the Loblolly, or old Field Pine. Still we 

 thought it might be profitable to establish forests of trees, 

 both evergreen and cleciduous, not common to that section, 

 which woidd promise to be more profitable than the ordi- 

 nary Virginia Pine. Among native deciduous trees foun(_l 

 there were the Chestnut, Wahiut, Ash, Oak and many others, 

 not occurring, however, in forests of one variety, but always 

 mixed. So we concluded to try the experiment of forest- 

 planting which, if not profitable to us, might, at least, serve 

 as a guide to others in that portion of Virginia. Accord- 

 ingly, after preparation in 1870, in 1871 we planted 100 acres 

 with the nuts of Black Walnut, depositing the nuts at one foot 

 apart in open furrows drawn eight feet apart. We followed 

 this by planting eight acres with Chestnuts. 



The next year, 1872, we continued planting botli seed and 

 seedlings. Of seedlings, we set out 30,000 Black Locusts, 

 -5,000 Southern Cypress and 5,000 European Larch. These 

 we planted in solid blocks, four feet by four apart, infe-nding 

 that they should prune themselves. 



In 1873 we planted four bushels of Locust seed, twelve of 

 Chestnuts and one-eighth of a bushel of Larch seed. 



In 1874 we put in 150 bushels of Black Walnuts, ten of 

 liickory Nuts {Carya toinentosa), twenty-two of Chestnuts, 

 one of European Larch, ten of Catalpa (C. bignonioides), three 

 of Poplar, three of Pecan, one of Wliite Oak, and one- 

 eighth of a bushel of Italian Sumac. Of seedlings, we set 

 out 2,000 eastern Catalpas, 5,000 soutliern Catalpas, and 75,000 

 Black Locusts. 



In 1877 we set out 10.000 Catalijas, 1,000 Wliite Ash, 15,000 

 White Pine, 1,000 Douglas Fir {Pseiuioisuga Douglasii). 



In 1879 we set out 40,000 Catalpa speciosa, 1,000 C. 

 Kannpferi, 150,000 C. bigiionioiiics , 10,000 Ailantlius, and 3,000 

 Douglas Spruce. 



Since the last date, 1879, ^^''^ fiave set out a large number of 

 Catalpas and this winter shall have 100,000 seedlings to plant. 



Now, the result of all this has been much disappointment, 

 but not despair. We were first disappointed in the Black 

 Locust plantations. The early groves had reached a height 



of twelve feet, the later ones, of course, being smaller. In 

 tiie larger tracts the trunks were stocky, straight and limb- 

 less, the upper branches all interlaced, forming a solid roof, 

 so that the midday sun seldom reached the alleys between 

 the trees. They gave promise of a fine Locust forest, just 

 such as we had pictured, but hardly expected to realize. 

 But one September the Locust-tree Borer descended in 

 swarms upon our groves, laying millions of eggs, which 

 produced myriads of grubs, and by the next midsummer, 

 every tree was ruined. We cut them down and pulled out 

 the roots with oxen, the expenses of removal being twenty- 

 five dollars per acre. 



Next, the European Larch gave out in the trunk, the 

 main stem breaking off at aljout twelve feet in height. 

 This tree had never promised well, however. It thrives best 

 upon dry, rocky soils; ours was a sand, with clay subsoil. 



The Southern Cypress next failed, except in wet bottoms. 

 Of Hickory and Pecan, the nuts planted were, to a large ex- 

 tent, stolen by the squirrels, woodchucks and field mice, and 

 those that did vegetate made such slow growth that we 

 plowed them out and replanted the ground with Catalpa. 

 The Tulip Poplar was not a success, as the rabbits and field 

 mice during winter ate off from the tender seedling the 

 sweet, juicy bark, and destroyed nearly every plant. The 

 White Oak acorns were largely stolen by animals, which also 

 ate the bark of the young seedlings as they did that of the 

 Poplar. The Italian Sumac, planted for its leaves, still 

 stands, but the percentage of tannic acid in its foliage is not 

 greater than in the leaves of the wild Virginia Sumac ; and 

 therefore its cultivation offers little hope of profit. 



In short, with us. Black Locusts, Deciduous Cvpress, Eu- 

 ropean Larch, Hickory, Pecan, Tulip Poplar, White Oak, 

 Osage Orange, Wild I51ack Cherry, Ailanthus, White Ash, 

 Mulberrv, and some others, ha\'e all failed. 



Our successes have been principally in determining which 

 varieties were not profitable to plant; and in this respect we 

 have prospered famously. Our other successes, such as 

 they are, have been achieved with four trees — Catalpa, Black 

 Walnut, White Pine and Douglas Spruce. 



Of the Catalpa we have abandoned several tracts, and, 

 after most serious ravages by stray cows, half wild pigs, 

 rabbits, scjuirrels, mice and fire, have about 200,000 trees, 

 ranging in height from two to twenty feet, according to the 

 period of planting. They stand in rows six feet apart, many 

 of the rows a quarter of a mile long, and promise to make, 

 in time, fine forest studies, if not eaten up, for the Catalpa, 

 too, has its insect enemies. Two years ago every tree was 

 denuded of its leaves, within a period of. a month, by the 

 ravages of the Catalpa Sphinx {Dareinma caialpce). These 

 have gone, but they may come again and may stay. Still, 

 this contingency of destruction by insects unavoidabh' at- 

 taches to the culture of any forest tree. Of the Catalpas 

 there are two types cultivated for forest purposes, the east- 

 ern and the western, indicated botanically as C. bignonioides 

 and C. speciosa, the latter being the most approved. 



The tree is as hardy as a Chestnut, of quick growth, the 

 trunk and limbs, by reason of its resistance to decay, being 

 valuable as fence-posts, gate-posts and mud-sills. I have a 

 piece of gate-post which stood in place 100 years, and it is 

 in a perfect state of preservation. 



The timber when sawed takes a fine polish, and is hand- 

 somely marked in its cellular structure. The. Catalpa has 

 been used in the West for railroad-ties, and possibly it 

 makes serviceable ones ; by some enthusiasts it has been 

 extolled as superior to the White Oak, but that is folly. A 

 first-class tie must have other merits than ability to resist 

 decay from moisture. The catalpa tie is deficient in power 

 to resist the hammering of the rail under passing trains, and 

 it is deficient in that adhesive power upon railroad-spikes 

 possessed by white oak or chestnut. In oak very careful 

 tests have proven that as much as a pull of 4;ooo pounds 

 is required to draw out a spike driven five and a half 

 inclies. In catalpa the adhesi\-e jiower is not one-half of 4,000 

 pounds. 



The second deciduous tree which we have planted in 

 large number is the Black Walnut. In tide-water Virginia 

 it is found wild and of noble proportions. Our seedlings, 

 however, have grown very slowly. For the first six or seven 

 years they gro\\' lnU a little more than four inches a year, 

 and it is only wlien they become very deeply rooted that 

 they appear to start off vigorously. The lowland soils, 

 however, are not adapted to the development of the best 

 Walnut timber, the wood produced there being- too full of 

 sile.x. It will not polish as smoothly ;is timber grown 

 upon a soft prairie soil. It is stronger and lietter suited for 



