February 3, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



49 



and even in places where there are fences to keep the game 

 there are gates to admit passing through. Good roads are 

 necessary in good forestry, and therefore there are public 

 highways through the forests, macadamized, well-drained, 

 carefully guttered, and having easy grades. These are kept in 

 perfect condition, swept and raked after rains, so that nothing 

 remains on the surface. Besides these there are ordinary dirt 

 roads, carefully laid, beautiful footpaths two or three feet wide, 

 and railroads provided for travel through the mountains, even 

 where their construction has not yet been needed. 



Professor Card spoke of landscape-gardening as a fine art 

 which ranked with painting, sculpture and architecture, and 

 after a brief historical sketch he said that the work of the land- 

 scape-gardener was to produce nature-like effects — that is, to 

 compose a picture which interprets nature rather than one 

 which imitated nature slavishly. A landscape-painter can vary 

 the forms of his trees to meet the demands of his picture, can 

 introduce a mountain background or a wandering stream, but 

 a landscape-gardener is held in by stricter limitations. He can- 

 not even select a single point of view, as the painter can, but 

 must present his picture from every direction. Besides this, 

 the painter completes his picture as it is to remain forever, 

 while the gardener must work with constantly growing mate- 

 rials in such a way that they shall always be presentable, and, 

 if possible, so that they should always improve. Professor 

 Card's lecture was illustrated by lantern slides, which showed 

 the qualities of some of our best trees ; some examples of 

 ancient topiary work, and the accomplishments of some of 

 our modern expensive styles of carpet-bedding, contrasted 

 the freer forms of natural planting. Pictures were also exhib- 

 ited to show how highways, school-grounds, cemeteries and 

 home-grounds could be made more attractive. 



Mr. J. A. Hogg, in giving his experience with orchards in the 

 south-central part of the state, said that the trees in that sec- 

 tion were headed low (1) to prevent hail from striking the body 

 of the tree, since borers are likely to enter wherever the bark 

 is bruised ; (2) to prevent sun-scald ; (3) to protect the roots 

 from the sun's heat ; (4) to protect the tree against wind so 

 that the pollen will not be blown away nor the fruit blown off; 

 (5) to make fruit-gathering easy. The best fruit in that region is 

 found on the lower limbs of the trees. In gathering cherries 

 it is oftener necessary to lift up the limbs than to use a ladder 

 to reach them. Russian Mulberries and Honey Locusts, being 

 free from insects and furnishing abundant nectar for bees, 

 make desirable wind-breaks. On the north side of a Mulberry 

 hedge, Currants, Gooseberries and June-berries will do well. 

 A row of three-inch tile under every row of trees or bushes for 

 the purpose of subirrigation has proved useful wherever tried. 



Mr. L. M. Russell, in giving his experience with Peaches, 

 said that he had sold 12,000 bushels last year, and that 3,000 

 more rotted on the trees owing to the ravages of a black fun- 

 gus which was most severe on common varieties. He thinned 

 away about half of this fruit and he ought to have picked off 

 half of what remained. The trees are now planted fourteen 

 feet by eighteen, although they were originally planted much 

 closer. The Wright has proved their most profitable variety, 

 although it is late. 



Mr. H. F. Mcintosh, of Omaha, in speaking of the horticul- 

 tural press, said there were some forty publications in the 

 United States nominally devoted to horticulture or some of its 

 branches, but most of these belonged to the class known as 

 " house organs" — that is, they are papers connected with and 

 managed by commercial establishments. Many of them are 

 good journals, and they can afford to be, since they offer an 

 opportunity for the publishers to send out advertising matter 

 at one-tenth of the postage which it costs to send out cata- 

 logues and circulars. About one-third of these publications 

 have a circulation so small that it is not rated, and our very 

 best ones are not liberally supported. Horticulturists espe- 

 cially do not support these publications as they should. 



Professor Sweezey, in speaking of the conservation of rain- 

 fall, says that the evaporation from the water surface at Lincoln 

 last year was forty-four inches. The year before it was forty- 

 eight inches. The reason for this great amount of evapora- 

 tion is the dryness of the air, the windiness of the climate 

 and the high temperature. Of course, where moisture is so 

 much needed in the soil, every effort should be made to pre- 

 serve it, and he repeated the reasons for surface tillage as a 

 check to the waste of water. 



