142 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 477. 



to the United States the title acquired by them to lands 

 within their granted and indemnity limits when these lands 

 lie within the boundaries of forest reservations, and may 

 accept other unappropriated lands in exchange from the 

 even-numbered sections within their granted and indemnity 

 limits not included in forest reservations. 

 Very respectfully, 



your obedient servants, 



(Signed) C. S. Sargent, 



Henry L. Abbot, 

 W. H. Brewer, 

 Arnold Hague, 



GlFFORD PlNCHOT. 



The Red Cedar. 



THE Red Cedar is a familiar tree to almost every 

 American, since it ranges from Cape Cod to Van- 

 couver's Island and from Canada to Florida. At the north 

 it is found on uplands, cold, dry and hungry, while in 

 Florida it inhabits swamps which are covered with water 

 for a considerable portion of the year. In the deep bottom- 

 lands of Arkansas and Texas it is a noble tree, sometimes 

 a hundred feet high, with an irregular trunk buttressed at 

 the base and often four or five feet through. In the fertile 

 valleys of the middle Atlantic states, when it has opportu- 

 nity for full development, it is a broad-topped and dignified 

 tree, while on the low limestone hills of northern Alabama 

 and the neighboring states it is small and bushy, and on 

 dry ridges, both in the west and in the east, it is little more 

 than a shrub, and often fairly prostrate. The habit of the 

 tree varies as much as its size, and one who is accustomed 

 to see its pyramidal form with sharp spire-like top would 

 hardly recognize it on the seacoast with its short, stout 

 trunk and stiff horizontal branches which have developed 

 under the stress of Atlantic gales. This wide variety means 

 that it adapts itself to all sorts of surroundings and that it 

 can live almost anywhere throughout an immense geo- 

 graphical range. 



It need hardly be stated that the Red Cedar is really not 

 in any botanical sense a Cedar, but a Juniper (Juniperus 

 Virginiana), one of ten species found in the United States. 

 Besides these there are from twenty to twenty-five other 

 junipers in the northern hemisphere, scattered from the 

 arctic circle to the highlands of Mexico and the West Indies 

 in the New World, and to Africa and southern Japan in the 

 Old World. Of the American species the Ground Cedar, 

 or common Juniper, crosses the continent from Greenland 

 to Alaska and extends through northern and. central Asia 

 and Europe, so that it is altogether the mostly widely dis- 

 tributed tree in the northern hemisphere. Many gar- 

 den forms of this species are known in cultivation, some 

 dwarf, some with colored foliage, some of compact habit, 

 some columnar, and others with pendulous branches. Among 

 these a fastigiate form, called in nurseries the Swedish 

 Juniper, is the best known in the gardens of this country. 

 Another Juniper is confined to Texas and portions of 

 Mexico, and there are half a dozen more which belong to 

 the Pacific side of the continent and the forests of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The Red Cedar is the largest and most 

 useful of all the American Junipers. In some of the swamps 

 of western Florida and in certain other places in the south 

 its wood is formed with a singularly straight grain, which 

 is soft and easily worked, and so completely adapted to the 

 requirements of lead pencils that it is almost exclusively 

 used in their manufacture. Its fragrant odor is repellent 

 to moths, so that cedar-lined chests and closets are in 

 universal use for storing woolens. It is so durable in con- 

 nection with the ground that it is the best tree we have for 

 fence-posts or the sills of buildings, and its rich color, its 

 durability and its pleasant fragrance make it useful in many 

 kinds of cabinet-work. But while its economical value has 

 been always understood, its use in horticulture has been 

 comparatively limited. Large quantities of these trees 

 were raised some years ago for hedge-plants in the west, 



but they did not prove acceptable for this purpose. This 

 was not only because the Red Cedar grows slowly, but the 

 branches of the tree have a habit of dying when they come 

 in contact with those of another tree, so that it is not as 

 good for this purpose as the Arbor Vitae. It endures shear- 

 ing quite as well as any other tree, however, and since 

 there seems to be a tendency now to try the fashion of formal 

 gardens in the northern states, there is no tree so well adapted 

 to take the place filled by the Cypress in the gardens and 

 southern Europe. But, even if it is not mutilated in this 

 way, the tree in any of its forms fits naturally into an 

 American landscape. When grown in rich soil, with an 

 opportunity to expand, in a sheltered place it will make a 

 dignified and stately specimen, and where a cylindrical or 

 spire-topped tree is needed nothing better than the Red 

 Cedar can be found. 



The natural form of these trees on a cold New England 

 slope is seen in the picture on page 145, which represents 

 them as every one knows them in a winter landscape 

 at the north. Here is the perfection of careless group- 

 ing and a grace of individual form which the dullest eye 

 can at once perceive. Why a more extended use has not 

 been made of the Red Cedar in park planting is difficult to 

 understand, since it would be invaluable in certain posi- 

 tions. It is objected to the tree in winter that the foli- 

 age turns to a dull brown, but really the bronze color is 

 in perfect accord with the tone of the whole landscape. 

 The cheerful green of certain conifers is effective, too, 

 under certain conditions, but in very cold weather the 

 leaves of most species turn dark, and, indeed, any light 

 green seems out of place in a season when there is no 

 growth in vegetation. We associate the green with active 

 life ; it is the color of spring and summer, and we naturally 

 expect that trees with persistent leaves will show in 

 some way that they are in a state of suspended animation. 

 There has been so little demand for Red Cedars that 

 nurserymen do not keep them in large quantities, although 

 they are very easy to raise from seed. There is little diffi- 

 culty, however, in transplanting young trees from old 

 pastures, where they spring up from the seeds dropped by 

 birds. These long lines of Red Cedars along fence rows are 

 conspicuous features in the landscape of the older settled 

 parts of the country, and their effectiveness in such situa- 

 tions and upon the slopes of rocky hills and on the sum- 

 mits of knolls ought to convince every one of their 

 usefulness in planting parks and private grounds large and 

 small. 



Mature White Pine in Pennsylvania. 



TRACTS of uncut White Pine in Pennsylvania are few 

 in number and of restricted area. It is doubtful if 

 there aie in the state to-day half a dozen tracts of 2,000 

 acres in extent in which the White Pine occurs in sufficient 

 quantity to give character to the forest. One of the best 

 of the large tracts is the property of Mr. John Du Bois, and 

 is located near the town of that name in the north-western 

 part of Clearfield County. There remain here about 1,500 

 acres of uncut Pine, but the merchantable timber of all 

 sorts is being systematically harvested. The Pine, as is 

 the case in all the mature timber of the state, occurs as 

 scattered individual trees in a mixed growth of Hemlocks 

 and hardwoods. In some places Hemlocks are entirely 

 absent, while again they are the prevailing trees. So, too, 

 within the space of half a mile one may find a heavy stand 

 of Pines and an area where few of the trees occur. 



The yields of two acres were measured in the Du Bois 

 tract and illustrate this varying stand of Pine. The two 

 sample acres were less than a mile apart, and in general 

 the character of soil and moisture supply were similar — a 

 clay loam overlying laminated shale, well-watered by little 

 brooks which led into Narrow Creek. In both areas the 

 Pines were the tallest trees, with a second story of Hem- 

 locks having a slight admixture of hardwoods. 



In one acre there were 37 White Pines, ranging in diam- 

 eter, at breast-high, from fifteen to forty-five inches ; 84 