Dr. Bessey advocated attempts at reforesting the sand-hills 

 of Nebraska, which, in fact, were not all sand. The valleys 

 between the ridges formed pockets with little ponds of water 

 in wet times. The sand in the hills is not always drifting sand 

 and it is not always poor. The hills are covered with grass, 

 and this is heavy in the valleys. There are wild Plum-trees in 



the moist spots, and the Lead-plant is often found on the slopes. 

 The grass is never dense, but is tenacious enough to hold the 

 sand from blowing, and furnishes a large amount of pasturage. 

 There are remnants of former Pines scattered over the regions 

 which are not all worthless land, and should be made more 

 useful. The valleys are very rich, but when the sod is broken 

 on the hills the sand begins to drift. Dr. Bessey thinks it 

 ought not to be more expensive to start a productive forest in 

 these sand-hills than it was to cut away the forests for agricul- 

 ture in the older states. Pine timber grows on thinner soil 

 than this in Michigan, and there seems to be no reason why it 

 should not grow here after it is properly started. Altogether 

 he considers the problem well worthy of state or government 

 investigation. 



Recent Publications. 



A Popular Handbook of the Ornithology of Eastern North 

 America, by Thomas Nuttall. Second revised and anno- 

 tated edition. By Montague Chamberlain. With additions 

 and one hundred and ten illustrations in colors. Little, 

 Brown & Co. 1896. 2 vols., 8vo. 



Nuttall's fame, though resting mainly on his botanical 

 writings, owes much to the Manual of Ornithology, the first 

 volume of which appeared in 1832 (with an enlarged 

 edition in 1840) and the second in 1834. The cause of the 

 popularity that this work immediately obtained is not far 

 to seek. It was the first handbook of the subject, and pre- 

 sented it in an extremely attractive manner, combining a 

 sufficiently scientific account of our ornithology, with a 

 series of charming sketches of bird-life that have rarely 

 been excelled. The work had been long out of print, when 

 in 1 89 1 the publishers decided to issue a new edition, and 

 Mr. Chamberlain was entrusted with its preparation. The 

 work before us is a revised issue of this edition, with a few 

 changes and additions, including the introduction of the 

 colored plates. 



The classification and nomenclature of Nuttall's work 

 have become antiquated, and many new species have been 

 added to the list of our birds since he wrote. In the new 

 edition it was decided to intercalate descriptions of these 

 additional species and to give such information about the 

 others as had been acquired since Nuttall's day. At the 

 same time it was deemed advisable to exclude a few spe- 

 cies occurring only west of the Mississippi, thus making a 

 complete handbook of the ornithology of the eastern faunal 

 province. 



These variations from the original work are clearly indi- 

 cated by typographical means, and come within the scope 

 of editorial function, but one would have supposed that 

 Nuttall's text in other respects would have been reverently 

 treated. A comparison, however, of this edition with the 

 original shows that many liberties have been taken. Whole 

 paragraphs have been omitted in many of the biographies, 

 with nothing to indicate such omissions. In fairness it 

 must be added that these excisions have been judiciously 

 made, and nothing of real importance has been lost, but 

 when one finds that such things are done he cannot help 

 feeling that he is being treated to a rechauffe from which, 

 while he may praise the cook, he cannot trust himself to 

 judge the flavor of the original dish. Against such a mode 

 of serving a classic we must protest. 



But, apart from these considerations, the work is an ex- 

 cellent guide to the study of our birds. Mr. Chamberlain's 

 notes, though not copious, are sufficient to put the student 

 in possession of what he should know of the recent studies 

 in the subject, and his additional biographies are faultless. 

 The handsome typographical dress makes the volumes a 

 delight to the eye, and the colored plates, made up of 

 figures copied mostly from Audubon and Wilson (though 

 this is nowhere stated), add to the attraction of this revised 

 issue. It merits, and will doubtless find, a wide circulation. 



Notes. 



We have often commended Kcelreuteria paniculata, an 

 ornamental tree of the second size, for its graceful foliage, 

 especially in the earliest stages of its growth, and for its abun- 



